TRYING TO DO THIS THING ON MY OWN BUT MY CHILTON'S GUIDE IS NOT HELPING ME. 1981 300 SD TURBO IS NOT SHUTTING OFF WHEN I TURN THE IGNITION OFF. CAN ANYONE GIVE ME AN IDEA WHERE TO LOOK? I WOULD APPRECIATE IT GREATLY! I AM A STARVING SCREEN WRITER AND MY BUDGET DOESN'T SUPPORT AN AILING MERCEDES! JOE

You more than likely have a vacuum leak. Nose around under the hood and look for one of those lines from the brake booster area toward the engine being disconnected. Also, look for cracked/busted vacuum line connectors. If you do not find any vacuum leaks then it could be in the vacuum pump shutoff mechanism but most of the time it is leaking vacuum hoses. I would recommend you get a manual and a vauum pump and do proper troubleshooting of the vacuum lines.

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Jim

The most common thing to happen is knocking one of the vacuum lines off the y connectors while changing the oil filter.

Good luck,

The "cracked/busted" vacuum line connectors mentioned by engatwork are the short rubber tubes that connect the hard plastic lines to the various fittings. There are bunches of them in the engine compartment and other places around the car and they tend to split at sharp bends. You can buy the rubber tubing at dealer if fastlane doesn't have it (they probably do). very cheap.

Also, look under the seats for loose vacuum connections. My car started to take longer to shut down and I finally found a disconnected line under the driver's seat (to seat back lock?) that was the culpret. All of these things seem to impact one another to some extent.


good luck.

Nic
'85 300CD

Joe... the thread I have listed here was started on concern of another vacuum related problem, but Icesailor has a pretty comprehensive vacuum trouble shooting routine. Give it a peek.

Ernie

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=17031

P.S. Icesailor...where are you hiding?

Most likely prob. is a vac leak somewhere, but with same prob on my 91 350SDL a couple of months ago, we had to replace shutoff actuator, itself, on top of IP. Good luck.