So I went online to the Classic Center's website and ordered their Technical Data Book. Unfortunately, it wasn't what I was hoping for. I guess I need the service manual (I want diagrams and more of a how-to on general service items).

I talked to Woody at the Classic Center yesterday (nice guy!). He informed me that Mercedes currently does not sell the service manuals for these cars (I have an 84 300SD). He said that they used to produce CDs, but that they were based upon Windows 95 and are no longer produced/available. That probably wouldn't work for me anyway since I have a Mac. He said that they are in the process of producing an updated CD service manual, however he doesn't know when it will happen.

What are my options for getting a service manual? The ideal situation would be to get a hard copy. Next best would be a CD/DVD with PDFs that I could open up individually. Keep in mind that I don't have Windows, so I'm not going to able to use some program that was designed for it...

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1986 300SDL - 116K
2014 Prius Plug-in (company car)
2014 Q5 TDI (wife's car)

The Technical Data book provides much info, but it is not a service manual. Torque values, torsion bars, shifting points, timing, just a bunch of stuff.
Good luck with finding a paper copy. I have the cd-roms from those folks before they sold out. They don't work on a mac, as you know. A friend loaded 'em onto a portable storage device, then I was able to transfer that in my mac book, works fine.

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83 SD

84 CD

Haunt CL, fleabay and maybe pickup an alternative haynes or chilton.

I got an 'official' MB CD set for my 123 and it truly sucks. Sure glad I got it cheeep.

EPC seems to have some good breakdowns if you can find what your looking for.

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

I got the w123 engine manual since they share engines/transmissions, although the startek manual selling place overcharged me $15....

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

What is the better alternative that has the same amount of info and only cost $19.99=$7 shipping?
I also have the main Paper Manuals on the 123 (at a way way way higher prices) and with the exception that the pics are slightly clearer the CD set has 99.9% of the same information.

I copied the CD set to my computer and use it the most.

(I also have Haynes, Chilton, a Mitchelles imported cars cd, as well as other Motor/Chilton big book type imported car manuals; nothing matches the info in the CD set.)

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

EPC??? Forgive me...

I did an eBay search and there's the regular slew of CDs that you can buy for $20. I'm not trusting those. I also found a few links where you can supposedly download the manuals directly. Not so sure I trust those either.

I've read mixed reviews on the Haynes manuals. I guess it wouldn't hurt to check'em out.

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1986 300SDL - 116K
2014 Prius Plug-in (company car)
2014 Q5 TDI (wife's car)

I hear ya on EPC ... not the most user friendly site out there.

Maybe pop over to your local parts house, see if they have an open one ?

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1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

The used Chilton and Haynes manuals are often for sale used on eBay and Amazon. No point in paying the full price.

The Haynes 123 Manual has a bit if info on rebuildind Manual Transmissions. I do not know it the 126 would have the same.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Sorry, I meant what is EPC???

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1986 300SDL - 116K
2014 Prius Plug-in (company car)
2014 Q5 TDI (wife's car)

It's quite informative as far as parts go and it's free.
http://epc.startekinfo.com/epc/

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83 SD

84 CD

Thanks for the info!

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1986 300SDL - 116K
2014 Prius Plug-in (company car)
2014 Q5 TDI (wife's car)

I have a fleabay version of the CD for a 126. It's probably bootleg but consists of a bunch of pdf & html files. I think it would run on any system that has a browser. (I'll try it on a linux box when I get a minute.) I can ftp it somewhere if anyone has a place to host it.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

How much space does it take up after being compressed to a zip file? I may be able to host it on my server. I could set you up with a shared FTP account to upload it too. Just let me know something.

Sure thing.

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83 SD

84 CD

Just wanted to let everyone know that JunkMan is going to upload the two CD version of the Manual he has. I'm going to provide the hosting so that anyone can download them. One of us will post the links to the downloads as soon as they are available. I am pretty sure the version I have is the same one he has. W126 CD 1 and CD 2. The one that was made to work on Windows 95 that I read a bunch of stuff about online. People were having issues running it and I'm going to show you how to make it work on any version of Windows.

You just need to edit the original index.htm file that is on the CD. It was made to check for Internet Explorer 3 which is obviously way out of date. lol

In order to edit it you need to right click the index.htm file and UNCHECK the read-only box and hit apply then ok. This will allow us to edit the file otherwise it will tell you the write permissions deny you to write to the file. After you have done that open the index.htm in NOTEPAD and delete everything out of the file and insert this code.

Then save the file and then burn the files exactly how they are onto a CD. When you run the CD this code will tell the index.htm file to redirect to the opening.htm file located in the program folder. Which is the start file for the entire CD. You will no longer have issues with compatibility. You have to edit this file on the pc before you burn it to CD. If you burn it to CD even if the file is not read-only you won't be able to edit it.