'85 300SD Work completed

[nazrat]

Well, almost. I had some really big plans for spending the weekend working on my Trooper and my sister's 1985 300SD but we didn't finish with the 300sd.

We spent most of the time changing the timing belt, water pump, ball joints, thermostat, belts, coolant, tie rod adjusters and spring spacers on my Trooper. It has 191k miles, so those things were due.

On her car we managed to reconnect the vacuum hoses (all 5 or 6 that were just laying on the fender liner), clean the intake manifold port for the alda, adjust the alda, fix her AC and recharge it, reconnected the overboost protection valve, changed the PS and AC belts, adjust the parking brake, "fix" the egr vacuum line, change her oil, and filter, change air and diesel filters, and replace the (missing) shifter bushings.

Despite the fact that we spent too much time on my Trooper and not enough on her car, it runs much better. Idle is smoother, and acceleration feels better (16 second 0-60 time). We didn't get to adjust the valves, check the injection timing, replace motor and tranny mounts, or glueing the wood back onto the dash. She will be up in my area in a few weeks so hopefully we can get that stuff done then.

It is really satisfying working on a Mercedes. The enginers designed things to be worked on. My Isuzu isn't bad, and the Mercedes isn't always untuitive, but if you spend a minute looking at something, you'll figure out how the engineer in Germany wanted some process to take place. The AC compressor adjustment is one of those items. Once figured out it makes sense. I can't say the same about the power steering adjustment on my Trooper (which requires 3 hands and a socket through one of the holes in the power steering pulley and a 1/2" drive breaker bar)

Thanks for the help and How-To's from everyone in the forum!

-Tad

[RockinWagin]

UH, you changed the timing belt but did not adjust valves? Must ask WHY?

[nazrat]

It has hydraulic lash adjusters, so no valve adjustment is needed.

She had her valves adjusted on her 300SD last summer, and she's right at the next adjustment, whereas I was at 130k on a 60k mile belt change (Previous owner had very detailed records and was "up to date on maint. - I went through them and it hadn't been done since the first 60k change - it has 191k now).

So valves and injection timing on her's is next.

-Tad