I recently picked up another Benz, a rust free 85 300SD with a "bad trans" but relatively low miles. After verifying that the car had a strong reverse and no forward gears, I paid the man a paltry sum, loaded it onto the trailer and brought it home. 1 B2 piston later, a nice Diesel Purge, a cleaned up manifold pressure banjo bolt and its functional. The interior is clean, leather needs a touch up here and there but the wood is good. The paint is tired, but serviceable. The suspension and brakes are solid. I transferred the Timevalve stainless exhaust from the rapidly dissolving 84. I replaced 1 bad coolant hose, all the others are ok. This afternoon I look for the source of minor leaks and do the belts, then I'm ready for some short shakedown cruises and italian tune ups.

While it isn't perfect, it's a 26 year old northeast Benz with NO FRIGGIN' RUST! I had pretty much given up finding anything that solid this cheap.

Nice find. Someone here on the forum did the same thing with a 300SDL. All it needed was an adjustment on the transmission and some 200,000 miles later it's still going strong

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

"bad" transmission MB's are the best.

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08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D

Congrats. Pictures, please.

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

You scored big time.

Now you need to drive it a few months, spend lots of money on it, then get tired of it and unload it to me for a song....

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Valves are all adjusted and new belts are on it. The water pump looks new and the pulley seemed wonky, so replaced that at the same time. After dinner I'll load up my lovely assistant and take it for a cruise. This came at just the right time because I was in need of another ride, the rest of the fleet was a little tired and the truck, at 13mpg, is nothing I want to drive a lot.

After last nights shakedown run it was obvious that the car needed tweaking. This morning I pulled the sealing plug off the Alda, opened it up a turn and a half then went for a drive. Night and day difference. A few full throttle pulls uphill on a nearby highway and the car kept getting better and better. No smoke so I'm not over-fueling. After tooling around town a bit it became obvious that the trans was up-shifting too soon. Adjusting the TV cable fixed that.

The car had 209K miles when it was sold in 2001. In the last 10 years it has only accrued and additional 23K miles. The oil has been changed every 2500 miles in that time, which is annually. I figure a couple hundred miles of hard driving is called for to loosen the old gal up.

I love these old cars.