when I did the 3 champions, I did it without removing the lines... cut the bejezzzis out of my arms and fingers on those stinking line clips. I did pull into my shop, and fired up the 60Kbtu diesel burner... much nicer, but still cold.
I used the handy trigger starter tool to spin the motor over while I bled out the lines before tightening them all down. after getting them all tight, I figured I would see if it would start without any glow, so I pulled the brown kill vac line off the IP and hit the trigger, crank crank... 30 seconds... no start, and the burner was pointed right at the cold air intake too... pulled the throttle linkage, cranked again, nope...
hooked the brown line back up, hooked up the GP harnes, turned key glow light came on yeay! let the GP's glow for about 15 seconds after light went out. turned key. instant start and SMOOTH double yeay.
John

Yeah I'm sure that GP is hard to change, glad my in house mechanic did it!:D

But, if that should happen, just holler here.......... We good men of the Forum will always run to the aid of a damsel in distress! :D Especially a damsel who owns a torque-monster 603! :D (After all, whenever you fix a car for a damsel, it is your manly duty to test drive it before giving it back to her!! :D )

I would replace the heater hose before it fails at an inconvenient time. That hose tends to get abused when you change the oil filter.

Recently did all 5 on the SD. To get to #5 I loosened up the throttle rod at firewall, removed link toward front, and was able to wedge hose out of the way. I also used gearwrenches, indispensable, dropped one, a trip to Sears picked up two more, a day later I found the wrench that had vibrated to drip pan from it's secret hiding place, had to be short so as not to remove fuel lines. Was able to use Bosch.

Why do our GPs die faster? A random guess...
 

One thing I've noticed about my Benz is that it's not at ALL amenable to starting without the glowplugs, regardless of conditions.

A lot of other diesels I've been around enough to start a time or two (our tractor and Bobcat, a few powerstrokes and cumminses) - seem a lot more willing to start without so much assistance. Especially once they're warm.

So... if one assumed that a glowplug could produce only so many... watts... or whatever, of heat, in its cumulative lifespan, and that all glowplugs were designed somewhat similarly in terms of maximum energy they can output in a lifetime before they quit working...

The Benz glowplugs are doing more work than some of these others are, therefore they burn out quicker?

How many other vehicles/machines have the "afterglow" relay that burns the plugs for additional time after the engine's running? Seems that would take a few cumulative seconds of heat production out of a glowplug's life too.

Mine will start fine without the glowplugs when the engine is warm. I can let it sit for about 15 minutes before it begins to need the glowplugs again.

Yes, on the five cylinders, pulling the injector lines is DEFINITELY the easiest approach to changing glow plugs.

Yeah.. here in mild Northern CA I can park my car, go to class, come back 2 hours later and start it with a crank of the key.

Trigger tool?

I second that! mechanically inclined women are NOT easy to find!

I have never abused any hose... while changing the oil filter... but I bet the hose is not stocked at the local parts place. the thing must have 6 bends to it, and it is 7/8" on one end, and 5/8 on the other... and it goes through the fake firewall, over to the monovalve. yeay.

sorry, a "remote starter switch" it is shaped like the grip of a pistol. and it has 6' leads with medium sized alligator clips on the ends. about 7.00 at autozone.

I kept dropping the nut that secured the electrical wire to the glow plug. Then got an idea from the Diesel Giant website. I cut a 1/2 inch from an extra piece of fuel line. The nut fits tightly in it and is a lot easier to replace that way than just holding the nut itself. His suggestion was to use a longer piece of fuel line to hold the glow plug and insert the glow plug that way. Then you don't have to get your hand in such a tight area. The fuel line holds the glow plug so that you can get it started before having to wrench.

Thats a good idea! Especially for those of us rugged enough to do them with the injector lines still in! :D :D ;)

Your line must be different, the hose on my 300D directly interferes with removing the oil filter. Mine looks like this:

http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/quote.jsp?clientid=catalog.mercedesshop&cookieid=1CQ0J3JZ420M13CQSC&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&partner=mercedesshop&year=1982&product=R3030-16302&application=000027632

I feel bad :-) I did mine a few months ago and it only took me like a 1/2 hour for all of them. Funny thing is that i dont really remember any 1 of the plugs being harder to get at. All I did was disconnect the wires to the Gp's and bend them up and I got my ratcheting end wrench, and unscrewed em and stuck the new ones in. Now, my problem is trying to get the tranny modulator off lol.