The groan is dry kingpins or bad tie rod or other steering joints. Grease the front end (14 grease "zerks") with some good synthetic grease and see if that helps. Also, jack it up and check the steering linkage for torn boots, etc and play. Nothing lasts forever, and everything under there is 30+ years old unless already replaced. Check the idler arm (passenger side) for up and down play as well, the bushings can go bad.

Starting and running problems can be a number of things, but I would first check the condition of the plugs, wires, cap, rotor and points -- renew any that are very old or show signs of wear or corrosion.

Next, I would investigate for vacuum leaks -- around the injectors, the seals between the manifold halves and accessories like door locks and vacuum engine controls (you may not have the latter).

Then check valve clearances and timing chain stretch.

For the tranny problem, are you actually getting slippage, or you do simpley have an engine performance problem (no power with throttle open)? If slippage, at the very least a band adjust is in order (the bands are the clutches in the transmission that wrap around a gear drum to clamp it, chaning gears). First gear runaway along with very slow engagement of reverse is a clue that the band is worn and taking too long to apply. Some adjustment is possible, but if very bad, tranny rebuild time.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!