The wife's '85 123 would not start Saturday. I jump started it and drove it to where I bought a new battery about 18 months ago.

The battery showed a low charge but tested O.K. and the alternator,(new)checked out fine. We shrugged our shoulders and I drove off.

Today, It would not start again, what could be the problem? Help please!

Is it doing anything when you try to start, make any noise, clicks etc? Do any of the other electricals cease to function.

If no noise of any type, and the other electricals (lights, radio, buzzers) work, it could be the shifter bushings, neutral start switch or even corroded connections. spjohns1 recently posted that he was having difficulty on his 300D, and cleaning the connections at the relay or junction block cured the problem. I don't remember if it was in Tech Help or the Diesel forum.

Check out his post

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/tech-help/15259-83-300d-turbo.html

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the prompt reply. It will groan (turn over)a couple of times like it want's to start,but just won't catch. Lights and acc's work,although weak.

Battery terminals are clean and secure.

In the link I posted, there is a message about near the bottom discussing cleaning the starter replay terminals/connections. On spjohns1's, apparently just the slightest bit of discoloration/corrosion was enough to interrupt the flow of energy to the starter. Cleaning those connections seems to have cured the problem.

Danka

I would have the glow plug relay checked for an intermittent short.

BTW - It's "Danke"

Chuck

I WOULD CHECK FOR A DRAGGING STARTER

Did you charge the battery after the first time? Did you check the water/acid level in each of the cells? Did the battery place do a load test on the battery? If a jump gets it going, it is probably a low battery or possibly corrosion on the terminals. Clean the terminals and charge it overnight. Also check the ground connection to the chassis and the condition of the terminal to ground wire as you can get corrosion there also.

As a follow up...turned out that the "new" alternator was bad. Had a Bosh rebuild put in. Lesson learned, cheap is expensive.

OH NO, MR BILL...
 

That seems to have been the concensious regarding rebuilts through many, many posts.

Pay more initially for the good stuff, and less in the long run.

Glad you got it figured out.