I've had my fair share of sls problems with my 1984 300TD. Yes, the system is self-bleeding, and I believe the pump can take some (limited) dry running, but I would minimize that at all costs because it would be one expensive bugger to replace. The exact thing you described happened to me, luckily while I was at home, but I discovered that the fittings are re-useable... that is, they screw apart, and you ram the inner part in a new hose, and screw the outer part down over it. If you get a length of hose that seems to fit, and they have a vice and a pipe wrench at NAPA, you should be able to do it. As I recall it took a lot of sweating, swearing, heaving, and grunting.

EDIT: you should be fine running PS fluid until you get home.

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99 E300 Turbodiesel 100k