I've noticed what seems like a lot of free play in the throttle linkage in my '81 300TD. When I depress the accelerator there is what seems like an inch or more of play before anything happens. Looking at the linkage on top of the valve cover and manually working the throttle cable there seems to be at least half an inch of movement in a crescent shaped "thingy" before anything actually starts reacting. Surely this is not normal. I'm new to Mercedes so I'm still learning but this does not seem right. I don't think I could ever get used to this. I must say the whole linkage design looks a little convoluted but elegant at the same time. However, it also looks like its doomed to loosen up at some point.