Hi. I would like to start by saying thanks to everyone on the site for posting incredibly valuable and helpful information. I have spent a lot of time here reading threads, using the search, etc, and it surely has helped me get a better understanding of these cars. The site has helped me find a good local shop (who did a pre-purchase inspection for me), find parts, and walked me through procedures I thought would be much more difficult than they turned out to be. I've picked up some original factory service manuals, and those have also helped invaluably.
While I have not worked on an "older" MB before (or any MB for that matter), I am certainly familiar with the ins and outs of old car ownership. Actually, the MB is the newest car I have owned since 1991. For the past 13 years, my daily drivers were all older VW Busses (1959 and 1974 Westfalias), and I drove other air cooled VW's before those. So the MB is a very modern car for me.
I just bought my first MB. It's a 1985 300TD Turbo. I found the car quasi~locally through a very convoluted and drawn out process, the details of which I will spare you from. I am the third owner. It is fairly original, which is both good and bad. Good in a way that there are no significant previous owner modifications. Bad in the way that I now need to catch up on a lot of stuff that has been "neglected" over the years. I realize I have a bunch of work ahead of me, but so far the repairs have been pretty straightforward.

I am sure I will be asking for help and advice in the future, and hopefully I can help contribute something at some point.
So here are some pics, enjoy.
Jon

As purchased:




Third row seat. Notice the very rare MB factory accessory walking stick rear hatch prop rod.






First order of repairs: Get rid of the walking stick option. Rear hatch struts replaced!


Service manuals


After a quick wash. Looking better already.

Attached Thumbnails

         

     

Welcome. Nice wagon.

Expect some commentary on the superfluous "T". JimmyL was the longtime enforcer of the "trunk badge of truth" but he jumped ship and went to an Acura.

From the pine needles and leaves in pic 2, one of your early orders of business should be to inspect and shop vac the hinge pockets, maybe remove the plastic wheel liners and clean the drains. Maybe also the drains on the rear compartments based on rust and rot(?) on the tool kit. The pics don't seem to show any rust on the rockers and you'll want to keep it that way.

Welcome to the world of 123 wagons. Wagon owners are proud of the T on their trunks. Others try to use it to mean turbo, but the badge says it all. We all know that T really stands for Touring.

You wagon looks great. A little polish and wax and that exterior will SHINE!

For parts, everything from the front of the back seats forward is almost exactly the same as a sedan, so those parts are easy to find. Anything from there back is a little harder to find, used anyway. Though you should be able to find any of it new without trouble.

One place to look for rust is the bottom of the hatch. There are no drain holes in the hatch, so if water get in, it stays in.
Also looks like you need to hatch struts, I see the stick propping open the hatch.

You've already discovered you SLS system since you PMed me about o-rings, but if you haven't already read through this, it will help understand the SLS system. It's a good system, but some of the parts are rather expensive to replace, but those parts are pretty durable and don't often need replacing.

Self-Leveling-System - How it works, and troubleshooting the system
-http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=271570 -

If you don't have records I would start with fluids and filters. Change all of them. Then you have a good starting point, and know everything is fresh. A valve adjustment is probably in order as well.

__________________

Thanks, I will watch out for the extra "T", and thanks for the input. I have already done what you mentioned. The forums and stickies have really helped in the "I just got a new car, what should I check first" area.
The hinge gutters were indeed clogged with a bunch of rotten gunk. Were is the key word, because now they flow freely. Thankfully there is no rust in them.
Actually, the car has very, very little rust, and I do intend to keep it that way. There is some rust on the right front fender where the lower trim attaches, and guess what...it was caused by a collection of dirt and gunk that had accumulated in there. I have already removed the inner fender liners because I wanted to make sure I could clean everything (and get the drains cleaned out). The inner fenders have been thoroughly cleaned and hosed out. I also evicted one mouse that had take up a comfortable residence in the left fender (see above pic of mouse chewed tool roll).
There were (and still are, in some remote areas) pine needles and leaves in many nooks and corners. I've even gone so far as to remove some of the outer trim pieces on the door/hatch/fenders, not only to replace the little orange plugs/clips, but to get the accumulated dirt and pine needles out from behind the trim and to wash the paint behind it.

Yes, since I have a limited history, all fluids and filters will be changed. I think I would do that in any case, just so I know I have the fluids I want in there, and not rely on PO selections. Rear hatch struts have been replaced (pretty simple job), and the old (original) struts have already been taken to the scrap metal recycling.
I will keep an eye on the rear hatch, I did not know that about the drain situation.

Of the 4 very small areas of rust, this is by far the worst.


Inner fender liners removed-

Attached Thumbnails

   

I'll add to remove the battery and tray to check for rust too.

__________________
83 SD

84 CD

Thanks, I will check that this afternoon.

