I finally fixed it!

I found this 1979 240D. $500 - I named it the marmot because its slow and bunchy. The guy said it used to run until the glow plug relay went out & it had sat since fall.

The engine wasnt locked up so I brought it home.

The gas tank was NASTY - it took a week to clean it out. Meanwhile I rigged up a temp tank & set to work.

I did the ford solinoid mod with a pushbutton on the dash to prevent me from leaving it on (learned that the hard way).

I dropped in a new battery and Boom! I had a running car!

I had to fix the front brakes as the wrong thickness pads were installed.

I drove it to work a couple times (50 miles round trip). The car started to make this awful grinding sound from the rear end.

I was stumped - I replaced the flex disk, pulled the rear axels - they were still good, but the boots were crap. It was almost as cheap to replace the entire half shaft as it was to replace the boots - lifetime warrenty and I get to keep the old ones.

That didn't fix it.

Howled like it was dying.

I bought the wheel bearing tool and pulled the bearings. The passenger side bearing was pretty rusty. So - new inner and outer bearings.

Screams like a banshe.

Finally! I figured it out.

The sway bar link had let go and the sway bar was rubbing the inside of the aluminum wheel!

Ha! All that work - best to do it all anyway - and all the time it was something so simple!

So now I have a car - kind of rusty and ugly - AC doesn't work - but for what I have invested I can drive it for years @ 30+ mpg!

Whoo Hoo!