New member, new to this car, complete noob

[warrior2005]

Hi all, So I was just sort of given a W123 by my uncle who had to leave the country for an emergency. He was a cigarette smoker, so my first order of business has been trying to get the smell out of the car. So far I've vacuumed and cleaned the interior, and used coffee grounds and vinegar, after hearing they may work, and that has helped a bit, but the 'old cigarette stuffy' smell lingers. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. The car: Automatic '77 300d. My first diesel. My other car is a mid-90s Volvo. So I'm very new to this sort of car. I do have a few questions. The first question is the starting mechanism of this particular car. I'm not sure what my uncle did, but I think it was to solve an electrical problem. http://i.imgur.com/4lr4D.jpg Every time I start the car, I have to plug that in, turn the key to 'on,' wait for the lamp to turn off (From what I understand, waiting for this lamp to turn off is normal procedure), unplug whatever that is, and then start it. So my question is...WHAT? Any ideas on what was done and what can be fixed to make this work? Or does this mean identifying a short somewhere, which could be a huge pain? The second question is about the Heating/A-C system. It doesn't work at all. If I press any of the air buttons, just to turn the air vents on, nothing happens. Is this a common problem? What can I do to fix it? Third question: The car doesn't shift very smoothly. I usually have to take my foot off the gas for it to shift, and even then it isn't very smooth. What should I look at, what could I do to improve that situation? If you can't tell by now, I'm not only a W123 noob, but a car noob as well. The car runs fine, though way slower than anything I'm used to (yes, even compared to a '95 non-turbo Volvo), but I also understand that I can't expect anything more in terms of power. I hope to learn a lot here on this forum. Thanks for reading!

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[chiltonw]

I have the same two problems.....except my car the thing under the dash I have to unplug sets the alarm off....and the light your talking about is the glow plug indicator its perfectly normal like you said!!! Please somebody reply to this guy LOL!!!

[mhess427]

I'd recommend having the transmission flushed right away, also there's a valve you can replace that is supposed to improve shifting. There are vacuum lines on your valve cover for the transmission and if they're broken, that may cause hard shifting. I fixed a lot of things on my wagon from reading this wiki :http://www.dieselbenz.info/index.php?title=Main_Page

The hvac in my car doesn't work either so I hope someone else knows that one.

[Outre]

The Silver Box with the Pins must be the Glow Plug Relay. When everthing is normal the Glow Plug Ralay is always Pluged it and it shuts itself off.
I am not sure why your Uncle uses the starting routine He does unless there is something wrong with the Glow Plug Relay and it stays on all of the time and that is the reason he unplugs it.
The silver box type Glow Plug Relays are over $250 (more from the Dealer) so I would hold of going out and buying one until you have learned more about troubleshooting.

[Outre]

If he does have the little 3/2 way valves on the Valve Cover they are there to control the EGR. They control nothing on the Transmission.

Where the 3/2 way valves cause transmission trouble is when they become a source of a Vacuum Leak; any vacuum leak can have an effect on the Transmission shifting.

It takes a while to read down through the article but it is on adjusting the transmission.
http://www.continentalimports.com/ser_ic20242.html

[Outre]

The below forum and Benzworld are also top forums for Mercedes:
Repair Links
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/forumdisplay.php?f=82

http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/DoItYourSelf