How firm is your gas pedal?
 

I just got my trap removed yesterday, and while they were doing that, they had to put in a new throttle bushing in order to continue..I guess the PO had it jerry rigged somehow.
Anyway, my pedal used to be pretty firm, but now it seems like I am almost flooring it to get up to 1900 rpm (I'm not actually, but it is definitely 60-70% down)
I went back to ask why it was this way, and the mechanic said it was normal. I don't mind too much, I just need to get used to new throttle positions. I don't remember what the other 300d's were like that I have driven, but my other car (not Benz) definitely has a firm pedal
How are your pedals?

ps, with the trap removed, this thing revs like a mother! Although this could have been throttle related, too.

Mine is even and fairly firm.....I lube my joints and bushings at least a few times a year to keep it working well....I can drive along at 25-35mph barely pressing the pedal....so it sounds like yours is out of adjustment....of course at 25mph in 4th gear I am only running about 1000-1100 rpm or so. :D

Rather than firmness. Have someone press the pedal all the way down. Out front is the arm of the injection pump fully advanced?

My '87 requires almost no throttle at all to "go."

Sounds like something is wrong..

If I can find someone to push the pedal down while I look, I'll check it out, otherwise it's back to the dealer on Monday to complain! Haha.

Although, I guess as long as I'm not wasting fuel, I can live with it. It's just different than it was before..

The rpms are fine, the pedal just feels..well, dead for half of the way down

In case you don't have anything to worry about . . .
 

An error my dealer made during the recall on my car just surfaced; you might want to look for it in your car. In my case, the turbo was damaged and was replaced as part of the recall. If your turbo was OK, they might not have disassembled this part of your engine.

Turns out that one of the pieces that compose the intake plumbing (turbo to intake manifold) is attached to the head with three screws in a triangular pattern (the EGR valve mounts on this piece -- easy to recognize) . . . the bottom screw is almost impossible to install and the mechanic skipped it!!!

Over the year and a half since, the plumbing shifted a bit with motion of the engine and gradually worked one of the lower o-rings out until it leaked and I found oil all over the top of the turbo. After taking it apart and cleaning up the mess, I was reassembling when I realized that I had only removed two screws from this piece; where was the third one?

The missing screw is below the exhaust manifold and required all my ingenuity to make up a set of small socket extensions to install this 5mm Allen socket cap screw. You need a mirror to see anything so I don't have any pictures.

Jeremy

This bolt is difficult to access even with the engine out, with the engine in it is REALLY difficult.

On my engine they skipped the strut between the forward exh. manifold and the turbo. No pride in dealer mechanics anymore.

back to pedal firmness
 

Check the pedal itself. Over time the plastic piece that holds the pedal to thr rod breaks and causes you to have to put a lot of pressure on the pedal to make the rod move. A new pedal is around ten bucks. I just did the one on the SDL and it made a world of difference

My all stock '82 has a fairly firm pedal. All the linkages are lubed and smooth, so I think it is working properly. There are so many linkages for the pedalto move that it just takes a bit of effort.

I have made a custom linkage on my '79 and it takes hardly any effort. It however does not have any linkages for emissions equipment, automatic transmission, cruise control, etc..

I have to mash mine to the floor, so reading this has been helpful to realize that perhaps something is wrong. Its my first diesel and the PO said it was normal, yes he was not up front about a couple other things too, I am still discovering those things

accelerator pedal? I've got an accelerator metal stick. :D

Your supposed to lube all the linkages once in awhile. Put some ATF in a little cup and take a Q tip and drip some in all the linkages.

Compared to what? My go pedal feels relatively firm compared to my friend's Jap cars (Camry, Accord, etc) but compared to the other car, they have similar firmness I suppose. However I haven't taken a peek under the air cleaner of the 300TE to check the throttle linkages and everything but on the D, I have.

One question though, and this is somewhat related. Do you feel a lot of vibration on the go pedal on your cars, or is it more muted? I asked because it feels like the pedal on my '83 felt more vibrant, than the pedal in our old '81 which was very muted and I could not feel much vibration on that. It's like the pedal on my '83 drank a lot of caffeine, it's jittery. So in a long trip my right foot feels exhausted after all the vibration. I've already replaced the firewall bushing that nearly everybody has had experience of going bad (original MB part). Maybe I should lube it again, but that doesn't make much difference though.

it looks like I get to be the first jerk to point out that the car has no gas pedal...
it's an accelerator or a fuel pedal...
no gas, no gas pedal...:P:dark::furious3:

ohhh!! I was waiting for that, haha!

MBeige, my pedal does not have any vibration, it is pretty smooth.

I am thinking of taking it back to the dealer and complaining, since it is because of their replacing the throttle bushing that I am in this mess. For a day I didn't mind it, but today I got angry with it...

As I mentioned before, it still goes through the power band fine like it did, except minimal throttle is now about 60% foot down on the pedal, compared to maybe 20% before..so there isn't much between minimal and floored.