1982 240d shifter shot....what to do???
 

Have a terrific 240D sedan with standard transmission and gear box on the floor......shifter/gear box appears to be shot....it gets stuck now in one gear or another and will not disengage despite repeated pumping of clutch and efforts to disengage. Local MB mechanic who is good says that this part is no longer available as OEM and cannot be replaced. He worked briefly on linkage, freed it up, oiled it up and sent me on my way. This lasted for one day or two drives before it seized up again.

Any ideas on how to fix the shifter to make it work properly once again (what parts and where to find them) or where I might get a replacement part to fix this problem. Thanks.

Car has about 140,000 miles on odometer and the rest of the car works just fine but this is a big PROBLEM.......would get new car if I could afford it but between jobs and this is my only solution for now.....

I don't know how those things can wear out. Some soft parts can and need to be replaced periodically, but the shifter itself, kind of hard to believe. There are bushings in the shifter and linkages that need to be replaced every so often and sometimes it's possible for the linkage to loosen up where it enters the transmission. There are recessed allen bolts where the linkage enters the transmission that can come loose when you have bad bushings at the other end causing stress on the linkage. I think I'd sure get a second opinion.

Agree with Sokoloff. Short of the car having been immersed in saltwater for a year, the shifter mechanism should last. There is a lot of very hard steel used and it makes for a precise feel when it is working correctly. Get yourself a Haynes manual and pull the thing out of the tunnel. You may have to replace the bushings (and you can make these yourself out of PVC pipe etc), but you should be able to make it last the life of the car.

Rick

PS - are you sure this is not a hydraulic issue? If your slave cyl isn't throwing far enough you may get the same thing. I think your mechanic is clueless....

...and if that's the only thing wrong with your 240D, I would like to submit an offer:D

Do some ssearching here on the forum in the search function. there are a lot of people on the forum with these same shifters and this question has come up before.

Give Phill a call at Fast Lane in the Buy Parts Tab above. Phill can just about get anything.

start scrounging the wrecking yards for a shifter. I have picked up a couple for my future trans swap.

only 140,000 miles, wow! that would be a new car for some of us :rolleyes:. most of us are push ing 200,000 plus.

welcome to the forum.

Charlie

I am pretty sure that people in the archives have described replacing those bushings from under the car..

they are not bullet proof. Ive had 2 bad 4spd shifter from the PNP. I think when the linkage starts getting out of adjustment due to bushing wear the shifter is then pushed harder to make up the difference

you should be able to rebuild the shifter, the parts are still avaialble, just not the whole assembly

rs899
 

Thanks for heads up...my mechanic is a certified MB mechanic with years of working on these things....always too many cars for the hours...maybe he wants a short cut on this repair.....anyway, thanks for the input....will talk further with him about this......

as for the hydraulics, they were REPLACED by very same mechanic four weeks ago so this should not be the cause of the problem.......car gear box has been squirrely for months now IN ADDITION to hydraulics for transmission that WENT DOWN last month.....

Charmalu....

Called PHIL...he was great....doesn't know where to track down a new unit....not made anymore....but does know the parts to rebuilt this unit....is sending diagram and parts list and INSISTS on the sale.....lol......he was of the opinion the shifters are pretty have pretty strong materials and don't usually go south....thanks for the heads up.....

leathermang....

where exactly does one replace the BUSHINGS under the car...and how many of these are required? thanks.....

lutztd

PHIL confirmed your analysis....complete assembly no longer available but can be rebuilt with parts that ARE available......

My concern is the following: DO I REPLACE BUSHINGS AND LINKAGE to transmission BEFORE rebuilding shifter to INSURE that this is not the root cause of the problem, or do I go with my mechanic's opinion that the SHIFTER ITSELF is shot and needs replacement?

Teddy, I have not done this myself.... but my impression is there are three bushings...
but the descriptions are somewhere in the archives ( search engine ) by people who did it... and they describe the dexterity needed for this... LOL
If I run across my FSM which covers this I will post the researched answer...

the bushings are very large and kind of a pain to install, but since they are large, when they wear out they afford a ton of play in the shifter rods. put it up on ramps or jackstands, block the wheels really good and put it in neutral. on the underside of the shifter there are holes in the three arms you can stick a shaft through. I use a drill bit from my set but I dont know off hand the size, should be around 3/8. it will go through the 3 arms and a channel on either side that is part of the shifter body. this is your set point. Now see if the shift rods have play, they should not move at all, or just a little bit, make sure it is not just the shifter arm moving, sometimes I have to turn the drill bit to make sure it is not in a flute. If your bushings are worn the rods will be able to be moved quite a bit, maybe to the point of actually partially engaging a gear. If thats the case then it may just be bushings.

on some PNP cars I have seen the bushings nearly cut in half. on these cars I find the shift lever is usually bent to the point it either wont come up to shift to reverse or it wont go down to engage anything but reverse. this was from trying to push it far enough to get it into gear with the reduced travel of the rod because of the worn bushings.

if your shift rods are tight, no play and your shifter handle will still allow up and down motion to engage reverse and forward gears, then the slop is in the shifter and it will need to be rebuilt

To amplify a bit on what lutzTD said:

1)There are 3 big rubber bushings on the ends of the arms close to the tranny
2) There are smaller bushings at the shifter ends of the arms
3) There are bushings at either end of the short shaft on the selector (that sits in the tunnel)

They all need to be fairly tight. I have rebuilt my shifter using found materials for #2 and #3. The bushings are available from MB or Phil, if you want to use those. The #1 bushings are available from many sources. It's really not a big job and when done, really improves the responsiveness of the car.

As far as what to do first- well, we can't tell you that from here. I would suggest you pull the shifter out of the tunnel and give it a good look from the bottom. The selector "keys" should be all together on the shaft. To do this you need to get under there and release the back ends of the rods from the selectors just under the shifter. Then pull the boot off and remove 4 10mm bolts. Should take you less than half an hour to get to this point.

Thanks one and all for your input....will go over this with my mechanic to see if I can get this darn thing working again.....found replacement/used shifter unit assembly from recycler in GA this morning.....paid $75 for unit with rods and they are sending to me today.....hope it works!!! Mechanic tells me he DOUBTS the problem is with the bushings being broken or rotted out.....at least the exterior bushings he can see without taking the tranny apart......should I be suspicious of this diagnosis? I can't afford to have this replacement shifter unit go bad on me again because of an underlying problem....

Any thoughts?

Ok...your mechanic says he doubts the bushings are the problem..?
is he saying the shifter mechanism itself is the problem in his view ?.. or internal problems exist with the trans ?
If you don't trust him why are you using him ?