W115 Back on the road...Sorta - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Addicted · #1 01-17-2006, 02:44 AM

Well I wrote this super long story last night around 12PM and thanks to my wifes friend using my computer I had an unfortunate accident and lost it all. So I'm going to try my best and duplicate what I wrote last night. It may not contain all the detail and excitement of last night but none the less, for those you reading for entertainment value.....here we go!!!!

It all started out on a cold early morning in late Fall. I woke early and hopped right onto Criagslist to continue my search for a W115 body diesel. This would be my lucky morning. Only a couple miles away and for $450 I found my 76 300D. Minus the reconstruced title, missing head, and a small basball sized dent in the rear quarter panel it was a beautiful car. Exactly what I was looking for and definitley in my price range. I couldn't pass it up so, I handed him the cash, and we hooked up the tow ropes to my F-250 Powerjoke (as some of you refer to them as....your just jelous

) and brought it on over.

After 3 weeks of hounding the guy @ the head shop and $200 dollars later I finally got it back. (Guy I bought it from thought the head was shot, and couldn't afford to pick it back up....it had been there months). Turns out nothing really wrong with it. Just needed new valve guides and stem seals. So I brought those over to the guy and 3 weeks later he had it done (Even though it only took him one morning to get it done...Bastard I had to hound him almost every da) Anyway so I went to the task of reassembling my car.

Now mind you this is my first rebuild and my first diesel (besides my truck which the only thing I've ever done to it is intall a WVO kit (which rocks by the way). So my knowledge was still minimal at this point. It probably took me around 15 hours to get it all put togehter. I found the rocker arms, cam, etc and got that together pretty quick. With the help of Brandon comming on over I got the valves adjusted and the rest of everything bolted back together. Turns out I had no idea about crush washers either. After I had them all in I asked him "What are these?" Pretty funny actually. So it was all back together finally. After two long days/nights in the Portland Rain until 12 @ night it was time to crank it over......Guess if you wish the outcome......NOTHING!

I tried again the next day and got nothing. Turns out the timing was off quite a bit on the IP. So I spent about 6 hours....Mind you again I work very slow and I had no idea what I was doing besides calling Brandon every hour, and luckily this forum....don't know what I would have done with out you. I ended up taking it out 3 times. The first time I just plain did it wrong. The second time I was off by 30 degrees. Don't ask me how, and the last time I just ended up getting it about damn near perfect after bending the lines and the pump which previously had been positioned all the way away from the engine is now about dead center on all those bolts. Anyway back to the good part now.

So last night I got online and was chatting it up with Brandon. I couldn't get my car started and there was a break in the rain so he offered to drive up (about an hour away) (30 minutes the way he drives in that intercooled 300SD) and helped me try to get her going. I couldn't even remotely get it started on my own so he brought all the goodies we might need.

We started off by plugging the block heater in and cycling the glow plugs a few times to get the block heated up. While doing this we hooked up his super duty battery charger and cranked it up to boost. We heard it fire a couple of times but that was about it. We tried the ether but it really didn't like that one bit. So with all of that going we brought out the hair dryer. Brandon made a pretty good joke and I wish I could have gotten a picture of it while he was under the hood. "I think this is as close as your car is ever going to get to a turbo!" I guess you just had to be there. (But this showed us that the rings wern't sealing and air was getting around them as it blew the exhaust back out the valve cover. The guy had let it sit in the open for a long time and didn't cover up or keep fluid in the cylinders as some of the had slowly leaked out, so we were presuming that was the problem.

So we tried again and again and though we felt it was getting close we knew we just weren't going to get it done. So it is about 10 O'Clock now and it is time to pull out the big guns. The Powerjoke got fired up and the tow rope went on. As we pull around the corner to get on the empty long stretch of road by my house (Columbia Blvd in St. Johns for those of you in Portland) there was a cop that had pulled someone over. He let us be luckily and we took off. Brandon tried dropping it down into gear a few times @ 35 MPH and I could feel it engage, but it would let go and nothing happened. So after a couple miles we turned around and took a peak. It was short on Tranny fluid so we filled it up and tried again. This time I brought it up to 50 MPH and he put it down. Whamo!!!!! We had lift off. We were talking on our cell phones on speaker phone and I could hear him yelling. It was pretty awesome. Then I could hear the car as 45 MPH in low really gets it screaming so I brought it back down to 25-30 and it purred. I could actualy feel him creep up on me when he gassed it.

