First I ran out of Diesel, used hand pump . still would not start..let air out of injectors , still would not start. then sounded like battery went down from triing to startso jumped battery. not battery, then told its my starter, had starter taken off and tested .. not the starter. this is a 300D 1978 mercedes. when i try to start the car it is just a clicking noise i get....and the engine has now locked,not turn over...this happened just from running out of diesel.. is there some trick here i need to know about.. why would my engine lock up? this is a strong running car and everything was great until diesel empty....all was going well until the clicking sound from triing to get it to turn over, would the engine locking up be from vaccum, compression, fuel, oil etc.... any advice would be appreciated, can't afford the ol'diesel mechanic right now with work slowing down these days:-) Thanks,Gina

I'm a little skeptical about the starter test. It depends on where you had it tested and how they tested it. Possibly there are a few turns shorted in the wiring inside the starter (due to getting too hot) and now the starter spins when out of the car (no load condition), but will not actually develop enough power to turn over the car.

I think this has to be the focus of your effort, because it is much more unlikely that the engine chose this particular time to lock up.

Something else to check, just because it doesn't cost anything and is easy: Verify you have oil in the car - check the oil dipstick.

Also, go to EBay, get in the EBay Motors section, and do a search for "Mercedes Diesel Starter" in the parts category. There is a person in Largo FLA that is selling a starter each week for the later Turbo models. (I'm not sure but I don't think this fits your car.) You might get in touch with him and ask if he has any starters for your car. He always starts the auction at $25. I got one from him and it looks pretty good - and soon I'm going to have to put it in because the current one sometimes spins without engaging the engine.

Hope this helps.

Ken300D

Greetings,

Hopefully you won't run out of diesel fuel again, lesson learned I hope, but priming the system should have brought fuel back up to the injectors unless you continued to crank engine hoping for a miracle or self priming. In order to relubricate the cylinder walls you will need to remove the air cleaner cover and squirt oil, 30W or so into each intake port. Make sure your battery is fully charged and the starter is good then crank over the engine for about 20 seconds or so. You should get compression and a firing sequence to get your baby back up and running. After all the fiddling around the engine is slow to crank because there is no upper cylinder lube now and the battery has run down. Give it a try if you can verify the starter is still turning good.


Charles

__________________
"Tell me and I will listen, Teach me and I will learn, Show me and I will accomplish, Involve me and I will succeed."
'84 300SD 256,000 Gold on Brown (Mileage Award)
'86 300E 246,000 Blue on Tan

Ken300D
Thank you for your advice...It is so overwhelming the response from the nice folks here. I will post tomorrow and let youknow what we have come up with. Thanks for the Ebay advice to! :-) Gina

Try turning the engine by hand. You can do this by putting a 27MM or 1 1/16 socket on the crankshaft bolt and turning clockwise (looking at front of engine) with a long ratchet handle. If engine turns easily, there is no problem with the engine.
If the starter just clicks, it is either a bad starter or solonoid. You may have damaged either by cranking too much. P E H

Good Luck. I think there is some merit to what was posted on your other thread about not being able to use jumper cables on the diesel cars. They really do use a lot of juice! Either charge the battery overnight with a charger or keep the jumper cables hooked up for 15 minutes before you try to turn over the diesel.

Also, in case your hand fuel pump is defective, you can use the same search string on EBay in the automotive parts section to find a replacement pump. The design of the replacement model is superior to original equipment, so I have heard.

I've been careful not to run my car out of fuel to avoid what you're going through now. Although the hand fuel pump does have to be used when the fuel filter(s) are changed to reprime the system. (I'm avoiding changing the filters for awhile too!) I get really chicken when the fuel gauge gets down to "R". I have tried to stand the stress long enough for the "low fuel" indicator light to come on - but I just can't take it. (I assume your car has the low fuel indicator light like my '82 300D.) So when I fill up after being worried the tank is going to run out, it always turns out that there was at least three gallons of fuel left.

Hi Ken.... ahhhhh, Believe me.. I have done all but beat myself up and others over the empty diesel tank... Loaned car to my son in law....need I say more! LOL..Triing to laugh now to keep from criing....:-) Gina

Let me preface my comments with the fact that I have no clue about diesels.

Is it possible that while priming the system he could have put diesel into the cylinders, thus causing hydraulic lock????

Just a wild theory.

I rarely run out of fuel, but my cars stop running from plugged filters often because I never change them until the car stops. One time in CO I got bad fuel that plugged the filters 3 times. The secret to starting the car after replacing filters or running out of fuel is to pump the hand pump rapidly until resistance is felt and then about 20 pumps more. ~~~~P E H~~~~

I have this image of myself running out of fuel far from a fueling station.

I wonder how people would react if I knocked on their door with an empty fuel can, a small hand-operated pump, and asked if I could buy a few gallons of heating oil?



Ken300D

(Yes, I know about the red dye. )

I have run out of fuel about a dozen time in my '75 300D. I have never had a problem restarting after priming the system with the palm operated primer. I have run all sorts of fuel, including home heating oil in the car without any filter problem as well.

I did have problems with glow plug relays, and my starter. I found a huge improvement in starting when I got a new starter. I didn't know that they were supposed to turn the engine over so fast. With a quick turning engine, it fired right up.

Diesels are harder to jump start. I have done this a number of times as well. It is best to use the other car to recharge your own battery for awhile first before trying to start the car.

If your starter is not turning the engine and you have ruled out cylinder lock by hand turning the engine as P.E. Haiges suggests, then you have to tackle the starter issue before anything else. IF the starter cannot turn the motor over, then everything else is moot. I got my starter from a salvage yard. It was almost new and didn't cost alot.

__________________
Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

All that fiddling around might have loosened a cable, like the ground to the block. Also check the cable between the solonoid and the motor.

I've jumped a diesel with a dead battery using TWO cars.

Diesels aren't harder to Jump. Its just that most people don't have cables with a copper conductor of sufficient cross section.
Sometimes the battery you are jumping from doesn't have sufficient capacity.


I made my cables from heavy computer cables and used solid copper clamps. They work good. ~~~~P E H~~~~

If you run out of fuel, you want to be sure everything is working properly first before starting the engine. Things to be checked are:

1. clogged in-tank fuel strainer (blow air back to clean it).
2. Clogged In-line fuel filters.
3. Clogged air filter.
4. Leaking fuel line.
5. Weak Starter.
6. Weak battery.
7. glow plug problem.
8. incorrect valve clearance or low compression.

Good luck

David

Come on Dave, who would do your 8 steps just because they ran out of fuel? Most likely you would run out of fuel on the road so how would you do all 8 steps?

Put fuel in, pump hand pump vigorusly if it has one, start engine and get going.


P E H