Hello everyone!
My dad and I spent most of the afternoon prepping the car for its first test
drive since it came home on a tow truck. I replaced the alt and PS belts,
but couldn't do anything with the AC belt since it doesn't have an idler
pulley (the next project). The compressor turns just fine, so it must have
either broken or was taken off to save fuel hahahahaha. It's also in a
different place than the one on my early 300 series cars that I've had
(below the PS pump).
The throttle linkage went on once I tightened the bolts in the valve cover
that were sticking up a bit too high causing it to bind. Then, it fired up
with a bunch of smoke from all of the oil and crud in the intake from MANY
previous attempts, and we were off! The more that Dad stomped on it, the
better it ran, and the less smoky it became. The shift out of low was a bit
quicker than I would like, but it didn't shift until just a few hundred RPM
from redline in all of the other gears. Could this be due to the
vacuum/linkage hardware on top of the valve cover being out of adjustment?
Other than this, she ran flawlessly, and when I started it up a half an hour
after we got back, there was no smoke at all! For a $500 car, I declare it
a winner! Once things are fine tuned a bit more, it will be great. To make
things even better, both the odometer and fuel gauge actually work!
It's so nice to own a good running MB diesel once again!
Kevin in Hillsboro Oregon
1981 300CD 204K miles, Giesela
