I did a fuel purge and repalced both of the fuel filters, the vehicle idles a lot better now but the engine still shakes a little. I am going to try adjusting the rack damper and see if that helps a little. I also bought some fuel additive and added it to the tank to stop any algae growth and clean the injectors a bit more.

After putting back in the window switches I found that only the driver's window works. I checked the fuses and they all looked good, I replaced all of them not long ago. I took the switches apart and cleaned them a while back so i know that they're clean. I wonder if there is something wrong with the lock or if I might have put back something wrong?

I also put in a new stock antenna and found that the connector in my car had been taken apart by the previous owner when he put in an aftermarket antenna. Luckily the antenna I bought had the male and female connectors; unfortunately the cable colors don't match up the ones in my car.

I replaced the transmission filter last night. I was surprised by how little fluid was in the pan, I don't think I got more than a quart out of it. The fluid wasn't too bad, a little dark but no burnt smell or metal shavings so that was a plus. I cleaned the outside of the pan, it looks like it'd been leaking for a while, there was oily residue all over it and it was caked with dirt. I carefully cleaned the inside and replaced the plug washer, I cleaned the edges really well before putting on the pan gasket. The filter was held in place by three phillips screws, and the pan was held by 6 bolts; the process was pretty straight forward.

The transmission took about 3.5 quarts to get it back to normal level and I was able to take it in for a drive. The old girl got back on the road! She shifted a little hard but it's been 5 years since it's last voyage, I'll give her time to break in that new filter, I'll tweak the vacuum a little when I get a chance. The engine was idling better today, I adjusted the rack damper bolt one third of a turn but it didn't make any difference, once she warmed up the shaking got better.

Now I just need to replace the exhaust downpipe that has a leak, maybe I can take it in to get fixed, I'll call up some muffler shops tonight and find out. overall it was a good day for my Mercedes.

How are the motor mounts? On an old car like this, the originals (assuming they are) have probably deteriorated from both use and age.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Seńor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

The motor mounts are in good shape, the guy I bought it from had just replaced them. I verified this had been done when I raised the engine to replace the oil cooler lines. The more I run the engine the smoother she's getting, maybe she just needed to get that new oil all though her system to smooth out. The glow plugs are taking a while to warm up prior to start up, perhaps I need to take a look at them and make sure they're al working as they should.

Last night I finished installing the antenna, the diagram I had posted before didn't help so I used my trusty 12v power tester. I found that the light blue wire on the car was the constant power, the brown wire was the ground, the dark blue wire was the trigger, and the two black wires were either "up" or "down". On the antenna the light blue wire was the power, brown was the ground, light green w/yellow stripe was the trigger and two light brown wires were "up" or "down".

Fortunately the pins on the car were still present and I had purchased an antenna with both connectors, the owner was kind enough to leave as much wire as possible on the car's connector when he removed the antenna so I just took apart the connector, fit the pins in, and closed her up.

At first I had a hard time getting power to the trigger wire from the car, then I remembered that the power antenna wire had to be connected. I found a wire coming from the back of the power antenna button down to the stereo that I had left unconnected. My stereo is an older JVC model that didn't have a power antenna wire so i connected it to the "remote" wire, it worked just fine. Once I turned on the stereo all of the wires for the antenna came to life, the antenna now goes all the way up and I am able to adjust it.

I also took apart the license plate lights, they were full of crud and completely opaque, even if the light bulbs handn't been burned out, I don't see how light could've shone through the lens. I soaked the lenses in some CLR wile I used a small file to clean the contacts and scrape the old gasket off of the car's surface. I cleaned the lights using a Mr. Clean magic eraser, they looked like new. I used some clear silicone caulking to make a gasket for the lights to keep moisture out. I put on a light bead on the lens and let it completely dry before I reinstalled them, the lights work great!

Finally i worked on my power windows a bit, once I put my center console back on, I put connected the light switches and found that the driver's side window was the only one working. I checked the fuses and even replaced them to make sure they were working and still only one window worked. I swapped the window switches and found that the front passenger window works but not with it's switch; the rear windows are not working. I took apart the switches, cleaned them and lightly filed the contacts; it was the end of the night so i didn't connect them, maybe tonight I'll find out if that worked.

I put in a new hazard light but found it would only work some of the time, I checked the harness and found that it had been spliced at one time. I fixed the faulty connection and it works fine now. I cleaned the window switch terminals as well as the connectors with some electrical connector cleaner in a can I found at Autozone and they started working! It was great to have working windows on the car again.

I am working on the locks now, but that's another thread. Once the locks are ready, I hope to get the side trim on the car, I took it off a while back because most of the grommets that held it in place were coming out. I want to clean the area really well and then polish and wax it before putting the trim back on. I wanted to take the car to the car wash but without the trim I risk getting water in between the doors. Once the trim is in I'll give it it's first bath in almost 5 years and then start thinking of a good upholstery shop.

I wanted to buy a kit from World Upholstery but the cost of the kit ($600) plus my labor (assuming I get it done right) didn't make sense when an upholstery shop can match the carpet color and do everything including the rear deck for $400 in one day. I wish I could keep it completely stock but I think this after market carpet will look really nice.

They always shake a bit at idle. The later engines (~83+) had a rack damper with a much stiffer damper spring. I took the one off my old 85 injection pump and put on my 84 car, but didn't notice a difference (fully screwed in). The two types are the same length. The new design has a gold coating.

The worst part of the shaking is the air cleaner. It tends to hit a vibrational "natural resonance" at certain idle speeds, which helps eventually crack the metal bracket. Those brackets used to cost ~$100, but reproductions now ~$16. The rubber mounts between the air cleaner and bracket also break, but real cheap. 1985 CA cars have a different frame mounted air cleaner. I may try to fit mine to the 83 engine now in my 85. But the filter costs $45. Another approach might be adding dampers to the manifold mounted bracket.

A quick way to judge the engine condition is to remove the PCV plastic tube and note how much ring blow-by comes out the hole. Leave the oil fill cap in. The used 83 engine I just installed looks new inside (peering through the oil cap) and shows no blow-by at all, so maybe a recent rebuild and I lucked out (from PickNPull via craigslist). My 84 engine shows noticeable puffing out the little PCV hole (less noticeable from the larger oil fill cap). That is probably more typical. My son took it back to college so I can't test more. To test further, get the $35 (sale) diesel compression test kit from Harbor Freight. However, must remove injectors, which isn't trivial. If so, plan on having the injectors pop tested, maybe 2 wk downtime.

You're right about the air cleaner shaking all over the place. My damper bolt is gold in color and looks relatively new so I think it has the later version, I've adjusted it but it doesn't make a difference in the engine idle.

I took the breather hose off the air cleaner with the cap on and there isn't much blow by, I think the engine is in pretty good shape. I don't think my exhaust system isn't in the best of shape, perhaps the engine is lacking some back pressure to run at it's best.

Today I took the old girl on the highway for the first time in 4-5 years, the transmission shifted a little hard at slow speed but did great over 60mph. I found a set of Mercedes wheels and snow tires on Craigslist for $100 bucks I needed them to get around in the snow. I plan am getting the car inspected this week and registered so I can make it my daily driver.

Before going home I took the car to the car wash to clean up some of the caked on dirt it accumulated over years of sitting out in the driveway and the garage. On the way home i noticed some water had gotten in the cabin on both driver's and passenger foot wells right in corners nearest to the fender.

I am going to look in the cowls to make sure crud isn't blocking any of the drains. As wells as the drains in near the hood hinges, I want to make sure that I don't have water problems before I take the old girl to get re upholstered.

I drove the car to work today and the shifts from 1 to second is rough, the fluid level is where it's supposed to be, I let the car warm up before driving it too. The 3/1 valves were replaced, so were the ALDA lines and the banjo fittings were cleaned thorougly....I just got new hoses for the 3/1 valves witha guide on how to connect them properly, I'll do that tonight. Then I think I'll check the transmission modulator to make sure it's functioning properly before I move on the the transmission linkage.

The trannie fluid change was good to do ,but ,in not draining the torque converter your changing the filter was doing very little to get at most of that old fluid .Their is a little site opening at the bottom of the trannie were you can see the TC ,its at the most forward part of the trans. It is here were youll see the drain plug to open and drain the TC. iT REQUIRES A torqs wrench ,I believe a 7mm.Ive been successful taking a wrench at the power steering pump to turn the motor until the bolt shows itself ,it takes 2 people ,1 to site and 1 to turn . If you drain this now and refill with measuring the amount taken out it could be beneficial since you havent driven the car very far .Again ,its not terrible service ,just not a full service required to keep that trannie going for miles and miles to come.
My method is as follows, I make sure the TC drains for an hr ,then rebolt the plug ,undo the trans pan ,let drain an hr, undo the filter ,youll get a good drop of fluid here ,I let drip for 30 minutes .I have 7 qrts ready at the refill point ,I fill with 5 qrts then start checking at the stick ,after 6 qrts,(if it takes that much) Ill start it up and fill to specs.

