what was the last year the lever was under the dash on the r.h. side that controlled the glow plugs with the first partial twist of the lever, and then activated the starter when the lever was fully turned clockwise ? and of course when you shut it off, you twisted the lever counter clockwise to be parallel to the bottom of the dash ? ? ? and what was the model number of those cars ? ? anyone remember ?

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david h
83 300D Alabama Beauty (Son's)
83 300D West Coast Rust Free that been abused

What you describe doesn't sound like it was ever in a diesel Mercedes, but the 1976 and earlier 4 cylinder Mercedes diesels have a mechanical start-stop control knob that you pull out and hold against spring tension to operate the glow plugs, and then all the way out to start, and push all the way in to stop the engine. A second knob that looks like a plastic key controls the idle speed - counterclockwise is faster, clockwise is slower. There apparently were some early Euro W123 models that had the idle speed control built into the stop-start switch, as I saw reference to those controls in my repair manual. On the W115 and very early W123's the start-stop knob was on the left of the steering wheel, but on the fintails, Pontons and 170D the start-stop knob was on the right of the steering wheel. On the 1977 4-cylinder models and 1975+ 5-cylinder models they used a vacuum operated shutoff so they start & stop with the key, and then on the turbo models they eliminated the idle speed adjuster knob too.

I think the Ponton diesels and anything earlier (like the 170D) had some kind of metal handle in addition to the start-stop knob that had to be rotated with starting but I don't remember what it did or how it worked.

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1976 240D "Katja"

there was just a thread here a few days ago about a "gorilla knob" try searching that. i think that is what you are talking about. they might make mention like katja about the years and models.

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-Trevor

OBK #12
1980 300SD 333,XXX miles - Totaled
1986 Mazda RX-7 212,XXX miles - impounded and auctioned off
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited 33,000- SEGR, Provent, Fumoto

The Gorilla Knob used linear motion to operate the glow plugs and for fuel control. My experience was on Pontons (180's & 190's), Finnies and W115's. Before the Pontons were the 170's, and in one pic I have of a 52 170D dash I can see what looks like the salt shaker and below that is a horizontal lever pointed to the right. This may be what you are referring to, but the dash arrangements of other 52's and 53's 170D's seem to be different and I can't see a similar device in those pictures. Also not sure when the Pontons were brought out, but I suspect that the 180D's started in the mid 50's.

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1961 190Db retired
1968 220D/8 325,000
1983 300D 164,150