ARRGH! Over the past 2 weeks I have been busy on my 86 300SDL. I replaced the delivery valve O-rings and crush washers, the little oil O-ring on the side of the IP for the manual STOP lever and the cruise control unit (thanks JamesDean).

In order to get to everything I also removed the intake manifold (replaced the gasket). I also pulled all of the glow plugs and tested them. Also reamed the holes.

I finally got everything back together Sunday, and after a lot of cranking (with rests in between) got the engine running. Let it idle for about 15 minutes, revved it up a few times, shut it off and then started it again.

All of my "car time" Monday was consumed with getting the under dash pieces back in. Today I started with the driver seat. Everything back together, so I wanted to do a test drive.

Engine would not start. Just cracked and cranked. Ran battery down enough that I needed a jumper again, so I moved other car close, added jumper cables and resumed trying to start the MB.

After a while all I get is a loud click. No crank. Left the jumper cables on for a while with some revving of the other car. Still nothing but click.

So, a few questions:

• Battery on MB shows 13.71V, battery on other car shows 14.8V. Is my battery gone?
• Is my starter gone? I sure hope not.
• Why would the car run on Sunday and not start on Tuesday? Didn't even try to start.
• Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to use the starter to prime the fuel delivery system was not quite right in the head.

__________________
Mike Frederick
1986 300SDL, 240K+ miles
1985 300D KaliKar, 270K+ miles