First Merc Questions
 

Hello Friends,
I purchased a 1981 non-300TD w/ 157,000 miles a couple days ago. I have a few questions for the experts here. I have learned the hard way the importance of coming to folks like you first. (Bent rod in VW TDI because of mechanic doing a bad timing job.)
Here are my questions. 1. My odometer works but my speedometer does not. I'm thinking there is probably a post here but after looking a few hours I couldn't find one directly addressing that. I'm more then happy to explore any links though. 2. My dash lights do not work. The glow plug, battery, brake warning lights all work but there are no back lights on the dash. The clock works. Is this simply a matter of burned out bulbs, blown fuse? 3. There is something between a hmmm and a howl, I would proabably classify it as a growl that comes from the rear left wheel when I make gradual turns to the right at speed. I have no idea what that is and would love any suggestions. 4. The vacuum system has a slow leak. Doors will lock and unlock up to about 10 minutes after stopping the car. After that, I have to start the car. That's the only symptom. And finally, 5. The steering has a small bit of play. Is that to be expected or can I work on that? I'm trying to get the car moved toward a daily driver and am willing to work through this issues.
I have been poking around on here for a while. I have spent a fair bit of time on the tdiclub forum so I am somewhat familiar but haven't figured out the whole search function very well yet. Any links would be great. Thanks for all your help.

-knabe189

I can answer a couple of your questions...
1. My odometer works but my speedometer does not. This seems like a bad speedometer. I have heard a lot about the odometer not working and have fixed the one in both my 300SD and my 300SDL but I have not heard of the speedo not working when the odo works.
2. My dash lights do not work. The dimmer is operated by the same knob as the trip odometer. First turn it to the right and see if the lights work. If not you should pull the instrument cluster. Get a paint can opener at Home Depot and use it to pull the cluster out of the dash by sticking it in the crack between the cluster and the dash on both the left and right side of the cluster. Since you have a 300D (W123) you will have to watch for the speedometer cable and the oil pressure line. The dimmer can be bypassed to make sure the lights work and to leave them on full bright by jumping a wire between the posts on the switch. Do a search on dimmer switch for a pictorial.
3. There is something between a hmmm and a howl, I would probably classify it as a growl that comes from the rear left wheel when I make gradual turns to the right at speed. I have no idea what that is and would love any suggestions. This sounds like a wheel bearing. You should take the car to a shop to have it confirmed. I do not know how bad a wheel bearing replacement is in the rear of a W123. If you do a search on wheel bearing replacement you will find threads dealing with this.


Join the Mercedes Club of America MBCA.org and go to your local chapter meetings. There you will finds lots of people who love and know these cars. Also keep searching this site. Use google advanced search and you will get a lot of info that way.

Good luck and welcome to the family

The door locks issue is definitely vacuum-related. There should be a tutorial somewhere on this site on how to diagnose and fix vacuum links. Check one of those out.

Try this:

http://www.dieselgiant.com/mercedesvacuumtroubleshooting.htm

and welcome. Bill

Welcome to the forum. and being a TD owner you will be able to join the "Cheap wagon club" ;)

Do a search in the Resources tab above. there are DIY articles with pictures and how to. DMORRISON has a good one on the rear wheel bearings.

Diesel Giant also has a lot of pictorials.

Remove the kick panel under the steering column, and the instrument cluster can be pushed out by hand from the rear.

and removing the spedo cable from the trans and a couple clips, will give a little more slack to get your hand in behing the cluster to remove things.

Use a 10mm and a 13mm on the oil line to the oil gauge.

REMEMBER TO REATTACH IT BEFORE STARTING ENGINE :eek:

Charlie

What's a non-300TD?

Sixto
87 300D

Thanks for the help
 

Thanks for the help. My wife is a little nervous about the car being a money pit but I have high hopes. Especially with the help found here. I tried out the dimmer switch but it appears that did not do the trick. I will be playing around with it Saturday morning so I will post my findings then.
Thanks for the link to the vacuum testing page on dieselgiant. That is exactly the type of thing I am looking for. Anything like the for the speedometer? I've found a few things about the speedometer but not quite what I find useful yet.
The car is a non-turbo 300TD. The guy I bought it from figured it was a British imported diplomate car as it has some stickers on it denoting something to that effect. Also he said that when I go to get parts I should tell them it is a '79 instead of an '81 because of the minor differences. Thanks again and keep the posts coming!

