AC in a 240 huh...you have to block off time in Outlook for onramps.
I still have my gasser W116 (also with crank windows lol) but havent ordered parts in forever. I think I used to use Peachparts sometimes? And EBay of course.
The locks and AC are probably related. Even the manual AC has vacuum pods I think. Buy a Mityvac and start chasing vacuum leaks. Probably cracked runner connectors, but if your trans shifts 1-2 hard too there's a bigger leak.
Timing chain can be done in the car. Get the manual on CD, shows you everything.
Keep mechanical oil gauge, electric ones are junk. Bet you anything the flare fitting on the back is just loose. Screw it down, or replace the gauge with another one.
You'll probably get a keybhang or two resolved by wiggling before your key gets stuck. Keep a light key chain and I think a little graphite lube in the lock helps, but you can preemptively just replace it with a new cylinder from Mercedes, keyed to your code. Or you used to be able to. At any rate a hung key is bad juju.
Ive owned a lot of old diesel Mercedes. Yes, it will run forever but you have to adjust the valves and check the chain stretch annually and no one will do this for you so you will be stained black from diesel engine oil. All the accessories will stop working including the electric windows, except the oil pressure gauge and the speedometer which doesn't matter in a 240 anyway. The drivers seat will lean outboard and the ignition cylinder will break and leave your key stuck in ACC. The subframe bushings will go and you'll be waggling your tail at everyone behind, you hot little diesel tart.
Regular old word without Copilot now has AI auto alt text generation for images. Desktop word, save on One drive, with copilot blocked at the firewall.
Helen Nissenbaum (2009). Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804772891.
Star Flight. Really a must-play, and get the run speed down low so you have some suffering on the long trips. Then you get really excited to find a wormhole.
The Patrick O'Brian novels, for sure. A really well done animated series would absolutely dominate.
Edward Ellsberg. Literally no one has heard of him. He was a super smart Navy engineer who went into salvage operations and worked for a year to salvage the submarine S-51 when she was rammed and sunk off Block Island, which was big news in the day and the Navy was trying to save some face.
He then went on to salvage a bunch of scuttled ships in the Red Sea and get a harbor back in operation after the Italians blew it all up in their retreat from North Africa.
His books are out of print except On The Bottom, about the S-51, and although it is all in his own words, its a cross between Macgyver and, well I don't know, the US Navy. Oh this was in the 20s so it was all with the old school helmet and canvas suit diving gear, 150 feet down. All kinds of crazy things happened.
He wrote some youth fiction that isn't bad, albeit 100 years old now.
There is occasionally a comment that turns up in the search engines that is absolutely project-saving. Lemmy is not at that point yet.