Thats Right, Get it up to at least 35mph.

Also check the passenger side of the engine bay to see if there is a electric plug for the block heater.

No heater. The Benz came up from Virginia last month. Those sissy Virgininans don't even know what a blanket is yet.

Syracuse N.Y. is very cold,

Not yet. It's only 45F. but yes I know too cold for me diesel.

you might have a few things going on,

bad battery - Fresh out of the box and completly charged

weak alternator - NO. its good.

bad glow plugs, + Cold weather = no start. BINGO

heated garage is good too.

could only wish, how about an electric blanket?

One of those Magnetic oil pan heaters might help. It just sticks to the pan, and heats it up. :)

Just an aside. Here is my quandry. With the car on the road, she'll earn me 1200 a week after expenses. I've been out of work for 3 weeks with a broken foot and really need to get back on the road even tho the foot isn't 100% yet. I can drive.

I know I need glow plugs and I can install them. But at the moment I can't buy them. Unless I can find some way. I'm confident she'll fire up with new gp's.

I do not want to damage the car but I bought it to put it to work and knew I'd have maintence costs sooner or later. As always I'd prefer later.

My friend says pulling it won't damage the car. After all this is how Mercedes suggests starting it.

If it were you. would you fix the plugs or try pulling it again? I'm leaning towards Pulling it again because if it's already broken what harm could it do?

I'll have to look into that one later on, but it sounds like a good idea.

No not sure. But thought I had good advise. Your post leads me to believe that I have another chance to get this right.:)

money in wallet 0
glow plugs $60
Tranny $1400
Getting to work: Priceless

Are there any members here near Syracuse NY ?

Today I tried to pull the MBSD30082 again.

This time with my buddies SUV. We brought her up to speed 35mph.

And I dropped her into S with the key turned to the GP position.

There is no response. Do drag and no turnover.

I suspected the Tranny had issues b4 this but as I've been reading many 1st MB owners feel this way about there old cars because the handling characteristics are different from a Gasser.

If Brian Carlton has his ears on maybe you could chime in. Sorry so brief.

The SD had 256,000 miles on the OD but it has stopped work. She is certainly worth the repair in my opinion. I'll be driving about 40,000 miles per year. So a rebuilt unit from that place in Calif. may be the way to go as well.

I was reading the other recent thread about the SD Tranny problems and was wondering if mine could be so simple.

Do you feel a spring kit may help here? Could it be as simple as just a band adjustment. I'm up to the task. Or if I could get a cheap used one, around 500 should I just replace and go from there. another option is just to find a cheap parts car.

Also can u reccomend a source for a Transmission service manual. Is that covered on the CD?

Good News for now is that my buddy will let me use his SUV for as long as I need so at least I'll have some cash flow.

I don't have much time now, off to work finally. Thanks everyone.

I'm confused as to why you want to pull start it rather than waiting to replace the glow plugs. If you pull start it, as long as you have bad glow plugs, you're going to have to pull start it every time you need to use it unless you plan to leave it running all the time.

O.E. block heater
 

Look for a wire (looks like lamp cord) leading from an installation in one of the
freeze plug holes,track it up to the right front bumper area,to a male 120V plug,
plug it into a 120V A.C. source for 2-3 hours (or overnight).In anything above
sub zero temps the block heater will warm up the block (and engine oil and
coolant to operating temps) to the same effect as a properly functional glow
plug system.
Insert key(play as if the GP's do work and wait for the glow cycle to run)AND
turn to START.(remember to remove heater cord from power source before
motoring away)

If She will not ignite after block heater assistance... Either there is a fuel supply
problem or a Compression problem.

I am completely ignorant on these automatics, but I seem to recall that they use vacuum for the controls. If there is no vacuum left, is it possible his transmission is just not "getting the message" to go into "S" when does this?

Jim

hello,

I say again. I was deparate. the day after I bought the MB I broke my foot and was out of work for several weeks. The day before I was to go back to work I ran out of fuel and the car would not start. I figured out the fuel problem but the buggy would not start due to bad glow plugs.

I earn my living behind the wheel of this car. So I was between a rock and a hard place.

If I start the car and go to work I earn enuff to replace the glow plugs. Start car and leave running all night buy glow plugs the next day. Seemed like my only option at the time. Everyone reassured me that it would be okay to pull start the car. And I still believe that to be the case.

Hoping it's just as simple as a B2 Transmission piston failure. Don't know yet because I have limited (none) diagnostic experience with this car. I am learning as I go. I also felt that a tranny replacement was in my near future, so........

There u go.

Things are getting better. I just have to wait a c what my next course of action will be.

thanks

If my B2 Transmission piston has failed will the tranny not engage in either gear?

Vac system may be suspect as well. Would bad vac pressue leave the transmission lifeless.

I pull started the car, drove it for about 40 min total and then parked it. Now the transmission doesn't seem to respond during second attempt at pull start.

Any Ideas what I should be looking for.

Will replace glow plugs as soon as I can to get her going and then start learning how to diagnose this wonderful car.

Well, while you are just hanging around, why not test the glow plugs to see which ones are bad and which ones are not? I very seriously doubt all of them are no good. If none are getting power there is a fuse in the box on the right front fender that may be shot. In that box there is a plug that has the glow plug connections on it, labelled by cylinder number front of engine to back. You check the resistance from the plug socket/pin for each glow plug to ground. Depending on the plugs you have, there is a specific resistance value and tolerance. Burned out plugs register infinite resistance, and internally shorted ones have too little. But they typically fail open in short order. So, you are essentially looking for resistance values that are within a few tenths of an Ohm (I believe mine are around 1.8 Ohms) of each other, in the low single Ohm numbers. Only bad ones need to be replaced.

The other issue is fuel. I believe your car has a pump on the front side of the injection pump that is for hand priming the system. You unscrew the knurled (actually too nice a description - it has some rough, sharp cut grooves designed by some S&M Nazi that will peel the skin off your fingers while pumping the pump) top, and then lift it up and push it down a few hundred times or until you hear a sort of "buzzing" noise on the downstroke and feel some resistance. Once the system is primed you push the plunger down and screw the top back down finger tight, and then you can try to start it. Without fuel, glow plugs are pointless. And once you get fuel in there, you have to make sure there are no air leaks. So, once it starts let it run while you look for leaks.

Other items that affect the ability to start are valve adjustments, and the viscosity of the oil. As it gets colder these features can play a bigger role. You need all the heat of compression you can get in cold weather, and valves that close at the wrong time preclude generating the highest compression and temperatures. Overly thick oil also places a significant extra load on the starter, which slows the speed of the engine down. And, when the engine slows down the cold block acts as a heat sink, lowering the air temperature in the combustion chamber.

So, while you are waiting around, you can be addressing some of the items. That fuse is a few cents compared to the $60 glow plugs and if you have been energizing the glow plugs a lot, it seems likely that if none are working now that the fuse and not the glow plugs themselves are at fault.

Keep us posted and good luck, Jim

Thanks JimSmith for the reply. I have checked the fuse it is good. Only one glow plug is good. Valves may need adjusting. I need to learn the procsess before trying. Or let a shop take care of that. Heard it's only a 1 hour job for a shop.

I was planning to keep working on her. My friend is lending me his truck so that I can get back to work. I have quite a shopping list. I need manuals and a few more tools and parts. Now that the flow of cash is coming in things can move forward. I'll just keep at her until I (we) figure it out.

I will be focusing on getting her started then I'll try to figure out my tranny problem. I'm leaning towards a B2 piston failure. None of the forward gears respond and the buggy has over 250k, about right for a b2 failure I would think from all I've been able to read and gather.