Been awhile since I've had to seek some help. Here's the problem.
Got home from work the other night; stopped, opened gate; (I've got a long drive); car didn't want to come out of park. Finally after pushing the brake pedal a few times it went into drive. Ok, no problem. Coming down a big hill, hit the brakes; wow, no brakes! Pressed extra hard just to have slight braking. OK....now I'm thinking; do I have any vacuum!
Parked the car, turned key off; nope, won't shut off. Got out, pushed manual stop lever, no problem.
Next day; I move car to in front of garage, no problem, manual shutoff lever.
Today, I'm going to troubleshoot my vacuum issue; but car won't start. I noticed the manual stop lever was down more than normal. Checked my spare engine, and that lever is up all the way. So, I replaced my vacuum shutoff switch. Still no start. Seems like I'm not getting fuel. Crack the injector lines at IP, no fuel while cranking. Crack fuel line at fuel filter housing, while cranking, got fuel.

Sorry for being long winded; but I can't figure out what's happened.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Check to see if you might have knocked one of your vacuum lines completely off the nipple.

Checked vacuum hoses. Since it takes vacuum to shut down, I've overlooked my vacuum problem for the time being.

Freaky vacuum related issues should consider vacuum pump failures on the OM 60X engines, if it's not something else pretty obvious I'd be checking out the Vac pump before it actually fails with it's often pretty severe consequences.

The brake loss of vacuum is troubling because it's a direct connection between the pump and the booster and it would take a massive leak to effect the loss of vacuum if it was not the pump failing to generate enough vacuum.

As an aside I was recently in contact with another forum member with an 87 OM603 who was telling me his vac pump had completely failed to produce any vacuum as measured at the pump's outlets but as of yet has not exhibited any other signs or sounds of any impending mechanical failure of the pump or it's driver. My advice to him was to not start and run the engine before getting a good look at the vacuum pump's problematic working parts that are inside the timing chain cover space.

Yeah, I know of the mechanical consequences when the vacuum pump fails. I got fixated on the fact I'm not getting fuel. My plan is to pull the vacuum pump. Thx.

I would get the ump check done and then disconnect vacuum to the shut off, that would eliminate the shutoff vacuum not bleeding off which could cause the IP fuel rack from being impeded some way.

If when starting the car the shutoff lever still doesn't work right AFTER disconnecting its vacuum source the problem is internal to the IP and maybe the connection between the shut off lever and the shut off vacuum solenoid.

If the shut off responds to disconnecting the vacuum source by rising and allowing fuel it could be that the issue is particular to the "no Start/no fuel" is a faulty vacuum valve that exists as part of the ignition switch assembly.

Well, I do appreciate all the info. I did swap out the vacuum shutoff switch, and lever is good now, but still no start. I'm going to pull the vacuum pump tomorrow

Aside from the bearing being in good nick, check to see that it is caged so that the ball bearings don't go flying everywhere when/if it goes bad.

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97 e300d, 78 300Dt, 95 E300d, 94 E320 estate

Yeah, I'll check it out. When I installed the 3.0 last summer, I installed the updated version vacuum pump.

Well, definitely vacuum pump failure. No, not the bearing. The shaft either broke or if it's threaded, then it came apart. No IP timer gear face damage; just got a replacement pump installed, so tomorrow I'll see if I can get it started.

Just an update. Car is back in service again. So much for always thinking the diesel engine only needed vacuum to shut off. Can't explain it, but after replacing the vacuum pump, car starts like it should. Back in service.