I thought about draining the torque converter but really didn't want to mess with it, I'm going to take it in for a tranmission flush and change out all of the fluid. I bought new hoses for the 3/1 valves and a guide to make sure they were done right... I had the hoses all sorts of messed up, I replaced the old hoses and connected them the right way. I took out the car and it shifted very nicely... I can feel the gear changes but not like before.
Yesterday when I went to start my car for work the glow plug light didn't light up when I turned the key... I tried it again in case it was a fluke, still no light. I had to go to work so I started the car after about 15 seconds of waiting for the plugs to warm up... it took a few times and some white smoke to get the old girl started. Once I got to work I started her up again, this time the light came on and started on the first try. After work the light wouldn't come on again and I had to force her to start.

I checked my glow plug connections and found that one of the ground wires was very loose, I tightened it up and went on to check the glow plugs and relay. Using my voltimeter I put the negative prove on the negative battery terminal, disconnected the glow plug wire that goes to the relay and checked each of the five pins for power, they al came back with 12.49, then I checked the relay. I turned the key to where the light came on and checked every one of the pins on the relay.. these too came back alright.

I changed the voltimeter to ohms and checked the glow plug resistance by proving each of the pins on the glow plugs, they all came back at 0.3 or 0.4, less than 1 is acceptable according to the write up on diesel giant: Mercedes Diesel Glow Plug Repair , so I'm guessing that the problem lies in the glow plugs themselves.


I took out the glow plug where the ground had been loose, the glow plug was fairly clean, no excess carbon build up. Upon further inspection I saw that many of the glow plugs were just a little different... it looks like the previous owner used different brands of glow plugs as one would go out. The ones I took out were NKG and Autolite, I am not a fan of either of these companies so I ordered a set of Bosch glow plugs. I should've checked the plugs at the beginning of my restoration.

I put everything back together and the car started on the first try, even the engine idled a little better but not as smooth as I'd like them to be. I think that bad ground was causing some of the hesitation. The new plugs are supposed to come in next week, I hope to be able to install them as soon as I get them.

I recieved the new set of Bosch glow plugs I ordered and got to work installing them. I removed the fuel lines and some of the vacuum lines to get better access, but even then it was still a tight fit on the 3rd and 5th glow plug.

The removal was pretty straight forward, I removed the lines connected to the plugs, the previous owner had all sorts of different nuts holding these lines, some chrome some black.... then I removed the glow plugs themselves. The #1 and #2 glow plugs were pretty clean, the #3 has some carbon buildup even though I had cleaned it not long ago. the #4 and #5 had quite a bit of carbon build up. Some of the plugs were autolite, others NKG and one didn't have a brand, I couldn't tell who the manufacturer was.

I reamed the chambers and cleaned as much carbon as I could with a small brass brush. The #3, #4, and #5 glow plugs went in pretty easily but the #1 and #2 plugs didn't want to go in. I slowly turned the engine via the power steering bolt, and little by little the glow plugs went in; I don't know why it worked, I just figured the piston was close to the plug and had created some pressure not allowing it to go in.

Once the glow plugs went in i took a look at the wiring harnesss to the plugs, it was brittle and cracked all over the place. I bought some new 10 gauge wire and copper connectors that could handle the power and fixed it, the last thing I need is a short or an engine fire. I put the harness back in place and bolted the connectors back on the glow plugs using new nuts I ordered from Mercedes Source.

I went to the start the engine... it didn't want to turn over, I had forgotten to prime the fuel system. Once the system was primed, the engine turned over on the first start. I noticed less smoke coming out of the exhaust and a smoother idle. I took it out for a drive on the high way, I noticed a faster smoother acceleration.

The engine still shakes a little....I'm starting to run out of ideas or things to fix to stop this problem. I did fix the air cleaner assembly, it was shaking like crazy... I tightened the bolts on the mounting bracket.

5 year old fuel? Diesel is stable for a little more than two...

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (113k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
1993 300SD (291k)
1993 300D 2.5T (338k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (265k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K)
1985 300D (233K)

Yeah, I drained the fuel tank and disposed of more than 15 gallons of diesel. When I cleaned out the tank it didn't look too bad, the screen had some sludge but nothing big. The whole fuel system purged and the filters were changed out before I tried starting the engine.

I haven't been able to rebuild my injectors, I had a hard time finding a socket that was deep enough to get them out, finally I special ordered one from Sears that seems like it will work. I haven't gotten into it but I hope it work and I don't have to have to buy a specialty tool.