I bought my 76 300D in July of 05. I drove it about 1500 miles before putting it in the garage for the winter at the end of October. I'm wondering what I should plan to change in order to ensure, so far as possible, that I keep the vehicle alive for the foreseeable future.
I guess that I am supposed to pull the valve (cam?) cover and check for chain stretch etc but I also wonder what else you folks would suggest that I change to avoid trouble. My main thought is a concern about things like the oil cooler hoses giving up and dumping my oil before I have a chance to shut down. A friend with a 74 240D suffered an engine failure earlier this year as the result of his oil pump failing (at least that was what he says happened but he is not mechanically inclined and has a shop do all of the work for him). Are there similar hoses relating to the auto tranny that need to be changed out as well? (I know I could look at the CD manual or crawl under the car and look but I thought you folks would know and I'm sitting in my warm office wasting time when I should be working. I'm self employed so no one cares but me anyway, I guess.) How about the flex disk in the driveshaft? Should something like that be changed or should I leave it until it appears to be failing? I would like this vehicle to be relatively safe to take far from home. We routinely travel to a lake that is 180 miles from home and I don't like the idea of having trouble and needing to leave my poor car along the road. I have a woosh-woosh sort of noise in the accessory belt area as well when the engine is cold. I think changing the belts would be a good start before looking any deeper there. So far I have only changed the oil and filter twice and the air filter once. I have done nothing else. I have yet to change any fuel filters or the like. The return hoses on the injectors were done shortly before I bought the car so they appear to be fine. So, tell me what you think, so I can order up some parts and do a little preventative work before I start driving it again in the spring. Randy
