Good news: I adjusted my steering box today and the slop is gone!

Bad news: In doing the adjustment, I snapped off the plastic nipple on the brake booster line where the transmission/shutoff vac line and the door locks/CCU vac line connect.

On my car, both of these vac lines were T-ed together and they connected to the booster line at the nipple closer to the brake booster. (The nipple closer to the vacuum pump had apparently been broken off by the PO, as it's gone and the hole is sealed up.)

I ordered a replacement booster line from Phil and installed it. I used both nipples this time. The door locks didn't work, the transmission shifted harshly, and the engine wouldn't shut off with the key. I double checked that everything was connected and even did the "suck test" on the shutoff valve just to make sure it was still good.

Thinking maybe the PO was on to something that I didn't know about, I replicated the one-nipple connection from the old booster line by T-ing the vac lines and plugging the unused nipple. No change. Then, I "fixed" the old booster line using some vac hose and epoxy/duct tape. The repair held long enough for me to reinstall the old booster line and confirm that the locks worked and the car shut off just like old times.

I feel I've narrowed down the problem to the new booster line, but what could be wrong with it? Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading this long post!

Charlie

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05 E320 CDI - 185K miles
82 300D - 200K miles (sold)