So we pulled into none other than all places the place this whole story began. (We jumped out of the car and gave each other a high 5) It was quite the accomplishment for me. The guy I bougt the car from works at a Junkyard and he bought this one there. So it was running again for the first time in front of all those other cars that ended up on the blocks. Of course it was shooting steam and exhaust all over the place and dripping oil all over the place. So we shut it down and pulled it back home. We called it a night. But ohhh what a good one it was. Don't know what I would have done with out Brandon though....Damn good guy.

Turns out while messing around with the AC compressor I left a couple of bolts out of the Water pump and it was spewing steam/exhaust all over the place. The oil was gushing out of the left bolt hole for the timing chain tensioner. I was missing a bolt (mind you everything for this car was in the trunk....it takes a long time to find and guess if you have the right bolt). So I found one and put it in there, tightened up the other two and whalla she started right up again today. No more steam/exhaust everywhere and not dripping oil. Still needed the battery charger the first time but it ran.

So the next problem is transmission. It took a lot to get it in gear....tonight. I first only got R. So I checked the tranny oil and it was low. So I filled it and started again. This time I got R and S. I drove forward and backward on my street just in case it stopped and I got stuck away from my garage. Then I checked it again and it was empty. So I filled it again and this time I got all the gears but barely. When I tried to go forward the engine would bog down and not go forward at all. Eventualy it would but it would take for ever to get up to speed. In R it halls balls, but in the forward gears it barely moves until I get up to about 15 mph and then it almost feels like a regular car. It shifts fine into 2nd but if there is any bit of an uphill it barely makes it. It sure handles the washboard and potholes well though. Takes the corners really well as well. I probably only got it up to 25 MPH but it was a good start. I'm going to see if it is just the Torque converter filling up slowly or if I need to change the filter on it tomorrow. Probably both. That is if this rain stops and I can get all my school work done.

I'll continue to post on this through out the days. I still have a lot of work to do, but it is getting there. By the way this is a 76 300D W115 with 129K.

Here is a picture of the beauty!!

Addicted · #2 01-17-2006, 02:50 AM

Ok so the picture didn't work the first time. I'll try it again here. Ahh found the problem I had already posted a picture on another thead. I'll just change the file name and that should work. Well that didn't work. The computer is to smart for me. Here is a link to the thread with the picture. Nothing special I guess, I just think it is a bute.

What is this (76 300d)

It's the last post.

#3 01-17-2006, 03:01 AM

I was more excited sitting in the drivers seat of that w115 hearing it come to life and the tranny screaming bloody murder than I was when my 300SD fired up in the PO's parking lot after about 30min of nuzzling to get it running on 1 glow plug and barely enough fuel to get to the next station.

Good times

Addicted · #4 01-17-2006, 03:06 AM

Brandons right. It was really exciting. It was like loosing my virginity, but WAY Better!!!!

KylePavao · #5 01-17-2006, 01:35 PM

From one 1976 300D owner to another...BOOYAH. There is nothing like the W115 chassis..handles potholes and bumps great, and corners so much better than the W123..and I've driven both. The nice thing about the 300D is the outboard Hella foglamps, which put out a great amount of light..and it looks great when you have them on and flick the beams at someone..the click on and off and it looks awesome.

Good luck. Thank god my ordeal with the 300D was more body work and tracking down stupid water leaks instead of actual mechanical work.

#6 01-17-2006, 05:44 PM

I guess Addicted 300D being in the presence of my Intercooled 300SD got it all excited.

Get me behind the wheel and I'll abuse anything.....even if it is with a tow rope. LOL

mac2 · #7 01-17-2006, 06:23 PM

Congratulations on finding your very own beat up 300d. If it's anything like mine it will be a constant struggle to outrun the problems.

