78-300D questions

[Jay]

I stopped to look at a 1978 300D at a local car lot. It has been on his lot for a couple of months now and the battery was dead. The sales man tried to jump it with one of those portable battery, but it didn't have enough power. The sales man said that the battery will be charged when I go back on Monday.
My questions. I see that the glow plugs are wired differently then the glowplugs on my 83-300D. The 78 seems to be wired with a common wire, but not in series. Is that correct? If so, how can I test the plugs without unwireing them? What ohm reading is correct if they all are working?
Are there any weak points in this car that I should lookout for? Something's that I noticed: #1 there is water in the trunk on the passengers side, in the well. #2 There is rust around the drivers side_front jack peg. #3 The cable from the cruise control to the linkage is held on by DUCKTAPE, "the handyman's secret weapon".#4 there is some minor rust around the wheelwells.
The inside is very nice,MBTex. The salesman told me that it was on special for only $3995US. I told him that was a lot more then I would give and that I thought that it was probably worth know more then $1000. and that I wouldn't waste his time test driving the car. The salesman talked to his boss and the price dropped to $1500. and the salesman said that it was still negotiable. How much do you all think that it is worth?


Thank you all,
Jay

96VW Passat TDI 82k
88Caddy 189k
83 MB 241k THE SILVER COFFIN Retired for repairs
80 Eldorado Diesel 165k 5.7liters of pure diesel pleasure

[engatwork]

I would not purchase it if it had rust anywhere - unless I needed the engine/transmission.
A good place to look for used MB with no rust is www.ajc.com
good luck,
engatwork

[unkl300d]

you are right that it is probably only worth 500 to 1000 max.
Check th A/c.
check the rear axle boots for cracks.
check the archives for glow plug info
glo plugs are the least expensive.
Face it, discount big bucks for rust
and fix it yourself if it is not excessively deep.
vacuum system.
rubber lining of trunk lid.
lots of stuff. how many miles?
what else is held together by duct tape?
if no records, its a big gamble.
good luck.


------------------
1979 300D
133K miles
1989 300SE
1995 C280

The trouble with badly ragged out cars is that they aren't worth anything really.
You spend more money and time on them than you ever get out in resale value or in service. You can never get them back up to an acceptable level of reliability.
Those guys on the used car lot put an unrealistic price on the car, then came down stteply on the price, as a strategy to get somebody excited enough about the possibilities of the car to take it off their hands.
They probably gave a hundred bucks for the car. They do this for a living.
Often in car buying you win when you walk away from the deal.
Keep looking and good luck,
Harvey

[P.E.Haiges]

Why would you want to test the glow plugs. They either work or don't work and even if you test them today and they are OK, they might fail tomorrow. The older glow plugs are in series and if one goes open circuit, you can jump across it to get started. Remember the glow plugs are turned off after engine is running and have no effect on the running of the engine.
P E H

[Robert W. Roe]

Jay, I see that we are both in the Lehigh Valley. Did you see that 300D at L&T on Airport Road? I stopped to look at that car one night this summer, just to peek in the windows actually. Anything older than 1980 or so will be harder to start because of different glow plugs, unless you use a block heater in the winter. My '77 300D was hard to start in less than 20 deg F weather.

Have you checked Autolex at 15th and Sumner in Allentown? Also, LV Volkswagen gets some pretty nice used MB's in trade occasionally. Happy hunting.