What some people will do for a 240D...
 

In a few days I will be getting on a bus to travel nearly 2000 miles to buy a 240D. 42 hours on a Greyhound!

No, I checked my pupils, blood pressure, and temperature---and everything seems to be in good order. But I do notice my pulse is beating a bit quicker!

I'm a little old for getting all excited about a new (26 year old) car, but for some strange reason I'm feeling better about getting this aging tank of a car than I felt getting into my new MG (a "few" years ago.)

The 240D looks great in pictures and description, has under 200K miles, 4 speed manual, manual windows, no rust, and straight body. That's about all I'll say right now---'cause I don't have the title just yet... and I wouldn't want anyone beating me to this gem. I hope I have the courage to get back on the bus if the car turns out to be a disappointment... NOT!

Looking forward to that RIDE home... ;)

Greyhound. Yikes
 

I've not had that courage... but having taken Amtrak and Airtran to faraway places to return home with those special deals I can relate to the excitement. Why should a few hundred (or thousand) miles stand in the way of you and that 'new' car.

Only once was I completely let down... should have known.. went to get a diesel Jetta, and it ran fine in the driveway but rather exploded 10 miles down the interstate... Never seen oil pressure drop and temp skyrocket so fast. took less time than for me to slow down. unreal. All indications were normal prior... but that was a donation anyway. What do you expect for free?

Latest aquisition was the 300D, which I flew to see my sister in DE to pick up. I had to replace a wheel bearing on Labor Day weekend before I drove it home, but it has not needed anything since! (besides shocks and ball joints and some minor rust repair and filters and oil change and.....)

Enjoy your adventure! (btw: I highly suggest checking Amtrak if convenient to you- their tiny 'rail sale' link on their website has some unbelievable deals! I went from Pittsburgh to Chicago for $11 last year! Plus, your taxes already pay for it!)

Cheers,
Kevin

Ahhh traveling to get a car, oh thats right I flew. Oh well it was the same nervousness and excitement just more expensive. I did then same for my E300D great feeling when you get there and all turns out to be the way it was advertised.

Just found that exact car...20 miles from home
 

A "maple yellow" 240D with 130k on the clock, near Mt. Vernon VA...a 45 minute drive.

Car looks like it is about six months old...not 22 years. Seats still firm, even cargo nets aren't stretched!

Crank windows, no sunroof, but aftermarket AMFMTAPE, AC, PS, PB.

Getting some work done to pass MD safety inspection, but even purchase price was too low to pass up. At some point want to compare this with my automatic 240 of almost ten years faithful service...there have been some surprises in comparing the two cars.

I think I might have one better.

Last spring I bought an old 190D engine on Ebay. The original plan was for the sellers to bring it with them as they were planning a trip to Dallas anyway. No problem. Free shipping is good. :D

Well, his wife took ill, and they never made it. They were planning for a September trip, and I was deep in the middle of house rennovations, and simply didn't have time to follow up further. Then I put myself in the hospital disposing of old methanol in the most stupid way imaginable. Now I'm out of commission for several weeks on that bit of idiot judgement.

Well, now I will finally be bringing home an engine that I bought for $70 bux last spring. I'm driving to north of Chicago to pick it up myself and bring it home. Why drive? I can get it myself cheaper than what the shipping companies want to haul it. :mad:

Basically, I'm looking at a 2,000 mile round trip just for one auto PART!! :eek:

OK,, there are about 300 guys calling greyhound right now and adding up distances and travel times to figure out what is 42 hours from you.... :D
42 hours to GET BACK... that would be incentive to " overlook" some puffery by the owner.... LOL
I have a 240d with straight body,manual trans, manual windows and no sunroof... so I understand that that is one of the few cars in the world which would warrant such a trip.
Just pick out some good reading material.... and a digital camera to take with you...
After you get there and secure it... do what some of the guys have done about posting your return route ... in case you need some help or just want to have coffee with people on the board.
Then , as you progress, just stop into a library once a day and give a position report....

Leathermang,

That sounds like a very social suggestion... I like stopping at libraries anyway! I'll use this thread to post my progress reports which, by the way, will be starting in your "general" geographic location... heh heh.

One problem I know I'm going to have (and I hope the only one...) is a flakey combination switch on the column that wants to switch between low and high beams---on its own. Owner said it recently went bad and offered to replace it, but I pointed out that I would probably arrive before the part came---so I will replace it when I get home. He said that he had no trouble driving the car at night by keeping a slight thumb pressure on it. I'm going to bring along a bit of duct tape (please stop laughing) and an assortment of rubber bands----with which I'm certain I can approximate "slight thumb pressure."

