Just to wind up this thread, I had the car towed to European Motor Cars in Redwood City, near where I work. Otto couldn't find out what was the matter, ran all sorts of tests and checked all over the engine, including compression, camshaft timing, ignition timing, put in a new set of plugs, etc., etc. Finally, he got it to start, it ran very rough with clouds of black smoke, then it let a hell of a backfire and has run fine ever since. He has no idea of what the problem was, but the backfire seemed to cure it.

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'76 240D-Sold
'78 240D-Sold
'85 300 SD, 165K-Sold
'88 300 TE, 165K-Sold
'64 Porsche 356C Cabriolet- under restoration
'86 560SL 124K Miles-Sold
'94 320E Wagon, 74K Miles-128K Miles JUNKED
'06 E350 Wagon, 84K Miles
07 SL550, 14K Miles