Hello all, First post to the forum so here goes. I recently picked up a fairly nice 300SD which my wife has nicknamed the "TANK". It does have a few things to work on.

1. Both the odometer and trip odometer dont work... I fiddled around up under the dash and seems tight. Any recommendations on what to do next?

2. Passenger door release lever housing is broken... Im going to hit a few junkyards to try to find one.

3. The biggest one that is driving my wife nuts is that it is leaking oil pretty reguarly so much that Ive had to put a huge plastic sheet and carpet in the garage.

I bought this car for a WVO conversion and have most of the parts so if there any WVO experts out there Id love to pick your brain concerning the electrical connections for the Pollak system for the fuel tank switch overs since Im going with a 2 tank system.

I do like to drive it though since its a diesel it doesnt scoot too fast... but Im getting used to it.

Cheers and thanks Chris

 

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Or, just do what you want since it's your car. Thegovernment isn'tlikely to be knocking at your front door looking for unpaid fuel tax. Vegetable oil contains no sulfur and burns 80% cleaner than petro diesel so you have no real EPA worries. (1) Do your homework (2) Install a quality WVO conversion (3) Filter and dewater yourWVO (4) Change your system's filters often (5) HAVE FUN!
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The odometer problem is most likely caused by a stripped gear inside the unit. I had the same problem on mine. You have to pull out the instrument cluseter, it just slides out of the hole in the dash with a little bit of persuasion. Take the back housing off and the side cover plate over the gears. I initially had one gear stripped. I replaced it and it stripped another one. I would replace the small 12 tooth gear and the first two 48/12 tooth gears behind it. The old gears are weak and when you replace one, it will strip the rest. Hope this helps. As with the WVO oil issue, I run straight WVO filtered 4 times down to 10 microns before I put it in the car. I store it in 55 gallon drums and mix with about 5 gallons of B-5 to B-20 and 1 gallon E-85 per 40-50 gallons of oil. The B-20 and E-85 help thin it out a little bit in cool weather. It runs great.

 

I'm not a fan of the current system, and the taxes I pay seem to go to Earmarks, not road maintenance. John Murtha here in PA spends the lion's share of it and I'mNOT a fan. Reference the wonderful bridges we have i.e.Minnesota and the other 20,000 that are crumbling under our traffic and you'll seethat taxes are NOT at work for us on the Interstates.

Burning biofuel completes the carbon loop - as much CO2 is released when burning as is used when the plants (soybean, corn) are growing, so it's a washas I see it.NOx issue is effectively canceled due to CCL and lower particulate matter emissions with biofuel.

 

Hi,

Odo is the gears inside of unit, pulling the cluster is only option to correct. Could be a DIY job, but beware of the oil line and the hassel. Locally I was quoted $200-$300 to correct, seemed like it's not worth it. You can track your mileage via fuel comsumption anyways.

Oil leak: Could be anything... mine was related to the missing oil pressure equip. The dash pressure gauge won't work (read zero) and you'll be losing oil badly. If you dash gauge is working this is not the problem.

G
1983SD - 240K (est) - due to still unfixed ODO

 

Try this link for the odometer problem
http://dieselgiant.com/repairyourodometer.htm

 

Thanks guys, I think Ill have to put the odometer on hold for a while since the car died on me the other day. The AC compressor locked up and when I was at a stop light the RPMs were so low that the tension from the belt caused the car to die and couldnt restart. My local shop cut off the belt and the car runs fine but NO AC...A MUST IN FLORIDA in AUG.. HAHA!!

Im going to replace the compressor and drier my self and have it vaccumed out and put some more 134 in it since its been converted already.

Any other recommendations as far a regular maintenance?? The only other thing Id LOVE to fix before the odometer is the cruise control since I drive 100m a day.

Thanks for all the good info. Cheers Chris