[MBZ] 1981 300CD keeps going and going and going and...

[kevin kraly]

I NEVER thought that I would end up with a car that has this problem, but 
old Granny has decided to spring it on me!  She won't shut off with the key, 
so I have to use the stop button under the hood.  Before this, there was a 
wire under the dash that would cause the starter to cut in and out if it was 
jiggled, but that's all fine now.  Everything under the hood looks ok,.  I 
thought  it must be under the dash at the ignition switch, but that looks 
fine too.  Could the ignition not be sending vac to the shutoff?  My next 
test is to hook up a line directly to the shuttoff and try pumping a vac on 
it or just use the old fashion method, sucking on it.
It still has a slight miss, but it's using tons of oil too, lots of blue 
smoke puffing out of it.  It's been a good experience, but this is going to 
be a case of getting my money back out of it and moving on to another one 
with a sound engine.  The glow plugs have been tested and they are working, 
so the hard starting, hard enough  where it won't start without that bad 
stuff called starting fluid, is due to poor compression with only 204K 
miles.  I should have known that she led a hard life when she came to me 
with a well clogged and oiled air filter and DIRRRRRRRRRRRTYYYYYYYY oil!

Kevin in Hillsboro Oregon
1981 300CD 204K miles, Giesela, movin' on