Shakes When in Drive but not in Neutral
 

Whywould my car shake at idle and in Drive, but not in Neutral or Park? Is this transmission mount related?

Motor Mounts, Rack Damper Pin Adjustment, or possibly something else is loose making a vibration (like the air cleaner or something) Try checking those things and it might expose the problem....

Yeah,I have found my engine shakes pretty bad in drive
 

but not so bad in neutral, I have two busted Air cleaner mounts (hurry up phil) and my Motor mounts are so bad the tranny hits the tunnel when I turn left...soon to be fixed I promise... anyone wanna help me name my car?
anyway the best reason I can come up with is while under a load, but not up to smooth rpm, the motor reacts strongly to the broken parts. a 5 cylinder motor is going to be unbalanced by nature simply due to 360* not easilly divisable by 5 smoothly 72degrees is kinda uneven on a crankshaft, and diesel is pretty vibration prone as well. combine all this with worn out parts and under a load... noisy!
John

Mine did this, and replacing the motor mounts took care of it.

i have relativeley new motr mounts (less than a year old) and just put a new air cleaner bracket with new mounts and heat shields, so I guess its safe to assume its the tranny mounts. Is this hard job to do? I have no idea whats involved.

Replacing the mounts is an easy but sligtly dirty job. Steam clean the engine bay before you do it, you will be much happier.

Call your car nervous.

Replacing the rear mount is simple. Support the tranny with a big block of wood under the pan. Push up a little, you can go too far, so make sure you have clearance in the tunnel above the driveshaft. You have to remove the tray that holds the mount (4bolts). Should take you 30 minutes or so. Much easier then the other two motor mounts. Mine was actually seperated, the rubber was puffed up like a sponge. Never changed in 22 years. If you need a step by step, I'll be glad to write it up.

I had some shaking problem and it ended up being one of the motor shocks was bad..

I had the same problem.....passenger side motor mount (destroyed from years of heat exposure).

I have the engine shock (190d 1984) completely removed.

I replaced both motor mounts and experience no vibration anymore in D...(nor in R)

I've heard of 'new' motor mounts going bad...send pics of the mounts if you can.

-Mike

You state you need mounts, so I'd do that first. If it still shakes, my bet is on a Rack Dampner Pin adjustment.

hello hello
 

hello. this is my first post ever so bear with me. thank you. i too have a shaking motor. it's a 300td 1982, china blue. i bought it at an auction not too long ago and have taken it upon myself to fix those things that require attention. the motor shakes something fierce and has from the get go. i replaced the motor mounts with the help of a friend and it seemed as though the shaking only got worse. with a little luck i found my way here and through reading up on similar problems, i am leaning towards replacing the engine shocks and shock mounts as well. does anyone have any advice in this regard? do i need to lift up the motor again? should i try something else first? the car shakes worse in drive than park or nuetral and reverse is some kind of blender shakin. i want to say that i can feel it moving around at up to around 30 mph, but maybe im trippin. please help me out if you can. thank you. shoots

What about the driveshaft rubber donut? I have replaced that before and it does shake in "D" and not in "N" or "P".

old fashioned
 

the driveshaft rubber donut? does this pastry come by another name? this sundry is one i've never heard of.

Flexible Joint Disc is the official MB name for it. Merkur people call it the GUIBO.

I would second Aklim. If it's shaking in D and not other modes I would have a look at the drivetrain and make sure all is well down there. Can''t hurt to look.

Unless you don't jack it up right.