My 68 222D has a 2 piece prop shaft. BUT, I have a reference manual called "Mercedes Benz 220/8 1968-1972 Owners Workshop Manual" which clearly says that both 2 piece and 3 piece shafts were available in these cars. It unfortunately doesn't say what determined this design choice. If you trust the diagram in this book showing these two options, both are for the same length of car. In the 2 piece, the first one is small diameter and the second is larger. In the 3 piece, all three pieces are small diameter. Not sure if any of this is relevant, but I wanted to share.

__________________
1968 220D, w115, /8, OM615, Automatic transmission.
My 1987 300TD wagon was sold and my 2003 W210 E320 wagon was totaled (sheds tear).

Well thanks for sharing anyway! Your workshop manual doesn't by any chance have a list of the vehicles / chassis numbers showing which vehicles had the 3 piece prop shaft? Probably not! And I guess it isn't your favourite bed time reading...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!