Other than that---and the obvious complication of never having driven a diesel engine vehicle ever before---it should be a very interesting trip! With some luck and good timing, I should be able to stop and pick up my younger daughter at her college to take her home for Thanksgiving---boy will she be surprised! My girls are used to seeing me driving an odd assortment of rough looking 4x4 beaters.

Be sure you can get used to the 240's shift...
 

It took a while for me to keep from bucking, lugging, stalling...

VERY important is the knowledge that "reverse" is achieved by lifting the shift lever UP and THEN pushing it into the usual reverse slot on a four-on-the-floor pattern.

One guy I knew bought a manual Benz from a lady who had forced the shift lever into reverse without pulling up on the knob...over an 8 year period of ownership.

Don't put gasoline in the tank. :D

Buy fuel when you find it, don't wait until you need it.

I am laughing at your Duct Tape idea because before I got to where you mentioned it I had already thought "Throttle spring Duct Taped to top of column".

My duct tape idea? Yes I'm sure that until I came along, duct tape was used only for taping ducts. Then one day I was divinely inspired to think that perhaps this sticky grey tape might also be useful in repairing unhinged combination switches. I hope I get credit for bringing duct tape up from the basement world of ducts and air conditioning technicians.

---

Think of how much of the world would simply fall apart if suddenly all the duct tape let loose at the same time. It would be dangerous to be out on the street...

Hehe...I know right where there's a pretty fair 240D (4-spd man, crank windows and no sunroof ). And it's no death march bus ride to go get it either. But, I think I'll wait till he paints it that Snowberry color before picking it up.

2000 miles on the Greyhound!?!? Wow!

I took about a 700 mile trip to Cleveland to buy a car and man, I smelled like a bum after the ride.

Last summer I bought a car in Pittsburgh, that time I found cheap airfare-- ahh..... much better.

Your ride back will be a comforting reward -- best of luck on the trip home. :)

I've done this five times and have some advice.

Don't sweat the little stuff. Here are some of the little things that bugged me upon seeing my cars close up:

Odometer not working after 10 miles
Speedometer not working after 20 miles
Door locks not working
Miss aimed headlights
Etc, etc.

You can fix the small stuff. Heck, with the help of the forum here you can fix anything.

I would absolutely make sure of two things:

Engine compression (oil usuage per 3k miles)
Tranny

I've traveled from my home in Michigan to these places for Ebay cars:

TX, VA, IN, KT, GA

Thanks,

Don

FWIW, I just spotted a 240D on eBay, a 1982 model supposedly with only 8700 miles on the speedometer. Buy it now for $22,500
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6329&item=2441725531
It will be interesting to see if this one ever breaks the reserve!

Dieseldiehard
1971 220 (gas) 4-spd manual 104041
1979 300TD w/ ’85 turbo engine 289560
1983 300D 237490
1985 300TD 206150

I need to fix my front gate so it will lock.

For those loooong trips
 

Get some books on tape. You can swap them for new books at any Cracker Barrel restaurant, or buy new ones at any WalMart.

Al you need is a cheapo cassette deck and a set of earphones. Great for bus or driving.

Roger that on the books on cassette. Listened to a Western from Houston, TX through a couple of states. 100 mph and Louis L'Mour

Don

When I go to... uh... that other state... to get my new car, I will bring a small stash of CDs... It seems the radio was replaced with a CD player. I think I can live without a radio.

Another swap that the previous owner made was a clock for the tachometer... THAT I'm not sure I can live with. I can do just fine driving down the road not knowing what time---or even what day---it is. But I think I really want to know how fast that diesel is twirling around.

Did the the 240D originally come with a tach, are they easy to come by in junkyards, and is it run by flex cable or what? Yeah, I know this is one of those "small things" that I should overlook when buying a car, but like many of you, I would feel that driving any manual transmission car without a tach is only slightly better than driving blindfolded.

Are there aftermarket tachs (for diesels) that could be mounted is some other available place? Actually though, I think I'd rather have the tach mounted right where it belongs---and mount a clock on my wrist.

I'll have to wait to see what the story is... it could be that the tach drive (wherever that is) was busted, the dealer quoted some outrageous price to repair it, and the owner just put a clock in its place.

I figure some of you have a pretty good theory of what happened with the tach... any thoughts?

The 240D's never came with a tach miraculously. However, the 300D Turbos did, and they never came with a stick. So...MB made a dumb call on that one.

