I completed a manual swap on my 1992 190E 2.3. I couldn't find a complete donor for parts, so I had to source all the parts individually. Here's the setup:
• 717.412 trans from Europe, I think from a 190E 1.8 1992 or 1993 (I believe those 1.8 cars never got the single mass flywheel...), unknown condition or mileage.
• Single mass flywheel
• LUK Rep Set clutch kit for a 1986 190E 2.3
• New master and slave cylinders for 1986 190E 2.3
• Shifter from a W202 I think, it has reverse next to 2nd and it's writted "Classic" on the knob on a plastic cap with the shift pattern on it. It doesn't look like the usual full rubber 190E manual shifter. IIRC it has 202 and 129 part numbers on it. I rebuilt it with all new bushings before putting it in the car.
• Shift rods from unknown origin, bought with shifter
• Pedals from unknown origin, bought with shifter
• Delrin shift bushings


The car runs Megasquirt so the timing marks not being on the flywheel is a non-issue.

The trans shifted very well on the bench. When I installed the transmission, there was no driveshaft on the car. I could go into all forward gears no problem. It is very difficult to shift into reverse next to 2nd. You have to lift the knob and engage 2nd and find the exact spot where the shifter will get into the reverse gate. Getting out of reverse is also very tough. I also found out that reverse could also be engaged by putting the shifter below 5th... This position doesn't light up the reverse lights, but it does put the transmission in R. I adjusted all the rods properly, I can put the allen wrench in the hole and all 3 linkages line up. However, the rods don't look like they belong in that car, but they don't bind or anything. When I installed the driveshaft, shifting some of the gears got more diffcult. I thought this was because the output flange would move a bit when shifting and that this would go away once the car got moving. Now if I start the engine in neutral and try to engage any of the gears, it simply doesn't work. If I start the engine in 1st with the clutch depressed, it will move the car forward a bit. Then I can release the clutch and move the car, it seems normal. I bled the clutch 3 times; 2 times using pressure from the left front caliper and pushing into the slave bleeder and the third time bleeding it "normally", pushing from the slave into a bottle. On the three occasions, I had no bubbles in the tubing at the end of the process.

I think the clutch doesn't fully disengage. I saw that in the Hanes manual there is a version of the pedal/master cylinder where you can adjust the length of the pushrod via an adjustable eccentric bolt. I don't have that on the car. The MB service manuals I have on my computer don't talk about transmissions... Maybe I have the wrong MC/slave/pedal combo? Were there different part numbers through the years? Or maybe it just didn't bleed well, but then I'd have to find another bleeding method... Also, the shifter might be wrong for the transmission, but at the same time all 717's had the linkages setup the same way, so in theory any shifter should work... Maybe I installed the lockout plate on the wrong side? What do you think?