Well, I finally decided to take the 'Wunder Wagon', my '84 Euro TD, to Virginia Beach to drop off the dishwasher that's been stored in my wagon's cargo-area for two months. Hadn't made a long trip in this car for awhile, and was a bit concerned with a very slight balancer-wobble, especially after reading someone else's thread here about a wobbling balancer that chewed up his crank. So after determining that my balancer's hub was tight and true, I decided to risk the 200-miles. Wagon drove great. AC worked great. Everything was great until I went to slow for the Virginia Beach I-264/Laskin Road exit. WOW! I needed both feet to stop this car!
As expected, once I got to the house, the engine didn't want to stop either. So I diagnosed a complete loss of Vaxuum. due to pump failure.
I got a cheap, used pump off a decrepit '81 240D at the local Pick-N-Pull, but when I removed my original pumpt, I discovered all the balls were missing from it's bearings. So today I dropped the lower sump in seach of 12 missing balls. Incredibly, 11 of them had been sucked up inside the oil-pump trap. Couldn't find # 12, even after I pulled the valve-cover to search up top. So now I've decided to install a $260 Pierburg repair-kit, which I was able to find locally - same day. Tommorow, I.m going to install my (hopefully) repaired original vacuum-pump, so I won't have to worry about the 240D pump droppinng 12 more balls into my timinh-chain area, during my 200-mile return-trip to Alexandria.
As for the missing ball, I'm hoping it's harmlessly parked itself somwhere, or eventually makes it's way to he oil-pan without grenading the engine.
Wish me luck!

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW