When cold, the transmission from the '83 300D donor engages drive and reverse immediately. Once things warm up a bit from driving around, reverse still engages promptly without delay, but drive begins to stop engaging while at full stop, and the transmission just sits as if it is in neutral unless you goose the throttle for a few seconds, then when it does grab, it grabs hard as if drive had just been mysteriously selected.

Fluid levels are spot on. Bushings are all new and the rod is adjusted correctly per the FSM. I drained and filled the transmission when it was installed about 700 miles ago, and the fluid seems fine. I'm just wondering if I am sitting on a time bomb here, as the length of time that the throttle needs to be raised before drive engages is increasing noticeably. Can anyone here shed some light on this? I can't seem to find any references by searching the site to anything like this.

I forgot to add that there is a discernible whine directly effected by engine speed which comes from the transmission. The pitch changes slightly depending on temperature, as well as when the transmission is shifted from park to any other gear. That seems like a front pump issue, but I'm not sure if it is related to the delayed engagement problem.

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- K.C.Adams

'77 300D Euro Delivery
OM617 turbo / 4-speed swap
404 Milanbraun Metallic / 134 Dattel MB-Tex

Current status:
* Undergoing body work

My '77 300D progress thread