WARNING -- be careful who you are dealing with. All that glitters is not gold.

I contacted a Bosch authorized repair station in Forest Park, Georgia and talked to their shop foreman. This was before I got the car running on four cylinders. At the time I talked to him the car would not crank at all. I told the shop foreman the following:

1. The car is a 1993 Mercedes 300 D 2.5 diesel.
2. The car was running perfectly when it was parked in my garage.
3. Two days later, for no apparent reason, the engine would not crank although the battery was fully charged and the motor was turning freely.
4. I then checked all five glow plugs and they were all working properly.
5. I checked for fuel at all five injectors, no fuel was reaching any of the injectors.
6. I changed the pre-fuel filter and the main fuel filter -- still no fuel reaching the injectors.
7. I checked the lift fuel pump on the side of the injector pump, and it was delivering more than a sufficient amount of fuel according to the Mercedes specs.
8. I removed the inspection plate on the side of the injector pump to inspect the operation of the rack -- it was operating freely as it should be.
9. I removed the valve holders on the top of the injection pump and replaced the copper washers and O-rings.
10. I tried to bleed the injector pump at each valve and at the injectors, but the injector pump would not pump fuel to the injectors.
11. The vacuum and manual shutoff was working properly.

The shop foreman told me that the expert who worked for him was from Cambodia and rebuilt those injector pumps on a regular basis and no one knew more about those pumps than he did. As a matter of fact, the expert Cambodian owned three Mercedes and drove a 350 SDL himself. He said that he would let me talk with the expert and see if he could help me.

I talked with the expert and told him everything that I have enumerated above. He told me that he did not believe there was anything wrong with the pump and I probably overlooked some simple thing and for $75 he would come by on his way home and tell me what was wrong. (It was approximately 3 miles out of his way to come by my place)

After about 15 minutes of inspection and agreeing that the rack and fuel pump was working properly,he concluded that the injection pump was worn out and needed to be rebuilt, although it had been working properly only three of four days before. He would perform this service for me for $1000 minimum and more if it required any hard parts.

After a few more hours of frustration and education I finally discovered that the automatic bleeder valve was blocked with a piece of trash. I removed the bleeder valve, cleaned it and reinstalled it and the car cranked immediately, however, the fifth injector was not receiving any fuel from the injector pump. That's when I came to this forum for help. Diesel 911 came to my aid. He was extremely helpful and furnished me with information that made me understand how the injector pump operated. He also furnished me the key to correcting the problem.

THE BARREL HAD JUMPED OUT OF THE ALIGNMENT PIN WHILE THE VALVE HOLDER WAS REMOVED.
I talked with Tom at Yankee Diesel in Newtown, Connecticut, and he walked me through the repair. After I put the barrel back on the pin guide, the car cranked up immediately and ran perfectly. I really appreciate the help that I received from Diesel 911 and Tom at Yankee diesel. If any reader of this essay needs expert diesel work, you know who to go to, on the other hand, I expect, you know who stay away from.