300D no go
 

My '82 300D has always been a good starter and has run beautifully till yesterday .
Yup , WON"T START .
OK , it was a little cold (-3deg) but that is not normally a problem , the engine turned over fast enough . Almost fired . Several times .
Then just nothing ,no fire , just revolutions on the starter . Finally drained the battery .
Got the battery recharged .
Took the Auxilary fuel filter off , just a little gritty stuff in the bottom of the bowl , nothing like the muck that was there when I changed the filters last month .
Bled the system .
Tried to start again , almost fired , but not quite .
It feels like no fuel , cracked the injector line at the #5 . Got fuel there cranking the starter .
I'm stumped .
Is there a filter in the lift pump ? maybe its got a blockage in the tank , oh dear , ok , so how do I get the tank out , its a W123 .
Maybe it just sucked some air in ,, but a bleed should get it restarted ?
Could it suck air and not leak fuel ?
I was told to check the glow plugs , shorted the hot line to the block with a screwdriver , got a spark at all 5 , that means they are all ok ,,right ? .
Hmmmm now the glow indicator on the dash is not working
,,,,
Please help

You may have opened the fuse on the GP relay by shorting the leads. Check for supply voltage at each plug. If this checks out test each plug for resistance. If any of them are open you should replace all the plugs and I think that should get your car started!
NOTE:
During the resistance check remove harness from each GP if equiped with series type system. If equiped with parallel system just unplug harness from GP relay.

-3deg in July? South America?

"nothing like the muck" might be the key phrase, once you get the glow plug system working. You probably have gotten a batch of water with the fuel, which makes for hard starts due to premature gelling of the fuel. The muck is algae/fungus/little critters that breathe water like we breathe air, and is death for the entire fuel system.

Once you're statisfied the glow system is working, find some biocide and fuel filters. Then look for the tank drain at the bottom of the tank. The idea is to drain the tank from the bottom after you've siphoned or run off (assuming it's running, of course) all but about 5gal from the top, biocide with about 5gal of fresh fuel, let it sit a day or so, drain the tank again, put about 5gal of fresh fuel with an additive like Power Service DieselKleen.

Then change fuel filters. Fill the main filter with 50/50 fuel/DieselKleen. If you have a hand pump then pump for 30 min. If no hand pump you've no choice but to crank with the starter. Change fuel filters again. That should clean out the injector pump and injector nozzle bodies.

Check the air filter and the throttle linkages for anything amiss. Check again for obvious fuel leaks, which means air gets into system and you lose prime. Warm up the engine block with the electric heater or a shallow pan of charcoal under the oil pan. Then try starting engine. If it runs then fill the tank with fresh fuel (with additive) and be prepared to change fuel filters again. If not then you may have blown injector tips. The tips literally blow off due to the erosive nature of the water. Then it's time for an injector rebuild.

Good luck and let's hope it's just the glow plug system. There is no easy or fun way to remove algae, which is why the old timers are clean fuel fanatics.

Thanks for the response , I appreciate your thoughts and the time you take to put them in print , now I just wait for it to go above Zero , and try my meager skills with the multi meter .
Yes dabenz , it's winter here in New Zealand , plenty of snow on the hills , fortunately none here on the flat . Still chilly though , and only a carport for the merc , brrr .
Got the vintage Chevy pickup (1940) in the shed though , LOL .
Breckman99 , I have very little knowledge on electrics , like , whats series and parrallel , it's ok , I dont expect you to answer that , just to say that I will take the wires off the GPs then read the meter , open means the needle goes over the scale ,, right ? ,, yup , I think that's what it means . Thanks again .

Well how about that ,, 3 dead glow plugs ,, got a full set comming tomorrow ,, hope thats all it was , :)

Dusty-NZ,

Looks like you been holding out, with your stable of cars. Anything older than a W123 240D getting few and far between, here in the states anyways.

I'd swap weather in a heartbeat. Too hot and too many bugs here in the summer (all three months of it).

-3 degrees F or C? I can understand it not starting if its -3 degrees F. You should use your electric block heater.

Don't crank too long at one time. You might damage your starter and the GP turn off as soon as the starter is energized. It is better to stop cranking and let the GP go thru another heating cycle and then crank again.

P E H

We used to have a great fleet of aged cars , nationally , until the '90s when some enterprising dealers discovered they could go to Japan and import their cast offs , and sell them cheap here .
Now the market is flooded with worn out jap cars , bah !
Stil plenty of W114 driving around , not many W116 , they all seem to have rusted out .The rare ones here are the old (pre '60) roundy ones .
The Chevy is my daily driver and shop hack , lots of fun , eh.
http://www.stovebolt.com/truck/gallery/miller_dusty.htm

Update
 

Well , thanks for the suggestions once again guys ,, got the new set of glowplugs this morning and all is back to normal ,, easy starting just as you would want ,, :D
Your help is much appreciated .

Bah Humbug !
 

UPDATE - Despite my delight yesterday (or perhaps because of it) this morning the car is dead again , it was used several times with normal success yesterday , but this morning the glow indicator was not working and though there was plenty of smelly diesel fumes from the tail pipe , NO FIRE .
There has to be something else electrical wrong ,, Right ?? :( Checked the 80amp fuse link , it looked fine . ??

Are you getting voltage to all the glow plugs when the glow plug light is on? You may have an issue with your glow plug relay.

Thanks for the suggestion Jim ,
Power at only 4 of the 5 GPs !
When the plug is removed from the relay , the glow indicator works !!
I wish I understood electrics :(
I'll go and get a proper multimeter and try to learn to use it .

Its the GP relay. Also what spookes me is 3 dead plug ?? What are the odds of that unless you have a bad electrical circuit - most likely relay.
But before you buy a new relay make sure you troubleshoot it right so as to pinpoint the problem.

Good luck
3 plugs hhhh? Still amazes me.

MVK

You can find them on ebay every now and then.

MVK , I am wide open to guidance on how to correctly trouble shoot the relay :)
I just went and bought a reasonable multimeter , lets see if I can use it . :D
All the wires to the GPs have continuity.
All the GPs measure .02ohm on the bench and 0 ohm installed in the car.
Pulled the cover off the relay , looks like new . Points are clean , nothing obviously fried on the circuit board . It looks new too .

It seems odd to me ('cause I don't understand) that the resistance measured between the case of the GP and the insulated threaded end is so low , like there is an open path there , so why does it look like there is an insulator washer there ??
This is on the new plugs .
Tested the non working plugs ,, just the same , about .2 ohm even though they don't glow .??
Dash light indicator still only works when the plug is pulled from the relay ?? .
I'm about as lost as I can be .