tedd-
Are you sure about this? I don't think my 1987 w124 has this feature, so I am surprised if an early 1980s w123 has afterglow.

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

I don't even think 90-93 602 cars have afterglow. That's a 300SD/S350 thing afaik.

Thanks for the posts shortsguy.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

That would be correct. Not very practical is it? You could build a voltage regulator for it and not have the extra heat and current draw.

Here's a solutions to having a "working" salt shaker.

1. Jumper (disable) the salt shaker with a heavy gauge wire. This will give full voltage to the pencil plugs.

2. Put a grain of wheat bulb or an LED in the salt shaker as a glow plug light.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

So, Bosch 80035s are on backorder/"temporarily unavailable" pretty much everywhere online.

Beru shows their fast glow "kit" as back-ordered, they even show their loops as backordered.

Glow Plugs by Part Number - US Distributor of genuine BERU products - Kingsborne Wires Werks

Found this Monark Setup on eBay. Seemed reasonable enough. I went ahead and ordered it.

Monark Quick Start Set for Mercedes 220 D 8 OM 615 4X Glow Plug Glow Plug | eBay

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

I definitely like the idea of keeping the system as "stock looking" as possible and also wonder which type of plug will become unavailable first - the retrofit or the original loop style.

From what I remember reading, with the retrofit plugs wired in parallel, the 'salt shaker' won't glow nearly as brightly and may take a long time to glow at all, as the resistance is not matched to the higher current load of the total of the parallel plugs. Right now with the series plugs, the salt shaker on my 240d begins to glow at about 10 seconds and is fully bright after about 5 more seconds, which seems to correspond exactly to the heating time of the series plugs.

Just a few years ago I saw a new generator/light tower that had a salt shaker on its panel that looked just like the Mercedes one! I think it was a Kubota diesel and the glow plugs were obviously wired in parallel. I actually confirmed that as I found a wiring diagram for that generator online...and the salt shaker was in series with the parallel plugs. So I wonder if the generator's salt shaker element's resistance was different than the Mercedes one.

I have a set of W123 later-style glow plugs (Bosch) someone gave me and I noticed they are stamped 11v. So, running them with some resistance in the circuit should make them last longer, though they might not heat up quite as fast as with 12-13v.

I thought about wiring up those glow plugs (not in an engine) with a spare salt shaker to do some tests....experimenting with cutting (shortening) the element inside to the point that it would fully glow in 7 seconds (which seems to be the time the parallel plugs need to fully heat). The trick would be to not decrease the resistance SO much that the element gets too hot & burns out. One could also be measuring the voltage of the glow plugs themselves and actually watching how fast they heat up.

Using a light bulb or LED wouldn't give the same effect as the salt shaker....it would just immediately light up.

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1976 240D "Katja"

it needn't be so hard to come up with a resistor that heats and glows at a similar rate as the original, but with 12V, so it can be wired in parallel with the GPs. i suspect a light bulb rated for a higher voltage could be jury-rigged into such service.

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'77 240D, 504H, OM617.952, etc.