A few moments of temporary insanity, and a 1980 240D becomes mine!
 

4 months ago I bought a wagon which I though I could put into service quickly, but that was in such horrible shape that it has turned into a full on restoration.

Ive been floating around on here getting more and more envious of all you people happily driving around in your diesels, but today I went and looked at a 450 dollar 240 with a slipping auto tranny which suddenly popped up. I have decided to sell my perfectly useful truck, and buy another 123 because ive missed them so much! Plus, for the price, the car is pretty nice, and well maintained.

I have a number of trannys available, including a custom 5-speed I have literally been going nuts over waiting to get it in my wagon.

This stroke of luck means that it will be tested on a 616 instead of a 617, but at least this is a running car!

I pick it up tomorrow, pics to come!

Cool, we're waiting for pics.

Good deal, can`t go too wrong on a simple less complex car than a 240.

Iam anxious to see how your 5 spd works out. should drop those RPM`s on the HWY.

Charlie

unless he's going down hill :D

Another guy on here who has a 240 with a factory 5-speed was telling me he gets considerably above 30 mpg on the highway, and the car is very comfortable cruising at 75-80 without stress.
I think hes out in your neck of the woods and going to the PNW get together.
I am very excited! Each week I am commuting about 300 miles one way between base cities, and my 19-22 mpg truck is killing me, despite being a tad uncomfortable.

Picked it up! Even with the tranny problem, I was able to drive it about 50 miles back from the PO.
I am very pleased with how it performed! It has good brakes, bearings, tires, axles, euro headlights, near mint interior, nice CD player, all interior lights work, engine runs great, vacuum system actually works and the doors lock! Suspension is comfortable and the alignment in good. It has new shocks, new alternator, new glow plugs and fuel filters, valves have been recently adjusted, and the parking brake is new!

The only way to drive around is to put it in 2nd where it performs decently, then wind it out and upshift into drive where it will slip and shift into 3rd, then maybe slip out. It also will slip on any hills in third, and sometimes in second. It would do the same for 4th. It was an entertaining drive back on the highway.

Stuff thats broken- both low beams are out, wiper intermittent switch is broken, needs wipers, the transmission problem, leaking oil cooler line, blower motor is not working, and the rust, which is cosmetic.

Here are a few late night pics, should have more in the daytime tomorrow or sunday-

Then put it in Georga overdrive :D

Charlie

Maybe I`ll see him in July at the GTG in Washington. probably a 800 mile drive to that one:rolleyes:.

19-22 mpg was great when gas was 30¢ a gallon.

those front seats look new, looks like you did good for $450.

Charlie

I'm envious of your seats!

Good score, and euro headlights too. Your "fix it" list doesn't seem like much of a problem epically if you can snag some parts from the TD and get that 5 spd tranny installed.

Good news, I sold my 93 nissan truck for 700 dollars yesterday, putting me at a 250 dollar positive so far on the vehicle swap. Should be registered today, and we will see what tax the state of NY wants on 450 bucks.

I experimented with putting my wagon auto tranny into the 240 for a temporary solution until the clutch gets here, but it turned out to be impractical, as it needs just a little too much adaptation work to function properly.

After a good look and half a day of struggle removing the auto from the wagon, I decided that is was just too big a PITA to put up and take down again next week or so when I have all my other parts.

It looks like the defining issue with this 240 apart from the tranny is rust. Nothing really structural except for floor pans, which I will deal with shortly. I have the material with me to make that safer pretty quickly. Its pretty far gone though, which is a shame as the PO really did try and keep it up body wise. You can see at least 4 improper rust repairs where they just bondo-ed over the rust instead of removing it.
The PO said that at the time, the rust wasn't so bad, and he was trying to keep ahead of it, and by the time the bondo broke off, it was 10 times the size.
I wish I could say that this didn't sound like the typical problem with body shops not understanding how to permanently repair a rust issue.

the euro lights are glass! wow, I did not know that!

Vehicle is registered and legit for 36 bucks in purchase price tax at 8%! tooled around today in celebration.
Need to order some oil cooler hoses, they look way simpler to install on a 240 than a 300D, are they?

Or maybe they are just as deceptively easy looking.

My German Amercian father, who was a very clever IBM engineer for 37 years, once owned a 1964 Ford Falcon that had eventually got some rust on the floorboards.

He crawled underneath the car and fixed it by covering the bottom of them with lots of roofing tar, it worked very well!!!

Priority #1 is now rust repair. Heres a thread I started over on STD about the ongoing repair work in progress- http://www.superturbodiesel.com/std/emergency-rust-repairs-t-1276.html Im pretty far along, once the driver side is safe, then the tranny can be dealt with, then Ill do the passenger side rust.

The seat and seat belt were both bolted to a crispy wafer like substance surrounded by a gooey, spongy substance that used to be undercoated body, but it now effectively the consistency of an eskimo pie.

almost done with the worst of the rust on the driver side. inner fender and foot well had to be completely reconstructed, but the worst is taken care of in the corner.
Gotta do the floors now and pull the driver door to get that last little piece of the rot in this area, but its raining! :mad:

some before and after pics-