Hello,

I apologize if this is beating a dead horse, I did a few searches and couldnt find an answer to my question. I looked at a 1977 300D today that is in good shape, said to have run only 1-2 months ago but wont go in reverse. The new owner removed the battery and doesnt have it anymore. We tried to start it up with a compact-car battery but it cranked real slow, maybe 1 rev/s. I am assuming this is too slow? What are the battery requirements for these cars? Also, we cranked several times and it got better, but never fired. Advice? Thanks

Head over to Autozone and purchase a group 49 battery. It's reasonably priced with an 84 month warranty. It'll start that diesel at temperatures below zero.

So that is way too slow to crank it up? Im not familiar with small-car diesels. Should it spin and sound like a regular gas car when starting? Is there a special starting procedure, do I need to let the glow plug heat up, ect?

Starting speed is similar to gassers...........250 rpm or so. It'll sound like a gasser during start.

Starting procedure is to turn the key to the #2 position and wait 15 seconds or so.........possibly longer if it's very cold. The plugs stay on for about 30 seconds.

If it's a 77 model, it will have come from the factory with the loop style glow plugs. Those take a lot longer to heat up. I have my 77 on a manual glow switch and glow 30 seconds for a cold start on a somewhat warm day, up to a minute and a half if it's well below freezing. The factory spec battery (group 49 according to the above) is a big one. I believe the label on mine says 850 CCA. I would guess that it weighs about 60 lbs.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

Thanks...........I forgot about the inefficiency of the loop style plugs.

Does the relay have a time limit on those.............must be considerably longer than 35 seconds found on the pin style.