Well I'm depressed now...
 

Been working on the old girl. Tried to change the break pads today. They were rusty but they looked thick as new regardless. Calipers were rusted like you wouldn't believe. Tried to bleed the driver front brakes, but the bleeder bolt just snapped off from rust....So I need new calipers on all 4 tires. Their are some rebuilt ones for not such a bad price. I have two front tire rods that I can replace so that won't cost me anything. The wheels won't hardly turn on the disc. I think the calipers are pretty locked up and I'm surprised the breaks work at all but they do. I don't know how many but at least a couple make the car stop....The engine on the other hand....Keeps getting better. Cleaned out the injectors, changed the filters, did a diesel purga and cleaned the banjo bolt and ALDA bolt and lines. Engine feels soooo much better. I'm not too worried about it. After the banjo bolt and ALDA leaning though, the transmission has weirded out on me going up hills. Hopefully a filter and flush will take care of most of that problem. So anyway, I can afford to change all the calipers...but, I need to know if my spindles are okay or not. They look rusty but not damaged. I can't afford those. How do I tell if they are okay? I can't afford axles either but maybe a cv boot kit might do the job. How can I tell if I need new axles? Other than that...I feel like with a valve adjustment now and some transmission work that the engine would be totally solid. Any advice would be appreciated. If I need new spindles and axled and that sort of expensive stuff then I will have to suck up to the 300 dollars I've put into this car and let the owner junk it.....that would be so sad....I love this car.

you probably unintentionally loosened a vacuum connection, which is weirding out your tranny.

If you have pick and pulls, I strongly suggest it for brake parts, you can get a rotor and caliper for a song.

pick and pulls? For a song?

Junkyard....for very little money.

Well if my calipers are dead from sitting then won't they be dead and rusted from sitting at a junkyard too?

And I can afford to spend athousand or two more. I just need this car to make it from NC to Florida first....

When I needed calipers in a hurry Advanced Auto had front calipers, remans, loaded for $65 each and in stock. If you can wait try calling Phil. RT

Well I'm prepared to spend that. But if my spindles and axles are bad I need to find that out first...Because I can't afford those before I drive to Florida. Any way I might check these?

The junkyard is always a good ideal when funds are low. Even when they are not it allows you to retain some money. Good habit to get into. So much does depend on the pick and pulls and junkyards in your area though.
In my area salvage cars of this type and brand are few and far between unfortunatly. The guys that report frequent arrivals in their local junkyards are lucky by comparison.
I asked a local yard if they were going to press a 240 a short time ago. . They said no and pressed it. Had a perfect interior unfortunatly.
Some guy in the south would have really liked it. No wear and no problems from the sun this far north. Dash had not even started to crack yet. Got that at least. Car was a genuine low milage rust bucket.

Who's Phil. RT?

When you say spindles, are you talking about the Brake rotors?- the things that the Brake pads press against? If so, they are less expensive than the Calipers that you are replacing. You should definitely replace them with the calipers. If the brake pads are still thick like new, they can probably be cleaned up to work fine.
As far as the axles go, check to see if the rubber boots are torn or leaking. If not, chances are they will run you to Florida OK. If they are torn or there is alot of slop in them, you can get reman'ed for less than $100 each.

Phil is the parts guy who sponsors this forum. You can support him and this forum buy purchasing parts thru the "buy parts" link at the top of the page.

the rubber boots seem okay actually. That's good news.
These are the spindles in question:
http://www.europartsdirect.com/epc-items.asp
I don't know how to tell if these are okay or not.

I think the link is bad. It's the control arms I think. 345 a piece....

When you ask about the spindle do you mean these?
http://catalog.worldpac.com/mercedesshop/sophio/wizard.jsp?partner=mercedesshop&clientid=catalog.mercedesshop&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&cookieid=2CI0IU9072CJ01F3QG&year=1982&make=MB&model=300-DT-001&category=All&part=Steering+Knuckle

The only thing that's going to mess up the spindle is from wheel bearing failure or running in to things. I doubt you'd ever have to replace those barring some very unfortunate incident. I would highly recommend cleaning and repacking the front wheel bearings if you're planning on taking a long trip.

As far as your calipers they may not have stuck pistons but could just not be sliding back and forth correctly on the mount. Try removing the calipers, clean up the pins and mounting hardware, and re-installing them.