1983 Mercedes 300SD Single-Tank Conversion
The location.
We need to drill two holes so the filter can be secured to the chasis. We used a hammer and spike to make a "dent" that would keep the drill bit in place. You need a good strong drill bit to drill through the steel chasis.
Note: Always check to see what is on the other side before drilling the hole!
The hole from under the wheel well looked like this.
We had a slight issue with the height of the Davco filter. When the filter was laid down in position it was obvious that the hood would hit it when closed. So we determined that we needed to angle the filter back somewhat. To do that, we decided we needed a small shim to rest between the filter mount and the chasis, at the bottom. This would tilt the filter back.
There are many ways we could have done this. Since our friend Berry's shop has welding equipment, why not fabricate a piece. So Berry took a washer and welded a nut to it on one side. This would be our shim. He made two, one for each side of the filter mounting bracket.
The finished piece. It isn't pretty but the weld is unlikely to come apart in the next 500 or so years.
Before mounting the Davco in the car, we wanted to get the wires for the 12 volt heater prepared.
As I mentioned earlier, the wires coming from the Davco filter had a type of plug at the end. (following picture)
The challenge we faced was we didn't have the matching plug for the other end. So, we disconnected the plug and left the bared wires.
Now, we were ready to mount the filter in the car. Here is the filter mount with the shim in place. It worked perfectly.
Here is the filter mounted in the vehicle.
Now we are ready to begin wiring up the 12 volt heater. First we found a convenient place to put the circuit breaker. (Note: you don't need a breaker. You can simply wire the Davco with an inline fuse.) This is attached to the inner side of the chassis just above the wheel well.
Wiring the Davco is simple. The two wires from the Davco are the positive (blue) and the ground (wire on the right). We used the mounting screw for the breaker as the ground connection. Then the wire at the lower left connects to a screw in the car's fuse box.
Make sure you use a fuse that is live when the key is turned in the number 2 position. You want the Davco to start heating up oil when the glow plugs are heating, before starting the car.
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