Still saving a junker is a great thing to do, most would not put the effort into them that's required for good daily driver status.

My transmission if the fluid level is not correct does all sorts of wierd behavior so make sure that's right on. Also since the '76 has linkage to control the shifting (no vac stuff) make sure it's adjusted properly otherwise it won't shift anywhere near the shift points listed.

Addicted · #8 02-06-2006, 09:52 PM

Well we figured out the problem with the Tranny. B1 and 2 brake bands were shot. completely gone and in a million chuncks. So this weekend we replaced the tranny with an extra Brandon had. We had a fund drive that night in the backroads. Still a problem with the power and fuel. It won't start up again now. Thinking it might be the timing. Always something else. Ha...and we ran out of gass to that night at 2 in the morning....Gas guage doesn't work all that well. Stops at 1/4

Here is a picuture taken right before we headed off to change teh tranny at his place.... I sure hope it never has to go back up on that trailer. It sure was fun to drive. Only got it up to 65 though before it maxed out.

#9 02-06-2006, 11:15 PM

Here is a picture of it in my garage getting worked upon

You can see the 300SD in the background with its hood popped to the safety latches.

Also threw one in of it after we were done

JimmyL · #10 02-06-2006, 11:18 PM

Nice story, nice car, nice trailer.
I have to imagine that having another MB dork around to bounce things off of, and to just work together makes things very enjoyable. It ain't bad to have a buddy with an extra tranny lying around either.....

#11 02-06-2006, 11:23 PM

Heh yeah and my garage is sorta set up better for car work

Its a 3 car garage with a chain and cable hoist, lighting, huge tool chest (dad's tools), and everything you need to make/destroy any part

Its full of dune buggy project/house remodling/my project stuff right now heh...as you can see the 300D barely fit in there

Addicted · #12 02-06-2006, 11:36 PM

yes it is awesome to work with someone else. Keeps me motivated. The garage has everything you could ever want. I've had to build mine up with the essentials that past few months and it just doesn't cut it a lot of the time.

Notice the bio bore close by..that is going in next....

mac2 · #13 02-07-2006, 01:13 AM

Lucky, your car has a passenger side mirror.

I didn't think they were ussually installed in '76.

Addicted · #14 02-07-2006, 02:46 AM

You know....both of the mirrors are a little funky looking for that year. I need to go look at my 240 but I think they are original. My 240 only has a driver but It hink it is the same model. Interesting......now that gets me I'll have to go take a look at that in the morning.

Addicted · #15 02-08-2006, 12:44 AM

Well the Mirrors are Original. The exact same as my 240D.

Well I got it all timed (pretty close) I was advance by 7 degrees. I dont' know how close I am now as I ran out of room to retard it without taking it off and it stopped spewing fuel at that point so I just took it as pretty close. It runs really smooth now but still a bit of black smoke on accel.

I was rigth about the Water Pump. It is shot....Imagine that....I'm going to make a list of all that was wrong with this car.

Ohh and Brandon came over and helped me with it tonight. We ripped off the AC compressor (damn thing was always in my way) and looked at teh F$%#% Tard job the person did on the lug nuts. They were way to long in teh back and ate at the e-brake. It was getting smoother as we drove along so we figured it was time. I assume they changed the wheels on this right before taking it to the junkyard. Judging from the rust on the hub (thanks to brandons good eye) they used to be alloys. Bastards took everything that was good on this car and took it out and put in crap. I'm sure you all saw the pictures of the flex disk. Someone had messed with the tranny.

OK here is the list of Crap on this 129K car.

Warped Head (Check)
Clogged Fuel Filters (Check)
Cracked Fuel Lines (Check)
Crap Ass Tranny Including Flex Discs (Check)
Algea in Fuel Tank (Working on)
Water Pump Crapped Out (Working on)
E-Brake (Barely survived mornon putting on wrong lugs) (Check)
Head Lamp and Fog Lamps (Check, Just have to test one fog light and put on lens cover)

I hope this is all of it. As you can see I'm almost there. Just have to fix the WP tomorrow and the fuel thing will take a few days to run the fuel through and mix with the biobore.