I'm the new owner of this lass 1985 300TD : (http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-cars-sale/362629-fs-1985-300td-maine.html).



I went from looking at a winter car to looking for a 300d... to looking for a 300TD. This is a second car/winter car / yet another thing to learn and tinker on.

I'll throw up some more pictures after I've cleaned it up, several on that FS thread.

This post will also serve as a bit of a record for myself and perhaps others.

I'm new to both diesels and Mercedes with all of my past cars being Japanese (I've only ever had Honda, Toyota, Mitsu, Infiniti and Nissans). So much research is ahead of me and this forum will be a great resource.

My goal right now is just to get the car inspected and on the road, followed by returning it back to stock and fixing/improving a 29 year old car.

Issues I'm aware of that need resolution before inspection:
(Any help is welcome!)

- Tires:

Starting to get cracks and have been sitting / will replace with dedicated winters soon

- Dash Cluster:

Tach dead, gas gauge intermittent, no lights on the cluster except: brake light, brake wear light and battery light are all illuminated full time with varying brightness dependent on engine load.

- Sagging rear end / bouncy rear springs:

Rear end is sagging down quite a bit (haven't measured yet, but clearly way too low). The rear is quite bouncy as well. Given those conditions and from my research that should indicate the springs need replacing. No clue if the SLS is operational and to what degree, but I believe I'll need to get replacement springs in there in order to find out.

Will update more as time goes on!