'96 E300D lost power while driving...
 

Now it'll start just fine, rev up just dandy in neutral, haul ass down the road in reverse, but when put in any of the forward gears it will begin to sputter, run quite rough and then stall out.

Does the K40 interface between the transmission and the fuel controls?

Any ideas? I just threw a new fuel shutoff valve on there to no avail.

Thanks folks.

Bill

Sorry had to post again. Saw I was on post 666!!!

That 96 should have a 722.4 old school non electronic gearbox so the issue is likely mechanical

Not sure I follow. What about being in forward gears would cause fuel delivery issues that don't appear in neutral or reverse?

I think what tjts1 is trying to say is that your car has the 722.4 mechanically controlled transmission. The later 210s got the 722.6 computer controlled transmission.

I think he suspects that your transmission has internally failed and is dragging down your engine when it is placed in a forward gear.

No, that's not it. Once the stalling phenomenon has initiated moving the selector back to park, neutral or reverse does not cure it.

Shutting engine off and immediately restarting does though.

This is an electronic issue, I'm sure of that.

Reckon I need to refresh my memory about pulling codes off the CCU.

Thanks.

Have you checked the OBD2 for any stored or pending codes?

Incidentally, congrats on the nice high miles on both your cars.

Don't have a scanner. If I remember correctly, the codes can be read off the CCU. (Also, I think my '96 is OBD1)

I'll report back with my findings

Thanks. It's been fun and relatively trouble-free!!!

All 210s have OBDII since that had to be in place for the 96 model year per Federal law.

You will need an OBDII scanner to read Pxxx power train codes. The CCU can only read the Bxxx body codes. They used two different CAN buses and the CCU can only see the Body bus.

You can get a reader at HF or there is a decent one on Amazon that works for about $20. You need a reader that can do ISO9141 protocol.

I have one of the cheap ones from Amazon that lives in the glove box.

Roger that. I think the Advance near me has some affordable units. Thanks!

Status update: Got the cheapie scanner from HF. Absolutely will not connect to either of my diesel w210s!! (Trust me, I tried every trick I read on the internet to get it to connect! Connects and reads just fine to my Chevy work truck).

Started the car this am and made it all the way to the end of my street before the sputtering occurred. Drive just great prior to occurrence.

Restarted and backed up the street slowly to my house.

Noticed coolant smell and steam coming out from under the manifold - kinda right exactly where the fuel heater resides!!

Going to borrow a pro scanner from a mechanic friend in a bit.

Will report back.

Thanks for all the advise so far friends.

This is the scanner I have
Amazon.com: Autel MaxiScan MS300 CAN Diagnostic Scan Tool for OBDII Vehicles: Automotive

This is a first generation OBDII implementation using ISO9141 protocol. Apparently not all OBDII readers can access this. Newer cars use the CAN protocol.
The back story on this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics

Steam and coolant smell are indications of a problem not likely found by a scanner.