Thanks for all the help!

I got back under the car today and thoroughly inspected the shifting system. As it turns out, the shift arm for 1st and 2nd gear was being restricted by the car beneath the shifter. All pieces of the trans and shift system came from a euro-spec 240D W123, so I assumed it would all line up properly, but it doesn't. I solved the problem by cutting about 1 square inch of metal from the bottom of the car behind the shifter, which created a new problem. After cutting metal out of the car my shifter now has enough room to get into 1st gear, but the other side of the equation now puts the shift handle well into the heater control area of the dash. I have all the heater/radio/dash stuff removed right now but I don't think I can put it all back in and still be able to shift into 1st gear. I may need to remove the shifter and bed it back an inch or so.

All in all I'm sure I can get it figured out, Thanks for the help.

So it seems the consensus is to use 10w30 for trans oil?

__________________
Kevin

1971 300SEL 3.5
1972 280SE 4.5
1968 280S Parts Car
1983 300D (5-spd conversion almost completed!)
1986 Toyota pickup 22R 4-spd
1968 Mustang 302 (soon to be 5-spd)
1981 Euro-spec 300d 4-spd parts car

Sold:
1987 300D (had 415,000 miles when I sold it, now has 462,000 and still driven every day!! Original head)