Alright, I come humbly to the masters, again, for some advice. My problem, my 1982 300D wouldn't shut off, the brakes seemed okay, maybe not great, A/C would blow ambient air, and door locks were incredibly sluggish, as it the lock pistons on the door were gummed up, and transmission shifts a little hard, with the seemingly popular revving up between 2nd and 3rd. I figured, naturally, I'm having some vacuum issues, possibly among other things. Either way, I read the vacuum pressure coming off the pump itself and the needle was fluctuating between 10-20 at idle. I bought the rebuild kit from ******** and finally set out to do the rebuild yesterday. My plan was to remove the pump and go to work from there. Well I was able to get three of the six retaining bolts off, the other three wouldn't budge. I believe I actually have started to strip the three bolts that I couldn't get out. I WISH this was the problem...

Well I figured I'd just take the cover plate off and replace the three diaphragms and whatever gaskets I could access, and take it from there. Well, as I was putting things back together, I guess I overtightened the nut that goes on the piston rod, and the end of the piston rod snapped off...

Well at the very least, I need to get the pump off the block now to be able to access the piston rod, right? ALSO, is it possible to just buy a piston rod without the rest of a new or reconditioned pump?

I would welcome ANY and ALL advice here, but I ask that any creative name calling be reserved for the end of the thread! Thank you all in advance.

-Paul