Hi, I'll keep it short.

New to the old mercedes diesel game. Own a Sprinter. But its slightly different than what I got now...1985 300TD wagon.

Just drove it from Houston to Austin. Drove strong but there are a few curious issues.

1) shifting hard. Not terribly hard. But definitely not smooth.
2) breaks kind of hard...harder than I remember my friend's similar vehicle feeling
3) locks not always opening when I open the driver-side door.

Been doing some research. It seems these problems could all be related to one issue...vacuum. Is that the case? And if so, is that why I'm getting REALLY bad acceleration from zero. I mean REALLY.

when I started up the car this morning, it took a few turns of the key and some pumping of the gas. Maybe the glow rods aren't working? Then, when it turned it had an extremely hard time getting up the fairly calm hill I live on.

Any ideas? I think my turbo might be out? But have no way of knowing. I feel (power-wise) like it's driving more like a 300D.

I know there's alot of questions here, so any answers would be very appreciated.

thanks

Yes it all sounds vacuum related. When the 123 gang get back from reading about Ginny and her daughter, they will probably respond.

__________________
1987 300TD 309, xxx 2.8.2014 10,000 mile OCI


Be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. anonymous

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter won’t mind.” Dr. Seuss

Congratulations on joining the wagon club. Get yourself a mityvac and some vacuum connectors and some bulk vacuum line and start testing and replacing.
You will be able to find and repair most of your issues with that.

You probably need to change your oil, all the filters, check the tank screen, and do a valve adjustment. You can do a search for info on these things. There is a wealth of info here.

Good Luck.

__________________
Chad
2006 Nissan Pathfinder LE
1998 Acura 3.0 CL
OBK#44
"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

SOLD
1985 300TD - Red Dragon
1986 300SDL - Coda
1991 - 300TE
1995 - E320
1985 300CD - Gladys

Another member of the wagon club, and another member of the even smaller '85 wagon club.
You most certainly have vacuum issues affecting your shifting, door locks and possible brakes.
Also, sounds like you either have clogged fuel filters and/or a clogged boost line/banjo bolt from exhaust manifold to alda on top of injection pump.

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

check out www.dieselgiant.com for good maintenance tips and how to's.

__________________

1996 E300 110,000
1985 300TD 212,000
1980 300D 238,000

Hard to brake or brakes hard? Last time I checked, brakes hard == good.

__________________
http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Yes, vacuum problems. In regards to the hill, remember that these engines have very little horsepower when cold.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Pleeeeeeease tell me it's not this one:
http://houston.craigslist.org/car/549370647.html

If it is please tell me you got the accelerator pedal fixed! and that you didn't pay more than $2000 for it (being generous - I would have offered the guy $700-$1000 if I hadn't found the one in my sig).

If it is that one, your thread title says it all....

__________________

Current Mercedes
1979 maple yellow 240D 4-speed

Gone and fondly remembered:
1980 orient red 240D 4-speed

Gone and NOT fondly remembered:
1982 Chna Blue 300TD

Other car in the stable:
2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI / 6-speed MT

Look under the hood near the brake booster...near the firewall on the drivers side. You'll see a bunch of vacuum lines and connectors. There's a roundish yellow thing (its a check valve, see upper left corner of pic) with two lines (one solid yellow, one yellow with brown stripe) leaving it going into the into the cabin, that feeds the door locks. You can un-plug this yellow connector (check valve) and put a golf tee to plug the connector where it came from. If that fixes the rough shifting, then the leak is in the door lock system. From what I've read, that's the most common place for leaks. Another line goes to the climate control system, I think its solid brown, you can try disconnecting that one and plugging it to check to see if that system is the problem. If neither of those helps any, you're going to have to get a mityvac and start troubleshooting...

There's a good thread for troubleshooting the whole vacuum system here:
http://www.schumanautomotive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2755


When you're starting, it might be a good idea to not touch the pedal until the engine just starts to run on its own. If you think glow plugs are bad, there's a good tutorial here:
http://dieselgiant.com/glowplugrepair.htm

Good luck.

(pic showing the yellow check valve that feeds the door lock system, upper left corner)

__________________
1985 300TD-euro 352,000 mi
1974 240D (1?)52,000 mi - has a new home now

Geez what a wiring mess! One mistake is that the brown line is the shutoff line. The green line is for the climate control system, and the most common leaking circuit.....

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Aww, you think its a mess? I tried to keep it so tidy with wire ties and everything...they're all bundled together fairly well.

My mistake about the brown/green line...I haven't had to work on the ACC vacuum parts yet. I didn't know they were the most leak prone...maybe because I've been luck so far

__________________
1985 300TD-euro 352,000 mi
1974 240D (1?)52,000 mi - has a new home now

Ah.. the estate car, I remember. We can only hope this is not that td. Yikes.

__________________
1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

thats a euro im guessing has a veggie setup? am i correct?

__________________
Wie lange wird Ihr Auto leben?

Did the ABS give it away?

__________________
1985 300TD-euro 352,000 mi
1974 240D (1?)52,000 mi - has a new home now

Whoops, sorry! I meant that more as "wow what a lot of wiring", not that is was a messy job of running it. Quite the contrary. My apologies.....

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John