on my 1995 E 300 Diesel...

I want to begin my adventure on this forum by saying thanks to Phil. A couple months ago I needed ball joints for my MB. My former online supplier indicated a back-order delay of two weeks plus; while my local supplier had them at a cost of 98 bucks apiece. Phil provided these parts overnight at the best price.

I've made good use of some of the DIY features in this forum enabling me to fix my driver's seat and seeing how to remove the instrument cluster to replace the interior temperature display. Great information.

I own the MB service CD for my model (W124) but find it cumbersome at best to navigate.

Two projects I want to work on:

1. The rotary headlamp switch is in need of replacement. Are there any forum resources showing this "step by step"? In my previous car a 1982 300SD, this change was (to the best of my memory) done from the dash board by unbolting the switch and removing a piece of plastic trim retaining it. It appears that the 124 requires removal of the under-dash paneling and dropping the switch.

2. I need to replace the valve cover gasket. I can see my way clear to the removal and replacement of all covers and components to get access EXCEPT for the linkage across the top of the engine. The service CD has defeated me, I can't trace the jobs to get to where I need to be. If there are any DIY references here, I'd appreciate some help in locating them. The first step as I see to get access involves removing linkage which I do NOT want to mess up. I would also like to confirm the torque and the exact procedure for doing this replacement right.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Best regards,

Pete

As for the linkage, look in Diesel Giant's page on valve adjustment (see links). He'll set you straight.

__________________
John Schroader
bio burnin' 83 300D, '83 300 SD, '79 240D
"I've never met a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else" Ben Franklin
"You cannot permanently help a man by doing for him what he could and should do for himself" Abraham Lincoln

Thanks. I'll be reading a little further on valve adjustment too.

No valve adjustment on the 606.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Found that out yesterday to the amusement of my mechanic...

By the way, my car is the same dark blue (1995 Special Edition) that's in your photo. Hopefully I'll get mine looking as fine as yours by summer's end. I have a lot of interior work to do too. I'll be following your headliner repair in a short time. Its a great write-up you have provided the forum.

I like your design using a self dimming mirror and adding the small visor replacing original phone device. I don't know if this is possible, but I'd appreciate finding out if the existing wiring for the phone could be employed to install a cradle for a blackberry, allowing the utilization of the existing hands free system in the car.

My MB has 212,000 miles and gives me about 22 mpg in town and 31 mpg on the highway. I picked up this car with about 140,000 miles on it in Jan '05. I make about five 1200 mile round trips from NC to NJ a year. In earlier use, I got about 35 mpg and at times even better. Do you think that this drop in fuel economy is due to normal aging of the motor or could it be due to the "new" ultra low sulfur diesel fuel?

Regards,

Pete

I doubt it could be the new diesel, only about 3% drop in BTU IIRC. Normal aging? Might be that the car could use a "tune up" to get optimum mileage; clean and balance nozzles and balance the IP ("run the rack"), fluids, even tire designs vary in their efficiency (and tire pressure).

I think the most common cause of lower fuel mileage in these older diesels is a fuel leak. If you're driving 70mph, roughtly 2gallons/hour, if you were to drip 8oz of fuel in 2hours of highway use (an ounce every 15minutes) it would be roughly 3% of your fuel use. If you smell or see diesel anywhere, that's where you start (such as fuel return lines).

Good luck.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff