Diesel RVs: [diesel_mercedes] Rear End Failure [2 Attachments]

[Attachment(s) from vwnate1@yahoo.com [diesel_mercedes] included below]

Oops ~

Apparently I've neglected to routinely check the final drive oil in my beloved if battered Diesel Sports Coupe , it began to make a singing noise a while back and I thought the tranny I'd had rebuilt was maybe going to fail , in time I got off my duff , jacked up and safely blocked the car , discovered the fill plug wasn't loose but it wasn't tight enough to seal fully either so most of the gear oil had leaked out and spread thinly over the underside of the trunk , up behind the bumper and so on .

I filled it and added a small Harbor Freight Rare Earth Magnet to the filler plug (they're stronger) and drove on a week , then last night I decided to properly drain the final drive "Pumpkin" and see what's what .

I discovered the filler plug was still weeping a little bit , someone else had mentioned he'd needed both feet and a cheater pipe on his longest 1/2" drive Flex Handle (Misnomer : Breaker Bar) to get the filler plug out so this time when I closed it up I not only wire brushed and chemically cleaned the threads Hosp[ital Clean and flipped the aluminum crush washer over , I pulled mightily on the FlexHandle until that bugger _stopped_ tightening ~ I was worried I'd strip the threads but it's a steel plug in an iron housing so no worries I guess .

Anyway , pic. # 1 is the plug when I removed it .

Pic. # 2 is both drain and fill plugs cleaned with rare earth magnets ready to go back in .

I allowed the Pumpkin to drain a long time them used a flat blade screw driver to scrape out more , then I stuffed a clean rag in the drain hole and twirled it 'round a bit , I'll be draining and filling it again in less than 1,000 miles and the pumpkin it kaputi anyways so I'm just trying to nurse it along until I find a good used Pumpkin in a Junk Yard .

Does anyone have the Spec. sheets to tell me what final drive ratio a W123 Diesel Coupe has ? .

And , is it the same as any W-123 sedan ? .