1985 300d - 4spd - Repair list

[Ya Mar]

Hello All!

So to update everyone who followed my post last week, the car is actually a 1985 300d with 250k miles, a European import. It has cloth seats, manual windows, manual sunroof, and a 4 speed stick shift! The interior is in rough shape, and there is rust on the exterior. In fact, from the trunk, I can see daylight through the rear wheel wells. So it needs some work to say the least, but that's okay because I got it for a great price. I bought it from my friend today, however, it's still in his driveway and here's why:

We had to jump start it because the battery was dead. It took a long time to jump start and once we got it going we drove it around and it had an extremely rough idle...ridiculously rough. So rough that the entire hood was shaking and when I was sitting in the drivers seat I could feel the intense vibration and noise. However, a little bit of gas and it smoothes out completely. Any thoughts on why this would be? It's long overdue for a value adjustment, but I think there might be more going on than that.

After we got it started and drove around for a bit we also realized none of the lights, radio, turn signals, are working. We turned off the car and it wouldn't start again. When the car was connected to my truck with jumper cables all the lights worked. So we know the battery is dead but we think the alternator may be dead as well since none of of the lights were working while the car was running. Does this sound right?

I know I need to get a new battery, and now I'm thinking I will need to put in a new alternator.

The car has been sitting all winter (I'm in Vermont) but had a new battery installed last fall.

Does anyone have a link to a good DIY alternator installation? Is this a difficult installation?

Would I want to replace it was a 65amp, or a 115amp? I saw the prices for the 65amp alternators on the FastLane shop.

Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Ya Mar

(P.S. - will post pics as soon as it's in my driveway. it was too dark to drive it home without lights)