This is my first post here. Sorry if it is a long post. I do have to say thanks to all of you for the vast amount of information here. It has been a great deal of help to me, a first time diesel and Mercedes owner.

I am not new to automotive. I have been ASE certified master for about as long as they have been around and have turned wrenches for 35 years for a living. I have a decent electrical background, but not much time for toys these days so I am asking for help to shorten my learning curve.

I just bought a '73 220D that was not running. It obviously has the original 79,000 miles on it, but the body has some rust problems. I had the alternator repaired by a reputable re-builder and replaced the voltage regulator while I was at it. The charging system is now working fine. One of two previous owners connected the battery cables backwards and blew all the diodes in the alternator.

I reassembled the car, checked all fluids and topped them off. I was able to start the motor and it runs great after warm up. No smoke and pretty quiet for a diesel. I drove it home without any problems. It was a warm day and it didn't take too terribly long to start it for a diesel.

After doing some researching, I discovered the glow plugs are not firing at all. I turn the key on to II position, pull out the the starter switch to the first position (left of steering wheel) and then pull the gorilla switch knob on the center console and wait while holding on the knob. The light on the switch comes on. Am I missing any steps here?

The light / indicator / pepper shaker on the dash above the steering wheel center does not light up or even get warm.

I went under the hood and checked at the rear glow plug and found no voltage there. I pulled the center console off and checked the switch and found 12v there and the same on another terminal when pulling on the switch. All of the fuses have been checked and are working fine.

From reading the wiring schematic I am able to determine that there is no fuse or relay on this system and if there is power from the switch, then even if the shaker is not functional or burned out, there should still be power going to the rear glow plug or am I missing something?

I hope someone here can shed some light as my next step will be to start tearing the dash apart and I would like to avoid that until I finish checking some other things out first.

Oh, and by the way, the dash and interior lights are not working at the moment. I am figuring the dash lights are either the bulbs burnt out or the rheostat / dimmer is bad. The rheostat does not feel right. Knob is too loose from what others in different cars feel like and the other interior lights are physically broken.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Rick