Just bought an 84 300TD, some questions
 

Hey guys. My fiancee, a good friend, and I drove a rental car 1000 miles to go buy an 84 300TD with 160k miles and almost no rust. It was insane and a lot of fun, ultimately after a few annoying break downs the car made it home like a champ.

I can fix anything on an older Subaru, but working on these makes me feel like a baby, so much to learn.

I'm sure I'll have a bunch more questions as time progresses, but the major things that are stumping me now are the door locks and the shut down valve.

Door locks: The key will not lock or unlock either door. The door can be locked from the inside just fine. Upon removing the door card on the driver side, it looks like there's a missing linkage and a broken plastic thing that turns when you turn the key. The broken parts are not inside the door, which is even weirder.
Where do I even begin to look for parts to fix this? I can take a picture of it, if that helps.
(just to be clear, this has nothing to do with vacuum stuff, I'll deal with that later)


Engine shutoff valve:
Where in the world do you buy these suckers? I can't find them for sale ANYWHERE! Just a used one on ebay.
I know it's the valve, it won't build or hold any vacuum with my hand pump. The line coming out of the dash that goes to the valve has good vacuum with the key off.

You can get the shutoff valve right here on Peachparts.

I can't see it - can you find it for him?

Bugger don't worry - I think I've found it

I think the vacuum box is 0000702053

Pelican Parts - European Automotive Parts and Accessories - Porsche • BMW • Mercedes • Volkswagen • Audi • Saab • Volvo • MINI

As for the window parts - well - picture away and then you can do a WTB ad in the correct(!) section here to see if someone like hogweed can help you out!

Thanks for the replies. It's pouring rain so I haven't been in the mood to take the door apart...
A friend of mine found a 300d sedan in a junkyard that's fairly complete. So next weekend I'm gonna take a trip down there and pillage some bits and pieces. Being a northern car it's completely rusted out, but the dash and interior are in great shape. Will a sedan dash work in a wagon?

Also I'm gonna be naughty and pull the rear shocks because my SLS is acting up. I'm doing a lot of research there just can't afford the parts. So after I stop being broke from buying a car I'll put the hydro stuff back in and get it working.
I used to ride my Subarus on the bump stops because I loaded so much stuff in the trunk, it's gonna be cool to have it auto level!

The sedan dash will work in a wagon. Be sure the year of the sedan is the same as your wagon as the texture of the vinyl on the dash changed around 1980. If you need instructions on removing and replacing the dash let me know and I can send you a great set of written instructions that I wrote several years ago (I have done the dash several times on several 123 cars). The door lock bits from the sedan will also fit your wagon (front doors).

^^^I agree (but perhaps your dash instructions would be best in a thread?)

Dash instructions would be awesome!

One more question about these cars. I've found tons of fantastic vacuum diag. articles. The problem is that I don't know what all the acronyms mean or where all the stuff is. ALDA, VSV, etc, etc. Is there a post somewhere that has a list of all the vacuum parts, what they do, and where to find them? Without that information, it's really hard to follow a step by step guide.
I did fix the vacuum line in charge of making the trans not slam really hard between gears.

Another where do I find it/what's it called question. Under the black box on the rocker cover there are two little piston things with levers over them actuated by the throttle and have vac lines going to the tranny control thing on the injection pump. The plastic tab things were worn down completely, I glued some plastic card material to them and it improved downshifting without having to mash the accelerator. Where can I get the proper parts?

I have fixed everything that exists on a Subaru and was getting bored with them, this car is a lot of fun and for the most part fairly easy to work on. Tons of little issues, but I'm picking away at them in the order they annoy the piss out of me :)

FYI, you'll need different springs if you're going with plain shocks in the rear. Sedan ones will be saggy, but they could work for a temporary solution. The SLS Conversion (website) ones would be a more permanent (but totally reversible) solution and they work great.

-Rog

Yea, I don't really wanna spend that much money. The big issue I have right now is the high pressure line. I unscrewed the fittings from the old leaky line, got all the weird little things out (wtf are those for???) and put them in a new high pressure line. Hose clamped it good and tight but it still blows off. I need to either braze on hose barbs or just NPT fittings and get some hydraulic hose. But then I won't have the weird little plastic things in the line. So dunno there. Right now I just have the line going into the top of the reservoir so the pump is happy. It just circulates the fluid around and around forever.

I really want the SLS to work because it's wicked cool and I think all of the weirdo bits and pieces under the back of the car are in good shape. So it SHOULD work, we'll see :)

I should have the info you need to properly install the little thingies back where they belong... And yes, you definitely need hydraulic line. Just reuse the original fittings as they disassemble and you should be good... There is a how-to somewhere on here...

I am unable to post the dash instructions but if you PM me your address I will be glad to USPS a copy to you. On your SLS system the rear shocks hardly ever fail or leak. The common issues are the accumulators which are around $120 each and the height control valve which can be rebuilt or the pump which can also be rebuilt. There used to be a forum member that sold kits for rebuilding the height control valve but he is no longer doing so. A valve rebuild kit is available from the Classic Center in Irvine (thomas.hanson@mbusa.com). A kit to rebuild the pump is available from George Murphy (perfanalysis.com)with the Mercedes Benz Club of America. Both the valve and pump are relatively easy to rebuild if you have mechanical experience and basic tools. I also have instructions for rebuilding both if you need them. The instructions for rebuilding the valve are posted on this forum.

I pretty much have the SLS system sorted out, new accumulators, level set, etc. It's AMAZING, I had at least 400lbs of junk in the trunk and 3 adults in the car this weekend. Loaded up, fired up the engine and the thing just came up to ride height. MAGIC. My subarus would have been riding on the stops for the whole trip.

I should probably rebuild the level valve and pump as a matter of preventative maintenance, same goes for the rear lines to the shocks. They aren't leaking but should be done so they don't blow up when there's a lot of load in the car. Overall I'm really enjoying the thing, getting all the issues slowly killed and turning it into a nice driver :)

If the rear of the car sinks down after a day or so the likely culprit is the height control valve. They can leak internally and you will never see a drop of fluid from them. The accumulators have a pencil test. Disconnect the hydraulic line from the accumulator and stick in the eraser end of a pencil. Gently probe the diaphram inside. If the pencil goes all the way through you have a ruptured diaphram. Another test is when removing the hydraulic line you see a substance that looks like shaving cream that also means the diaphram has ruptured. I have some spare used height control valves. If you want one for free to rebuild off the car as a spare just send me your address. Bill Whitmore