-knabe189

The dimmer control is replaceable or you can solder a wire across the terminals and leave the cluster on all the time. The cluster has two bulbs that do burn out so check them first - you have to pull the cluster to get at them.

Consensis on Wheel Bearing?
 

Hello Folks,
So I've been working on getting a quote on the wheel bearing issue. I looked at the DIY and it looked alittle more involved then what I was comfortable with. I spoke with Chuck Oliver down in Mullica Hill. He is pretty highly recommended in "Good Shops in NJ". Anyway, he said he had never done a wheel bearing in these. He had done some rear ends but not a wheel bearing. Based on my description of the issue... "a growl/howl when I turn slightly to the right underspeed". I didn't describe it to him, I just asked for a quote on doing a wheel bearing. He had to look it up and call me back since he had never done one.
Thanks for the help!
-knabe189

Welcome knabe
 

I thought you were in trouble there for a minute with a severe breach of terminology, but you may have stumbled upon a rather correct description if you in fact have a 1981 wagon that is a non-turbo. Better would be an NA '81 300TD. TD is for Touring Diesel {wagon} not Turbo Diesel. Only one issue there: Merc = Mercury unless you reside across the pond.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...mmyTyler-2.jpg


You might be in a pickle on this one. Of all W123's [which is your chassis designation], ONLY the 1981 W123 WAGON got a different style speedometer/odometer design, which more resembles the W126 speedo/odo design. {1981-1985 300SD} IF you in fact have a wagon, I don't know if the Euro model is the same design. I would imagine it would be. If it is then the W126 guys might have to advise. The big difference is that you will not have a speedometer cable, and the back of your cluster will look like this:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...h/Smash058.jpg

Maybe you just have a plug undone to that white middle section. If not, somebody else hopefully can chime in.


As others have said, solder a jumper wire between the two posts on the dimmer rheostat. Lights are never bright enough when dimmer turned "full bright" which is what you get with the solder job.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...s/clusters.jpg


Could be wheel bearing, could be axle shaft. Hope for axle shaft. My white wagon does exactly the same thing on corners to the right at speed. :(



You've been pointed to the right place on this. It is also possible that you have a leak in the climate control vac system and it is bleeding off vac from your door lock system, especially if you don't have a vac control valve on the 2 yellow vac lines prior to going through the firewall by the brake booster. Probably in the vac system though since you don't have issues with the car turning off. You simply can't own these cars and not have a Mityvac. Buy one now! ;) [only $30 bucks at Harbor Freight]



Could be fairly normal, especially compared to a TDI, or could be a worn out frontend. That is pricey!! There is an allen screw on top of steering box that can be turned a small amount to tighten up the gear box a bit. It shouldn't be used to compensate for a worn out front end. CCW I believe tightens things up. 1/4 to 1/2 turn only I believe. Search that one for more specific info.



The adventure begins....... :)

Thanks for the :-)
 

JimmyL et. al.,
Thanks for your post. I stand corrected on my areas of incorrect terminology. Thank you for your correction with a :). Also I especially want to thank you for the images and the notes on the unique dash situation. I will hope for the best. I'm having the wheel bearing looked at tomorrow so I will update on that.
JimmyL, I have to admit my expression at the end of your wise words were :)

Thanks Again!
-knabe189

These cars are enjoyable to drive. They can be very logical to work on at times. There is a wealth of folks on here that really know their stuff. And there are of course some of us knuckle-heads that know a little about a little. :o And rumor has it there is a smart-aleck or two on here from time to time......
If you are going to own one of these cars then you have come to the right place. They require an amazing amount of work on little things all the time, but when it comes down to it they really just want to run.
Let us know about the wheel bearing situation. I fear the wheel bearing, and have 2-4 that I need to do. :(

Well it ended up being a couple of things. Bad Axle and my rear brake calipers were sticking. I'm getting an new rebuilt axle for $250 which the mechanic thought was a deal. $200 each side for new calipers. He couldn't find anything cheaper. Front pads were down a ways so we are going to through those on too. Hopefully, this will solve the mechanical issues. Now I just need to get the speedo working. I'll do that once I get it back. This sound okay to everyone or am I getting hosed?

so is the axle new or rebuilt? new $250 may be reasonable, but I've heard of people paying less. 250 for a rebuilt axle is robbery.

"Robbery" it may be but that's probably the going price these days for rebuilts from a shop. Seems to me my wrench quoted me about $300 per axle plus labor when my '85 tore its boots last year. I ended up replacing both for about $300 (CVJ Denver) and doing the work myself.