Long story short... I'm buying a 1979 300SD that has a bad tranny, my buddy was driving it when it went out so here is the info first hand. He was just driving down the road and it just quit pulling, it stopped he couldnt get it to go forward or back. The shifter shifts through the gears but just wont engage. He said it was working great and then all of the sudden nothing.
Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking maybe the tourque converter but I would like some input from you guys with more experience. Thanks.

__________________
1983 240 D-SOLD
1979 300SD

Start by filling with ATF and check if the tranny is not losing fluid (as usual this is checked with the engine on).
It is usual on the 616 and 617 that the engine shake the ATF cooling lines until these are ground down against their mounts. It happen to me on the highway as well with exactly the same car. I was able to drive the car from Orlando Fl to Dallas TX by stopping every 100 miles to fill up the tranny with fresh ATF.

__________________
------------------------------------------
Aquilae non capunt muscas! (Eagles don't hunt flies!)


1979 300SD Black/Black MBtex239000mi
1983 300TD euro-NA. White/Olive Cloth-MBtex 201000mi. Fleet car of the USA embassy in Morocco
1983 240D Labrador Blue/Blue MBtex 161000mi

it looks like it has plenty of fluid in it but I'll check it when I get home. The fluid was nice and red and smelled sweet. hmmm. Thanks for the input.

__________________
1983 240 D-SOLD
1979 300SD

I would suspect that the torque converter is knackered. My 80 300SD came to me that way ( cheaply). The slender fingers of the TC had sheared off and wrecked the front pump. If I were you, I would remove one of the ATF cooling lines from the bottom of the radiator, start the car, engage reverse and see if you have any pressure. My guess is that you won't have any. I fixed mine by cannabalizing a 722.112 tranny from a 77 280S. Car works just fine now.

The design of that TC is weak in that regard. They beefed up the fingers on the 722.3xx .

Rick

__________________
80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Thanks Rick, that is what I'll do.

__________________
1983 240 D-SOLD
1979 300SD