How strange. The owner told me that his grandfather had installed the clock. He sent a picture of the dash---and I thought that the clock looked like it really belonged right there and mached up with everthing else.

I just found a thread on this board that deals with the problem:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/71806-tachometer-pickup.html?highlight=240D+RPM

How do you guys with the stock arrangement tell if you're over-reving the engine?

The dots on the speedometer tell you the limit in each gear.

And what would you guys be willing to do for a factory OM 616 turbo with a ZF TX-18 5 speed from the European 300D?

Yea, I spotted that on eBay earlier this week, and made a thread about it in for sale. I would kill for that car, but not at that price, and its not an automatic (my Saturn is a manual... if I ever get my 240D I want it to be an automatic).
~D.J.~

Hey D.J., welcome to Mercedeshop!!!!!

Thanks for tellin me about this place.. I have learned a load so far.. I have been lurking for about a week and a half now.
~D.J.~

Dieselpower:
I've shipped a sailboat engine from Florida to NY (about 500lbs) with Forward Air for $125. Check them out. Much cheaper than truck freight. You have to be near one of their depots. They are located near major airports.

I took Amtrak from Denver to LA to pick up my 409d last May (24hrs). It needed a couple of days of work repairing a leaky radiator and getting new tires before I could drive home but it was worth it. Camped at Huntingdon Beach while doing the work so I can't complain about that.

Give us the route back, city by city so if you need assistance you could get volunteers here. Have you asked anyone on the board to check it out before you take the trip. If someone's close by I'm sure they'd be polite enough not to steal it away from you and give you an independent opinion before travelling that far.

One thing I know I'm going to encounter with this "new" 240D is an oil change en route home. It's coming from a southern climate to a northern climate--and it's got 30W oil in it right now. I don't think it wise to make the switch to synthetic in the midst of a long journey in an unfamiliar car. I've been reading some of the "oil threads" on this board, and I sure don't want to rekindle that ongoing debate here. Whatever the owners manual recommends for dino winter oil is what I'll put in--probably at a (Gasp!) Jiffy Lube---but I will not let them touch ANYTHING else on the car--(too many bad memories of my first and only experience watching them pour windshield fluid into the coolent cannister... "Don't get so upset sir, that won't hurt a thing..."

Probably will have to shop around some for a filter. With a little luck I might find a little independent shop that deals with MB and can take care of the whole detail.

-----
Kerry-- nice to learn there's another sailor here. Some years ago I put our family of four aboard our Nimble 20 and cruised for 13 months...upper Ohio River to Florida Keys to Chesapeake Bay. Made our family very close.

I'd like to hear more about your sailing adventure. Perhaps a post on the open discussion? My sailboat is on Lake Ontario between Niagara Falls and Rochester so that kind of cruise is in my future at some time.

I'd take a filter with me on the bus. I flew across the Atlantic to pick up my 307d in London in the dead of winter. I'd only seen a 15 yr old picture of the vehicle but trusted the seller. The owner had already moved to Spain so I picked up the keys for a newsagent in the nearest town. I think the taxi driver thought I was nuts. Carried lots of tools. The airline inspectors must have thought I was a terrorist. The next time I flew over I had oil filters an oil changing plastic bucket and a water pump. Put all my socks and underwear in the oil change container for the trip.

Well, I LIKE the 240's clock...
 

even though the clocks in BOTH of my 240s are inert, for now.

I've never felt the need for a tach in any stick auto I've driven, always been a matter of "feel".

BUT...If one MUST have a tach, can the tach/clock/etc "dial" be swapped out of a 300D into a 240? The clock part of this instrument in my 300CD works...quartz...even though the tach only works off and on.

If one MUST have a tach, can the tach/clock/etc "dial" be swapped out of a 300D into
 

If you want to swap a newer clock/tach instrument into the cluster on a 240D, it can be done. I posted some stuff on this under the subject on another thread here at the Autoforum, check it out.

I have successfully swapped a tach into a previously non-turbo car, but the engine I also installed had the factory bracket that mounts the small inductive pickup unit.
Everything from a wrecking yard would cost around $50 (more or less, depending on the seller).
Dieseldiehard
1971 220 (gas) 4-spd manual 104041
1979 300TD w/ ’85 turbo engine 289560 (and tach instrument)
1983 300D 237490
1985 300TD 206150

Gotta go pick up my latest purchase, a 1976 300D for $100

I would like to know what the "most stupid way imagineable" was to dispose of old methanol. Drank some with the morning coffee?

