... any chance it's an exhaust vibration due to motor mount sagging? or bad exhaust hangers?

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John ongoing strip party!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!
84 240D 5speed & 84 300 4Speed
67 rs Camaro, Dodge Pickup, parts cars 78 300D, & 93D(no doors?),85 SD, 83 SD, 85 300D, 85Euro 300TD, 87 300TD, 95E320 T
Daily Drivers 82 SD, 87 300TD, 87300TD!!!!,

I know I was rhyming before but shifter bushings?


Shifter bushings?

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1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone

Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

ok, it still sounds like it's only happening when she drives it. to me? it's an easy fix...

on a serious note, it sounds like the clicking i've heard when shifting into park when the car is still moving. is that the sound you think? That may help people direct you to the problem. Personally, I'd call a local tranny shop and get their advice. If it's inside the automatic transmission, i'm sure you're not going in there anyway.

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79 240D 123.123 daily-driver
03 F250 7.3 PS SD CC (lightly modded)
82 CE 'vette (for sale)
73 dart 318, 73 charger w/'68 383 (both for sale)

I'll check out the exhaust, engine mounts and shift brushing tomorrow. I also need to fix the lock system that quit working today, fix the power antenna, rebuild the front suspension...

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Is there any way the neutral safety switch could be powering the starter when the car is shifted into N or P? The last time it made the sound my wife and I noticed that the radio powered down at the same time, and the noise does sound very similar to engaging the starter on a running engine.

I replaced the missing sifter bushing at the transmission, and broke the NSS arm off for my trouble. Hopefully replacing these parts will solve the problem, because I can not find any other potential causes.

Unfortunately it looks like it's time for this car to move on to a new owner. The misses wanted a car with airbags so we got a Volvo wagon for her daily driver. I want to make sure this issue is sorted before I sell it though.

Thanks for the help.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

... starter can be engaged by the glow plug relay being defective.

__________________
John ongoing strip party!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!
84 240D 5speed & 84 300 4Speed
67 rs Camaro, Dodge Pickup, parts cars 78 300D, & 93D(no doors?),85 SD, 83 SD, 85 300D, 85Euro 300TD, 87 300TD, 95E320 T
Daily Drivers 82 SD, 87 300TD, 87300TD!!!!,

Maybe after getting the car started, pull the fuse feeding the starter solenoid and see if the noise quits.

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-Evan

If the glow plug relay was intermittently acting up would the NSS prevent the starter from activating unless the car happened to be shifted into N or P while the relay was malfunctioning? If so that may explain my issue.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine