W116.org

Where is the starter on a 79 300SD?  Came home from an errand, turned it off, and now it won't turn over.  I suspect the starter.  Where is the thing under the hood?  If short the circuit, i.e. connect a wire across the terminals should the car start?  Trying to think of a way to confirm it is the starter.

MacGeek,
I am not sure.  The 300SD w116 was [to my knowledge] just a US version car.  Most of the experience and knowledge here on this site is based down under....much of it will be very valuable for you, but with regards to specific stuff on your diesel, I don't know....

I would do a search...I know I have seen Koan post links to US 300SD info.

I know my euro 450se has the starter on the right side, just under the exhaust manifold....mine went bad a few months ago, and giving it a light tap with a long screwdriver would 'reset' the soleniod and allow me to start it when it wouldn't start.

Your best parts sources will be AutoHaus Arizona & the MB Classic Center in Irvine.

We in AUS didn't get 116 diesels so we don't know much about them so if a future engine related post goes unanswered that's why but for anything else this is the place.

Having said that does the starter make any clicks or is it silent?

Do the other electrics still work?

I've referred to a 126 diesel forum but I've lost the link but a search for 300D or 240D should find it.

koan

It started!  How, I put in the key and turned it.  I think my not starting problem has something to do with the key and the angle or something to do with the ignition. I didn't do anything different this time, than I did the last times, but apparently I did something different enough that it started.

Now off to check the air filter and see if I can find the ALDA so I can clean the bolt (forget its name).  My car has pitiful acceleration until about 2500RPM or about 20MPH, then the turbo kicks in and the car moves.  People behind must be wondering, is this guy going to start.     Little do they know that I have the accelerator on the floor.

Also a good diesel purge this weekend, if I can find the stuff around here.

After I got the car moved in front of the garage I took a look around under the hood.  I found a broken fuel line.  Turns out this line goes from something on the firewall to the ALDA.  The line was cracked about 75% of the way around, where it attaches to the ALDA.  I hope when I get this repaired that it helps the 0-20 acceleration, or lack thereof.  

300SD's dont take off like v8's but it certainly shouldnt be as slow as your suggesting.

Ignition switches do go bad on these cars, so if your finding your starter dosent activate unless you have the key in on a certain angle or requires "jiggling" this is going to be your problem

Also, it appears that there is a specific transmission flange for the LHD diesel engines to get the starter on the passenger side, that is, the right hand side of the engine when sitting in the car..

The off the line acceleration appears to be a little better after fixing the line from the ALDA. The banjo bolt was not clogged at all, so cleaning that would not have helped either.   Not great, but like you said a 300SD with a 5 cylinder is not a V8.  Maybe someday I can drive another 330SD to compare.

the v8's cant run on vegetable oil though, gotta way up the goods with the bads

I wish we had 300SD's in australia 

WVO is on my list, though it could be a while before I get to that.  Before last week I'd barely heard of WVO but I've been doing lots of research.  The nice thing about my car is that it already has an extra fuel tank in the trunk.  I won't miss the trunk space, I think I'd gain some space back.  The extra tank is 20-25 gallons. 

For my car I'd use a kit from Global Fuel Systems.  For collection I'd use a simple 12 volt pump with a 150 micron filter and transfer into 5 gallon containers.  For processing at home I like the idea of Simple Centrifuge and gravity for most of it.  A lot of investment up front, but the ongoing costs would be next to nothing and the most important thing, the end product would be extremely clean.  It cleans down to 1 micron and captures water.  If the product works as advertised it looks great.

Whilst you research SVO/WVO MacGeek, have a look at http://mercedessource.com/ who have got SVO/WVO kits and plenty of tech help about the OM617 engine plus parts.

Thank you for the link. 

Yesterday I repaired the line leading to the ALDA, changed the oil+filter, performed a diesel purge, and replaced both fuel filters.  The engine sounds better than it did, less knocking, but still has some to my ears.

I think next on my list of things to do with car: replace potentially leaking valve cover gasket, adjust valves, and potentially replace injector nozzles, inspect/replace timing chain.

I also want to try and figure out why the tachometer intermittently works.  I suspect it has something to do with what I was doing under the hood, since it worked before I started working under there.     Any suggestions, welcomed.     I read somewhere about not being able to start the car after performing an oil change as vacuum can be lost, not in my case.

with the tacho intermittantly working on a diesel, it will be the tacho amplifyer module, its in a black compartment in the engine bay from memory and is easily removed / replaced. Some have had sucess just wedging something next to the board, so it makes better contact, ive also heard that the board itself suffers from bodgy soldering after so many years.