Tom

find an independent close-by
 

if you can avoid the quick-lube nightmare, please do. I've put new air filters on my car and two days later been stuck using jiffylube before a long trip- They insisted the filter was years old. I pulled it out and said, "Look, I KNOW it is ok. I put it in THIS WEEK" to which they snif and try to act like they are right. This has happened twice at different places. They also try to sell every type of engine treatment and once put stuff in without my consent. Complained about "Severe oil leaks" and "amazingly high mileage (150k)" on my '87 volvo. DUH! I only went to these places because it was winter, I had to take a long trip the next day, and I didn't want to pull the '67 volvo out of the garage and into the snow. With the help of the board, I'm sure you can find an independent that will also be able to spot any potential problems before you embark on the LONG trip home.

Now, where exactly is this car located? I'll help find an independent shop for you... Heck, I'll take it over and have it looked at and drive it home for you too... :D

Seriously though, the owner should have a shop right?

Good Luck!
Kevin

I'll put it this way. I assumed that two year old methanol, stuff which is supposed to be "no good" after six weeks, would no longer be exteremely volatile, and proceeded to attempt to dispose of in an already lit burn barrel, container and all. The container never made it into the barrel, and I got three weeks off of work, and approximately $8,000 dollars in medical bills (thank god for insurance) as a result.

Yes, I do feel lucky to have seen my 33rd birthday last week. :eek:

Whew! I hope things get better for you about that.
~D.J.~

This happened almost two months ago. Other than some dicolouration on my right arm, you'd be hard pressed to notice that anything happened.

ROAD TRIP! Bringing the 240D home now...
 

Some good news: I'm on the road now--driving my "new" 26 year old 240D back to West Virginia. I bought it yesterday afternoon in El Paso, Texas (after a 42 hour ordeal on a Greyhound bus.

I am in Roswell, New Mexico right now--at their very nice public library. I will be driving at a fairly slow pace the following route:

Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK on I-40

then I-44 thru Springfield, MO to St. Louis

then I-70 thru Indianapolis, IN

I-70 to Columbus, OH and hanging around for a bit to pick up my daughter at college... and then on to Wheeling, WV on I-70. I live south of there in Jacksonburg, WV.

----

The car is in pretty good shape, no rust, good body with a couple small chips and dings. Sure enough... the odometer is acting erratic (but the speedometer continues). The car has a very believable 180K miles on it---verified by comp[lete and recent mechanical and maintenance work. Four brand new Michelins.

Now for the not so good news... it has a noise that is very similar to a "ping" that gas cars sometimes experience. The car came from East Coast recently to the high elevation of New Mexico---I'm hoping this might have something to do with the "pingling rattle" I hear at times. The car goes like the devil at 70 MPH----very smooth!

Another annoying thing is the throttle which seems to have about a mile of play somewhere in the linkage. I press the accellerator pedal a good 30% travel before the engine starts to respond! This is not a fun way to drive---but I can get home I think. Shifting up from a standstill is a bit embarrassing with all the lurching. At speed, it's fine. I'm not tempted to mess with an unfamiliar system on the highway...

I re-aimed the headlights last night---neat system: no tools needed!

The car has 30W oil in it. Bought some 10W40 and a changing pan... and will do a change once I locate a filter along the way.
Poured a little Marvel Mystery Oil in the fuel tank a bit ago.

OK... bertter get back on the road... maybe will meet some of you guys along the way. Will check in at a library somewhere up ahead.

Please add any thoughts you might have about the ping and throttle situation.

Bye, bye.

PS: the car is a beautiful deep red burgundy color.

rattle and ping
 

Diesels make a rattling sound like a gas engine when you have too hot a plug or two low an octane fuel and shut them off. This is known (in gas engines) as preignition, or "Dieseling". I imagine that you know that Diesels always rattle a lot. At 26 years, your car has probably lost its insulation blanket, and therefore you will hear a louder sort of rattle than the first owner did way back in Seventy-Seven when Gerry Ford and Jimmy Carter were president (depending on the date).

When a Diesel makes a really LOUD rattle, this is called "nailing". You might try a recommended dose of Power Source, avaialable at fine truckstops everywhere, and/or do a "Diesel purge" as mentioned in this Forum.

Technically a Diesel does not have a "throttle", but this sounds like a linkage problem, and can probably be corrected by a simple adjustment. Make sure all the screw-on things connecting the accelerator to the motor are screwed on firmly. I once had one come unscrewed on my 300D. I was able to reconnect it with a humble piece of bailing wire.

