The '84 300DT is running again boys. The automatic tranny that I bought from the junk yard is working all right so far (knock on wood). They have a variety of wrecked MB diesels there, if anyone is looking for parts. They have pretty good prices (I got my tranny for $400)

The location is

6210 shephard drive
houston, texas

Oh yah they also had a beige 1985 300DT that had been in an accident.

Also, I am going to change out the fluid and filter from the junk yard tranny. The Haynes manual calls for 6.7 qts of dexron II tranny fluid. Does this include draining out the torque converter as well? I would imagine it to be more.

That's correct with draining the torque convertor. May actually be a slight amount less.

Was the tranny swap something you did? If so, how long did it take? Any particular part of the job a "hassle"?

I have 2 diesel MB 300. One (1985) shifts fine. The other has a transmission issue:

That one is an '82 300 D Turbo that won't shift out of 2nd. Any ideas?

I took the transmission out but the day that I was putting it back in was the day that the apt complex told me that they were going to tow my car and that I was not allowed to work in the parking lot anymore. So I had to outsource the putting it back in part (darn)

But honestly I was really close to putting it back in which is a little harder than taking it out.

The process is not hard but there are certain places where I had to fight the learing curve. I have attached a little summary of the steps that I took to remove it. Feel free to send a post or email me at
almadroog_7@hotmail.com
if you run into any trouble.

I dont think that the attachment made it so I will copy the steps into this message. Note this is the order of steps that I choosed to use, there might be other ways to do it but these are all of the things you need to take care of.


Removing 84 300DT Automatic tranny.

1. Drain Fluid from pan and T/C (use a 5mm allen key)
2. Remove ATF fluid dipstick pipe (use a 5 mm allen key)
3. Remove the Cooler lines. These lines connect the tranny to the radiator area. Use a 19mm Socket to grab them. There is also an aluminum ring that creates a metal to metal seal between the lines and tranny.
4. Remove Shift linkage from tranny. These are rings that look like extruded cotter pins in the tranny driver side area. Wedge a flat head into them and pry off.
5. Disconnect Bowden cable. This is the cable that starts at the top of the engine at the Throttle Linkage area and goes into the tranny on the passenger side. Wedge a flat head between the semi spherical boot and the surface of the vehicle and pry it off.
6. Disconnect vacuum line that goes into the driver’s side of the tranny. Just pull off.
7. Disconnect Speedo cable from tranny. It is held in by a side bolt which is 10mm on the drivers side.
8. Disconnect Neutral Safety switch. This plugs into the driver side of the tranny just like an electric socket fits into wall (pry it off using a flat head)
9. Disconnected a line that fit into the rear of the tranny.
10. Remove exhaust pipe. From 3 13mm nuts at engine, unbolt the exhaust support flange from below, and remove rubber oval supports at muffler.
11. Remove starter. Use a 10mm allen key.
12. Remove crossmember that is below the area where the drive shaft and tranny connect to each other.
13. Remove 6 bolts and nuts between drive shaft and the tranny output shaft and mark the location using spray paint. Use a 15mm socket and an open ended 11/16” wrench to torque the bolt and hold the nut respectively.
14. Shorten the length of the drive shaft by loosening the sleeve nut that is located in about 2.5’ away from the rear of the tranny. Use a pipe wrench on the flats of the sleeve to apply torque and another pipe wrench to secure. The flats are somewhere near 40mm so an open-ended wrench would work too.
15. Remove the 6 bell housing bolts. Use a 17mm Socket and a cheater pipe if necessary.
16. Remove 6 (13 mm) bolts that connect the torque converter to the flywheel. Use through hole in front of the tranny to access.

My car was doing that too. The only way that I could shift it out of second was to step on the accelerator till the rpms hit about 4000 and then released it. I then just disconnected the bowden cable (cable between throttle linkage area and passenger side of tranny) and it shifted fine.

When you disconnected the Bowden cable did that solve the problem or was it a temporary fix? Meanwhile, I'm going to read more about the Bowden cable issue in the forum.

The car has been sitting for sometime now. I still start it up every now and again just for the engine's sake.

well w/out the bowden cable it shifts fine but I am not sure if this will do damage to the tranny and that is what I am trying to find out thru this forum. I have a post going on about it now