Thanks for the tip, you were right I had the cable much too loose from seat of the pants adjustments. Disconnecting the ball socket and adjusting correctly helped smooth the low throttle shifts, although now my car is pretty much in 4th from 30mph onward.

1-2 and 2-3 are still pretty harsh, no where near as smooth as a modern automatic unfortunately; but with the fluid fully warmed, not too bad either. I'll keep tweaking I guess.

Just wanted to give credit where it was due, apologies for being dismissive at the time.

Cheers

If the car shifts too early, tighten the cable and it will hold the gears for longer. The tighter the cable, the further the trans thinks you're pushing the accelerator. The reverse is true for transmissions that want to redline every gear even at mild accelerator input.

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'84 190D 2.2 5MT (Red/Palomino) Current car. Love it!
'85 190D 2.2 Auto *Cali* (Blue/Blue) *sold*
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The brake booster is just a big surface area movable rubber saucer like thing which responds to vacuum being applied to one side of it which then helps push on the hydraulic piston of your brake system..... it does not produce anything... it is passive.... if you really do not have a container for vacuum then perhaps your electric pump is sufficient... but railroad cars, trucks, all the other cars with any brake boost... which pretty well means ALL those with any disc brakes... due to their lack of self energizing design... have the vacuum saved up for use when needed.

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/10414-help-i-need-check-stretch.html

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/156207-photo-step-step-post-showing-w123-evaporator-removal-1983-240d-1982-300td.html?highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

When my vac is disconnected my 93 300D bangs like a SOB going from gear to gear. I haven't seen anything that looks like a reservoir under the hood.

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1993 MB 300D 245K died.

I do not know about your car....but on my cars it has been located behind the rear seat up under the package tray I think.... or on a wagon back towards the rear under the cargo area....

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=10414

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/156207-photo-step-step-post-showing-w123-evaporator-removal-1983-240d-1982-300td.html?highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

The 90 and 91 have the reservoir....the 92 (and I believe the 93) do not.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 154k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 172k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

any reason adding one to my 93?

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1993 MB 300D 245K died.

If you disconnect the bfs and connect the lines together it will eliminate the bfs
It's helped my 85 with shifting.