Sounds like a nice car. Have a pleasant and safe trip home.

Those books on tape are also available on CD's, and are sold in truckstops and available in the Cracker Barrel, in the event that you find yourself tired of your CD's and/or are outside the range of listenable radio.

I can remember thinking the same thing about the throttle linkage on my 77 300d when I first bought it. I have not done anything about it and I don't notice it anymore. Either it is normal for the vehicles or we both have a similar problem. There have been postings in the past about a rubber part right at the firewall in the engine compartment than fails and causes problems in the linkage similar to what you describe.
I don't hear any unusual pinging in my MB diesels when at altitude so it is either the normal diesel sound or something specific to your vehicle. There should be an altitude compensating device on top the IP to take care of changes in altitude.

Good luck on the drive and enjoy the Great Plains. I'm heading down to the Colorado/Oklahoma border at Thanksgiving. Love the sense of metaphysical emptiness out there.

Throtle Play
 

My parents 240D, purchased new in 83, has the exact same "problem" and has had it since they drove it off the dealers lot. I have noticed the same thing on several other 240Ds that I have driven. Perhaps it's normal???

don't panic when your 240D start slowing down when you start going up hill
 

Driving a diesel (turbo as well as non turno) one should learn to time any up-hill encounters by trying to hit the grade at as high a speed as you can (within safe limits). If there is lots of traffic, all congested and bunched up as it does, this won't work, but I have learned to pull back when I see a hill approaching, find a lane with less traffic (if there are more than one lane) then accelerate before coming to the grade so the engine is fully engaged and you won't lose revs as quickly this way. Of course if its a long hill you will wind up in 3rd or even 2nd gear anyway.
Using a block heater at motels can be a problem. I carried a long extension cord one winter on one trip cross country and always asked for a downstairs room near the parking area, and once left a window open to run the cord out to the car (brr!) and prayed that no one tripped over the cord. As I recall one motel had an outside plug available so I used that too.
If electric cars ever get popular this will change! People will need to recharge their batteries overnight. We will have to wait and see if we ever get to that!
Dieseldiehard

Hey everyone!

Thanks much for all the information. I'm in the Tulsa, Oklahoma public library right now.... so if this car was going to poop out on me I think it would have done so somewhere back in New Mexico.

I did a pit stop at the back of an Advance Auto Parts---changed my filter and oil (to 10W40 for those who like to argue the merits of such numbers.)

Antifreeze checks OK.

No sign of a block heater. Car started up fairly easy at 4AM today---my apologies to everyone else in that motel!

Will try the Power Souce stuff at the next truck stop.

Gotta make tracks...

Gene

This is more interesting (and real) than those TV shows where people chase all over getting hints as to where to go next in order to beat the challenging party.
Stay tuned here on Shopforum for the next episode of "Morgantruce and the 240D saga".

Dieseldiehard

Just got home. Very tired.

Score another one for courage, persistance and a 240d....
Glad you made it .

Congratulations!
 

.

I have mixed feelings. Glad your safetly home but it doesn't sound as though there was enough of an adventure. No breakdowns in the middle of nowhere outside a public library. Oh well.

Hi, I am glad you made it with no problems!
Say, did you park up close to them librarys? They might not like the diesel clatter if you did and left the engine running to keep the car warm (Oh, maybe not yet, it isn't that cold there!)
Dieseldiehard
1971 220 4-spd manual 104646
1979 300TD w/ ’85 turbo engine 290820
1983 300D 238890
1985 300TD 207980

Hi guys-

Just bought my first diesel MB, a 1981 240D and stumbled across this thread. Hoping to go pick it up on Friday, a little nervous. The drive home is only 125 miles, but it's been a *long* while since I've driven stick, but hopefully, it'll be less eventful than I'm anticipating it will be.

Getting excited about the car.

To "95"...operating instructions U need 2 know...
 

...just got MY first stick 240D...there's a little operating quirk I mentioned earlier in this thread you might not be aware of...

...when you want to put the car in REVERSE, you grab the shifter lever and LIFT IT STRAIGHT UP before moving the lever in the gate to where reverse is.

When I first drove this car, it bucked and stalled for the first few minutes until I got used to it...a buddy of mine who drove it for the first time last night had no problems.

ONE OTHER NOTE...get in the habit of setting the emergency brake when parked or on a hill...my auto MB's have such an awesome parking brake gear I rarely use the hand brake.

GOOD LUCK...fun, almost perfect, little cars.