Brian, I turned the screw below the oil filter housing 2 turns as you suggested. Now it takes more pedal to get a downshift (when slowing down from 60mph to 20 mph then hitting the accelerator). When I do get a downshift, it is firm but not as hard as before. It feels just about normal, if a tad too firm. Also, when maneuvering the car around my driveway, it only takes a light touch of the pedal to move the car. Before I was having to push the pedal much further to do low speed parking maneuvers. I was also having to push the pedal much further when accelerating away from a stop. I assume that the adjustment you had me do somehow changed my shift point relative to throttle position? What you referred to as the bowden cable adjustment screw is called the control thrust cable in my manual. The manual states "Detach ball socket (212). Push control thrust cable (211) forward until slight resistance is felt. In this position, attach ball socket free of tension; adjust at bowden cable, if necessary". According to the manual, the bowden cable is the cable up above this control thrust cable. Which is which?
I'm not sure what you had me do, but it helped. I would love to understand more. I plan to follow my manual's procedure for adjustment of the accelerator control linkage including this control thrust cable to get things fine tuned.
My car was operating without turbo boost when I got it. Is screwing around with this control thrust cable something that people (the previous owner) might do when the car has no boost and therefore no power? I would assume that they would do this to force an earlier downshift and make the car more driveable when it is lacking power? Thanks a million for the advice, and I look forward to hearing what I did.

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87 300D 162,000 miles: It's not just a car, it's an adventure!

I learn a great deal from reading Brian's trouble-shooting advice. 14,000+ posts - absolutely amazing.

I am equally impressed with your skills, Ramjensen, with helping to diagnose the problem - too many owners look for a quick & easy answer.

Finally, I apologize for not paying closer attention to your model - I thought at first reply you were in a w123.

I'll go back to 'lurking' now...

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83 300d - 390k

Good job.

The adjustment that you made was to the Bowden cable. What it does is to increase or reduce throttle pressure relative to engine speed. With higher throttle pressure, the transmission will shift later and downshift earlier.

In your case, with an early downshift, the engine speed is a bit too far from the vehicle speed and you get a clunk. To avoid the clunk, we reduce throttle pressure so that it downshifts a bit later........when the engine is turning a little slower.......so the shift is not as dramatic.

I really cannot fathom how the low speed performance would be improved. We did nothing to the relative position of the rack with respect to the accelerator pedal and we did nothing to the ALDA.

It sounds like he adjusted the linkage to the rack, not the bowden cable. He's talking about adjusting a "ball socket" in his post.

The Bowden cable has a ball socket at the very end. There is no adjustment to the rack down below the oil filter housing. The only cable in that area is the Bowden cable.

Brian, my factory manual is calling the cable above the one you had me adjust the bowden cable. The end of the cable the manual calls the bowden cable has a spring around it which rests against a bracket, and is retained on the end by a circular clip. The manual states that the adjustment of the bowden cable is done from inside the car. I know you know your stuff, but this has me confused. Why is my manual calling the cable below the oil filter housing the "control thrust cable" and the cable above it the bowden cable? The cable you had me adjust definitely reduced the amount of pedal required to accelerate the car. Will adjusting the bowden cable do this? I'm confused since I have confidence in you but my manual labels things differently. I hope you can enlighten me, since I would truly like to understand. Thanks so much for your help. I could not own and maintain this car if it weren't for you and guys like you on this forum. As it is, I am having a great time learning and working on this car!

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87 300D 162,000 miles: It's not just a car, it's an adventure!

I can only reference the W126 and the descriptions that you have provided don't match with that vehicle. If you have a second "control thrust cable" that is separate from the "Bowden cable" which allows the transmission adjustment, then, I'm unsure of the purpose of this second cable. Maybe some other W124 guys can chime in and fill in the blank here.

On the W126, the Bowden cable is adjustable right on the bracket by turning the white adjusting nut. It provides increased or decreased throttle pressure within the transmission.

I think I have it figured out. By examining my manual and the linkage itself, it is evident that what you called the bowden cable is indeed the bowden cable, Brian. It appears to be interchangeably referred to as the control thrust cable and the bowden cable in my factory manual. Call it what you will, it clearly leads down to the tranny and upon examining the linkage, one can see that adjusting this cable will change the relationship between whatever it does in the tranny to the position of the throttle. The confusion came in when my factory manual (evidently incorrectly) also referred to the cable that goes from the pedal inside the car to the throttle linkage as the bowden cable. Oops. I don't know what the cable from the pedal to the throttle linkage is supposed to be called, but I'm guessing it's not the bowden cable. This cable from pedal to throttle linkage just actuates the throttle, it would have no effect on shift characteristics. In the manual, they talk about adjusting it to set the idle stop. I plan to adjust my throttle linkage and bowden cable according to the procedure in my manual (except I will not be confusing the cables like they do). Upon driving the car today, I noticed that I was getting a slight 2-3 flare. I was not getting this before, and I assume that adjusting my bowden cable has changed my shift characteristics enough that I will be able to turn my vac amplifier down from its maximum vacuum boost setting. I previously had to have the thing cranked all the way up to get my shifts acceptably soft. (yes I did check with my vac gage to make sure I was turning the screw on the vac amp the right way) Anyways, it seems that adjusting the bowden cable was exactly what the doctor ordered.

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87 300D 162,000 miles: It's not just a car, it's an adventure!