small victories OR I love my diesels
 

This morning my wife took the '85 300TD to work, leaving me with the new to us '81 300TD. Yesterday, I'd done the aircleaner bracket (ugh) but got tired of being eaten by mosquitos and gave up for the night. So, today, I was off to register the car. I made it 300 yards down my street before the car started to sputter in an intersection. It started again, but began to sputter sputter sputter, so I pulled down the next side street.

I opened the hood, and the clear prefilter was actually a white plastic one, so I couldnt tell if there was anything inside, although when pumping the primer pump I could see some black flaky crud in there being tossed around. I decided that "Made in South Africa" was not appropriate text to be printed on the side of the main fuel filter, so I decided to change filters. Having vaccuumed the car yesterday, I had no supplies on hand (duh). So, I walked the 1/2 mile home, grabbed my stuff, and was about to walk back when I had the revelation that perhaps the fuel gauge was wrong, and that I didn't have any fuel! So, I called a friend, and we went and filled a jug of diesel. Unfortunately, I had zero biodiesel on hand!

Back to the car, I pulled the filters. The South African thing looked fairly new, but still made me nerveous. The prefilter was in sad shape. I decided to use a spare mitivac hose and some lung power to blow back into the tank just in case the screen had clogged with gunk that would keep the new fuel from flowing. New filters on, I put the 5 gallons in the tank, and went to work on the primer pump. with full filters, I tightened the bolt, got in, and started right up.

So, the problem was something stupid: no fuel. Apparently the fuel gauge doesnt work right, so I'll get on that. lesson learned. But, I was so happy that it was something easy, and that I didn't have to get it towed, waste my whole day, etc. There is a simplicity that is to be appreciated in the systems on these cars that I am only starting to understand. I'm looking forward to digging deeer and deeper.

cheers,
Kevin

Ok
 

:D I am in shock that a Mercedes Benz fuel gauge doesn’t work right. :D
Lucky guess or mercedesshop.com forum experience catching up to you?
Have a great day.

glad you got it sorted out
 

look at it this way.. not sure about yours but if that happened to my wif i would have caught holy hell (or worse!) :eek:
so i believe you came out ahead in the grand scheme of things ;)

Thank goodness it was something simple, eh?

I hear you there...I'm starting to want another 123 (or 115, or maybe even a 116/126) to tinker around with and bring to perfect condition. No $$, though, and I can't do this with the 123 I've got right now because she's my daily driver, and when working on her, I'm almost always pressed for time and $$. :(

this is creepy- I just took a nap and dreamed about the starter failing on one of the wagons on my forthcoming trip to D.C. no! (in the dream, I happened to have a spare, and it was possible to get to and replace the starter without major surgery)

naturally, there are bits/pieces that are old/decaying/need replacement on both of these cars. I'm happy to have figgured out some of those things on my own, and to have an honest indy. for when I get out of my league or out of time... I go on vacation next week, but when I get back, It's going to be hatch shocks, a rear window (reg? motor? switch?) and inside drivers door latch. Fun fun!

K

Ah the memories of our first W126 300SD. At a intersection waiting for the light to turn green, when the car stuttered and died. Turns out that the sender unit doesn't read properly, the lowest it can go was 1/4 tank, and the low fuel light failed to come on. This was in 2000 and in a small town in canada. I was quoted $18X for the new sender in canadian dollars :eek: just drove it more cautiously from there on out