ransky,

I thought that this would be a 300D turbo. My wife had '83 300TD turbo with this connection broken when we purchased it. Someone had evidently vented the system somehow, filled the radiator and left the problem for me.

To cut to the chase, here's how I repaired it. I was very proud of myself for coming up with this solution.

I went to the custom wheel shop and purchased a custom wheel valve stem. This is basically a valve stem that you place in the wheel from the inside, and then thread a nut over the stem down to the wheel and tighten. There are, of course, rubber washers on each side.

I cut the excess part of the broken plastic nipple on the radiator down so that the hole was flush. I then took a piece of baling wire(I'm a country boy, so I use baling wire, a city person could substitute coat hanger wire) and put it through the vent hole and run it over to the filler neck. Reach in the filler neck with something and fish out the wire. Pull the wire up where you can put your valve stem on it. Don't forget the rubber washer, and put it on the wire so that it will fit in place when you pull the wire back through the hole. After correctly positioning the valve stem on the wire, bend the end of the wire so that the valve stem will not come off. Pull the wire out of the hole, mess around and get the valve stem started in the hole. Put the other rubber washer on the wire, then the nut and push them over the wire, holding the valve stem in place with the wire, while you thread the nut on the valve stem. Now push your wire back to the filler neck, fish it out again, and remove the wire completely from the radiator. Clamp your vent hose in place over the valve stem.

I ran the car several years after this poor boy repair with great success.

Good luck,

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Larry Bible
'84 Euro 240D, 516K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles