W116, BENZ AID - COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

My 300D's blinkers and windows suddenly don't operate. There is an electrical shut down. The tachometer, gas gauge, blinkers, windows, emergency lights don't work. They all shut down at once while I was operating the vehicle. Other things like radio, wipers, clock, fan, a/c work fine. Any suggestions would be helpful. Has this happened to you?

I have a 1981 240D automatic tranny and today I took the car out for a drive on the highway for ~30 min. then stopped at work for a few hours as I was about to go home I realized my car would no longer go into reverse. All the other gears work normally, fluid level is fine and I hear no grinding sound like its trying to go into reverse but can't. Does anyone know what might be going on??? I am going to climb under the car tonight and see if anything looks crazy out of place but I don't know really what I should look for. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. -Drew

I am looking for a listing of torque values for the W123/617 engine. I see references in various repair guides - esp. on page #83 of the Diesel Performance Tuning & Repair - to "recheck torque on each of the locking nuts..." - where can I find those Mercedes factory torque references (other than the Mercedes service manual)? Are those reprinted/listed anywhere else? Also, how truly critical is it that the value cover on the 617 engine actually be officially within factory torque specs? Any elementary guidance is greatly appreciated. thank you, Kieran-