That's a good point.
When I got my wagon, my wife kept saying, "I feel a cold breeze on my feet". I kept saying, "You're nuts!". A couple weeks later I pulled my battery and tray. Then said, "Is that the carpet?" Sure enough there was a hole rusted through. I had to tell her she was right.

Check the sunroof drains as well. They run from the rear of the sunroof through the roof of the car out the vent behind the rear most side windows. Weedeater cord is good for cleaning them out.

__________________

That is a very nice looking TD. Don`t worry about JimmyL, he is way off on the dark side of the automotive world.
He may stumble on this thread and give a blast.

If I were going through that car, I would be pulling off the fender where you show the rust. there might be rust starting behind the fender in the rocker panel end. I see some at the jack point, not a good sign. maybe pull off both fenders. POR is a good product when things are prepped properly, and will seal off additional rust starting.

Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

nice nice nice.
yeah, I'd pull that rusty fender, and fix everything behind it, and then tackle the fender itself. rust does NOT sleep!
search chad threads, he did a great repair diy on the 123 and rust in this area!
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=231360
and
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=277110

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.
I pulled the battery and battery tray. Wow, easier said than done. That battery is a tight fit, but it did come out and go back in with minimal cursing. It also gave me the opportunity to clean the battery terminals, battery connections on the + and - wires, and the ground connection to the body. I cleaned the threads on the ground bolt, cleaned the grounding wire lug, chased the threads in the grounding "block", etc. Got everything cleaned up, reinstalled, etc. I also installed a missing bolt where the "arm" of the battery tray extends, holding it and the heat shield to the inner fender. Overall, it went smoothly, even though I spent more time cleaning hardware than I did removing and installing parts.
There is no rust under the battery tray. There is a little on the battery tray itself, but nothing I am concerned about at this time.

As far as the rust on the fender, jackpoint, rocker panel, inner fender, etc:
yes, the fender has some bubbly rust. It is worse on the outside of the fender than it is on the inside. I pulled some of the plugs out of the rocker panel and looked inside. All I saw was nice clean metal with Waxoyl looking stuff coating everything. No rust inside the rockers. There is a little bit of rust where the metal from the foot well meets the rocker panel, but it is a very small area. The weird thing is: there is more rust in that area on the driver's side, where there is no rust on the fender. The driver's side concerns me much more than the inner fender of the right side.
The "rust" around the jack point slot is very, very, very minor, and looks a lot worse in the pic than it really is.
While I do not disagree that the rust needs to be addressed, right now I need to get the car up and running before I even remotely consider fixing this small spot of rust (which really is not that bad inside the fender). I do plan on going to the local paint shop and getting some touch up so i can sand/treat/primer/paint the bubbly spots on the outside.

I started doing some front end work-replacing tie rods, drag link, steering damper. Please note that in the pics they are only "emergency installed", meaning I would drive the car in the driveway to move it if I had to, but there is no way I would venture on to the street right now. I realized that I need to go a little further into replacing front suspension parts, so I did not want to snug everything up, since some of these things will need to be removed in the next week or so.

Battery tray area:
Before:


After (I cleaned this area much better before reinstalling the battery tray):


Right side hinge gutter:


Inner fender pics:
Right side:






Left side:




Suspension stuff replaced:
Out with the old...


In with the new.......

Attached Thumbnails

         

Looking good so far.

__________________
83 SD

84 CD

That may be the cleanest "uncleaned" undercarriage I've seen. Where's the goo? Where're the years of seeping oil mixed with road dirt? You're missing out on the joys of new ownership. Next you'll say the A/C works fine and all the vacuum pods are functional.

It looks like you scored a nice tight engine and tranny.

X2
I can't wait for you to bring this by for me to oogle...

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

hmm, i wonder what an oily undercarriage looks like. i know mine is really dirty, but the trans and engine do have oil leaks which hopefully I can fix in the not so distant future. the engine and trans do need a good, thorough degreasing.
right now i am just replacing vacuum hoses, fuel lines, filters, fluids, fuses, and fix some critical parts that have gone neglected over the years. once i can get the car back on the road legally, then i can put my attention on other things.
no, the a/c does not work. i have not tested the heat yet. the blower fan does work, but that's about as far as i have been. i also have not been able to test all the vacuum stuff, and i know there are some disconnected vacuum hoses in the engine compartment (central lock system), so i am presuming there are previous issues with it.
on the other hand, the odometer and trip odometer work, as does the dash light dimmer.
the tachometer does not work (annoying)

John, i can't wait for the day when i will feel confident enough to drive the car out to see you. in the meantime, my door is open if you are out this way.

Attached Thumbnails

         

Looking good Jon, if you want to see an oily undercarriage, next time your in town you can help me tackle a trans fluid change and a hose down of the front end.