I want to say thank you to all who post to this board and, especially to the board owners. Without a doubt, this is the most informative forum I have encountered on any vehicle I've ever owned.

I bought a "dead" 122S on the 12th of July. I dollied it home on the 19th. The first order of business was to get it to crank. It wouldn't even click, let alone spin. It also exhibited a really strange symptom -- as soon as the key was turned to ON, the battery was heavily loaded. You could watch the voltage level fall rapidly on a DVM. Turning the key to START nearly shorted the battery!

I took the starter to my local starter/alternator shop. He called the next day to tell me that it was beyond repair. The armature was demolished, literally ripped apart. He felt like the thing had been run as a generator (engaged with the ring gear). He offered to get me a new starter, but it would have to be ordered, to the tune of $200 + shipping + tax. *choke* I only paid $1225 for the car!

Brickboard to the rescue. I looked in the list of shops. I found All Swedish out of Florida. They dismantle newer models than mine but, Volvo used the same Bosch starter for years (again, info from the Brickboard). He had one. Shipped it the next day. $60 + shipping. Much more gooder.

Yesterday morning I installed the take-off starter. I had to swap the bolt-and-nut nose from the dead starter onto the threaded-for-bolt starter that came via UPS. I suppose I could have waited until business hours to obtain the correct bolts to mount the starter. But, it was 5:00 a.m. and I figured I could swap the bits around and have the starter installed before the parts houses opened. Besides, I wanted to inspect and lubricate the starter.

Thanks to Brickboard again -- if I hadn't read about the two applications, I would have thought the starter was "wrong" for the car and sent it back. But, knowing it would work, I disassembled the "new" starter, lub'd it, checked the brushes, reassembled it using the original Bendix housing, and bench tested it. I swapped the "new" solenoid onto the nose, figuring there must have been a reason the old starter remained engaged with the ring gear. The ring gear looked to be unharmed after it's forced duty as the drive, rather than driven, gear.

The car started with minimal fuss. Now I've got to address the rich condition at all RPMs. Never having owned an SU-equipped car, I am clueless. I just finished searching the Brickboard again. With the posts here and various web sites referenced from here, I've been able to identify the major components on the carbs. And, I have a better understanding of how the SU's work. I found the Haynes manual very vague on adjusting the SU's. I could not find the idle set screws from the drawings. I finally found the screws by inspection. I've not dicked with the carbs yet. I don't know how the car was running before it was decommissioned -- I have to assume the car was running rich before it was parked.

Now I have questions. First, the linkages, beginning with the cross bar and all the associated bits from there to the carbs, are worn out. The cross bar is held in place with vacuum hose and tiny hose clamps to limit lateral travel. It works but it looks like S**T. Where can I find these components? Failing that, is there a more elegant bodge than I've described?

Any suggestions for "rich at all speeds"? We're talking black smoke from idle, through accleration, to top RPM accompanied by sluggish response. The choke cables work, though I'm not sure whether or not the chokes are adjusted properly or whether the fast idle and curb idle settings are correct. I am going to assume the needles are correct for the application, or at least close. Also, the idle when warm is very fast. Assuming again, this is related to the rich condition?