Thanks for the tip - I think I know which axle you are talking about. Definetly worth a try.

Black smoke = too much fuel. White (pure white) smoke which disipates into thin air = steam. Whitish (bluish) smoke that wafts away in the wind or hangs around = unburned fuel/oil burning.

Black smoke without the engine exceeding idle, and assuming good compression/mechanicals, is most likely a bad injector or something at the IP such as a stuck delivery valve.

The cylinder responsible "may" be able to be isolated by cracking individual lines at each injector, in turn, and listening to the engine and watching the exhaust.

Black smoke could also be caused by air getting into the pump and the air can delay injection because of contraction, then diesel (explode) inside the injection line and blow excess fuel into the cylinder late, and cause all kinds of weird running problems. That it ran better on the purge may in fact point to that issue.

Thanks for your tips

I have no real progress to speak of here, more of a leap backwards

The starter refused to work again, and then the my DD started to act up with vacuum problems and took away the time I wanted to spend on the 200D. Also I got more lazy as the temperature continued to fall

I have a question regarding the starter wiring: How do I jump the starter directly from the battery?

Do I just connect the positive battery pole with the small wire (golden philips screw in the picture below) and off it goes? Or would that short the circuit?


If that doesn't do it, then it is likely that the copper wires I soldered together sperated again...

__________________
-1990 W124 230E; Winter car
-1985 W123 230TE; Ex-280TE, daily driver
-1976 W115 200D; Restoration project

The starter turned out to be toast, the brushes had already disintegrated completely, probably due to some short in the starter itself. So i went out and got a good used one, which has a busted gear wheel... So it will turn the engine for 15 sec. and then go free spinning

And the W124 is acting up with the TÜV inspection due this month, so that's not helping with this project.

__________________
-1990 W124 230E; Winter car
-1985 W123 230TE; Ex-280TE, daily driver
-1976 W115 200D; Restoration project