I can't believe it. I have read so many threads about the problem being in the shut off valve and or leaks around the oil filter, I was concentrating on it being there and after last night I thought I would be tearing into the door lock vacuums.
I happen to run into a stranger who had a 1984 300D and I asked him if I could look under his hood to see what a working system looked like. It took about 2 seconds to see that my previous owner had let someone try to fix things in there and they had broken the nipple off of the Tee that comes off of the main line from the booster and had a small screw in the other one. Being this was the first Mercedes I had ever driven in, all that stuff looked like is was supposed to be there like it was. They had the one single nipple put back on with supper glue and it was getting very little vacuum anywhere through out the car because it was clogged with glue.
Well of course no one around here has that part so I went to autozone and got a F-shaped vacuum fitting (3/16) and drilled a hole in the place where one of the nipples was supposed to be. The F-fitting fit snug because I tested it first on something else before I drilled into the fitting on the car. I think it would have stayed there but I put some electric tape around it just to make sure.
I hooked all of the lines up like the other guy had his, and sure enough the engine shut off when I turned the key off. I had door locks and the trunk locked and the gas filler door all worked too. I can't tell you how happy I was when all of that stuff worked like I've been reading it should.
I'm going to take some digital pictures of how all the vacuum lines are supposed to look like, as soon as I get rid of the temporary F-fitting and back with the orriginal. Maybe I can save the next poor #$%@# rookie like me, some time and pain in the future.
Many, many thanks to all who helped. I will try to do the same someday.
