The Mercedes-Benz 219 -57 blog
My newly restored Mercedes-Benz 219 -57 at Hornstull in Stockholm, Sweden, 13 October 2019
In this blog I will document the Ponton's "life after the restoration", i.e. trips, Mercedes-Benz club related activities we take part in as well as work on the car like improvements, repairs, adjustments etc. Stay tuned!
Saturday 30/7, almost finding the roots
After a deeeeep, dreamless sleep in Västervik, breakfast was eaten and then the main theme for the trip started; to look for my mother’s roots in Småland.
A picture of my 219 Ponton Mercedes with the stone wall so typical of Småland
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Friday 29/7, the many stops before Vetlanda
After an afternoon and evening with the Striders (Meeting Classic Strider) and a very deep sleep in Gränna we woke up to another hot and sunny day. The goal for today was our BnB in Vetlanda with a few carefully selected stops along the way. With the "many" and above all long stops, there was unfortunately no opportunity for so many Mercedes-related photo sessions.
The amazing Vireda kyrka with an equally amazing, but younger, Mercedes Ponton in the foreground
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Meeting Classic Strider
I had for a long time thought about taking a trip with the Ponton to my mother’s roots in the province (landskap) Småland and the small village Fagerhult. Via Facebook I learnt that the Dutch (but living in New Zeeland) couple Elisabeth and Fred Smits, a.k.a Classic Strider, had planned to visit Sweden in July/August 2022.
Fred and Elisabeth Smits with their MB220S Ponton Abel from 1957
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Voltage regulator woes
Bosch Spannungsregler, Bauart RS/UA (Dreielement-Knickregler), © Robert Bosch GmbH
What does a voltage regulator do?
In one sentence, “It regulates the power from the generator”. If you want it a bit more complicated you can say “It’s a relay, in principle, that opens or closes different contacts (up to 250 times per second!) when a certain charging power is reached or exceeded” This it does to achieve two important things:
- With the engine stopped, the battery would be completely discharged after a short time via the field windings and the windings of the armature in the generator. Hence, the regulator decouples the generator when the engine is not running.
- The amount of electricity supplied by the generator would be correct at medium speed, but too little or too much energy would be available at low or high speed (during the latter overcharging the battery and causing water loss due to electrolysis, i.e. “boiling”).
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Are my Ponton condenser/capacitor and ignition coil OK?
Left side of Mercedes-Benz Ponton M180 engine with ignition coil, condenser and distributor
From the second I got my 219 on the road I asked myself “the engine runs like a sack of potatoes, is my ignition system working as it should or what is wrong?” The same question often turns up on forums.
This blog post obviously does not cover the whole issue/system, only the two parts that affect the ignition coil and the condenser/capacitor. The ignition system consists of more parts, and error sources. Whenever I get time, how it should happen I have no idea, I plan to document the rest of my experiences around those. See this as the first version of this write up.
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Read more: Are my Ponton condenser/capacitor and ignition coil OK?
