turned out to be #8 blower motor fuse, fuse wasn't blown it was actually wedged against the plastic of the box, this is because the metal tab that used to hold the fuse in was melted...Some sort of short took place here. But I repositioned the fuse and the heater came right on so I'm going to keep rolling and if it eats a fuse every 6 mos so be it.


On a side note, my other 2 cars are a subaru and jeep and the build quality of this 25 year old car is on another level. It makes the subaru look like absolute garbage, despite being 17 years and 140k miles older... I'm sure this isn't news to you guys but I'm impressed by it. My first car was a volvo and we had 7 or 8 sedans and wagons as I grew up. This car compares very favorably with them. This being my first exposure to mercedes vehicles at $400 I'm completely blown away.

I've used merc diesels in the snowcats I drive at work for years, some of them have VDO guages too. Feels nice and familiar in the 300D...

Thanks for the help everyone!