Tonight my car made a LOUD clunk while I was pulling out of a parking lot. It sounded like I'd scraped the bottom off of my car but I didn't hit anything(or scrape anything) '83 240-manual, 219000 miles, bought it about 5-6 years ago. So, loud clunk then transmission won't engage. Pushed it into parking space and try the gears and all I get is a grinding when I let out the clutch. I tried all the gears and I get a higher pitched whine/grindy noise as I go from 1-4. I know this isn't anything I can fix myself but I'm just trying to get some idea what it could be so I know what price range I'm looking at. I love this car but if this is going to cost me quite a bit I might consider buying another car. Any thoughts?

If you feel the Clutch is working OK inspect the linkages and levers to see if the Levers are solidly Mounted.

Not a Merceds but I had a Car years ago with a Manual Transmission and one of the Levers was loose on the Shaft. It would sometimes pop out of gear and then it stopped and would not shift into any gear.

In Many Manual Tansmission there is 2 tined forked shaped part inside of the Transmission that slides a Gear to shift into other gears. The tips of the fork can wear or break off.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thank you Deisel911. I didn't notice a difference in the clutch but to be honest I wasn't thinking clutch at the time because of the noise. I've had a clutch go out on me before but it was a slow progression.

I don't have a book on the car & I haven't EVER messed with clutch or transmission stuff(other than drain & refill oil), so I have no idea what you mean when you say check the linkages and levers. If it's something I can do in just a couple of hours and someone knows where to point me in the right direction for instructions I can do this! I'm better with pictures along with written instructions.

Part of the linkages between the actual Stickshift lever and the Transmission MAY be loose.

BUT!!!
Since you didn't hit or "Scrape" anything on the bottom of the chassis,
What may have happened is one of the engine mounts or the tranny mount
may have finally Failed [collapsed/broken] ["CLUNK"] which would "Mis-Align" the tranny linkages.

http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/outside/12265/disc_2/program/Engine/615/00-211.pdf

http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/outside/12265/disc_2/program/Engine/615/00-212.pdf

If you have Mini-shock absorbers on your engine,
you won't have an "Engine Stop",But here are the instructions if you do have one:

http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/outside/12265/disc_2/program/Engine/615/00-215.pdf

http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/outside/12265/disc_2/program/Engine/615/00-220.pdf

So,don't go adjusting the linkages,until you know the mounts aren't the problem.
Or the difficulties will just be compounded.

The other possibility Diesel911 has already mentioned: The Plastic bushings that are in the
moving (Leverage) points of the linkages wear/break/fall out.If one or more of them "go south"
it will affect shifting ability.

Member WHunter on this forum who is one of the moderators and a technical
genius can help you with access to the FSM online:
Mercedes Service Manual Source, CD/DVD/Paper
AND your Mechanical Difficulties.

In some cases on the older chassis the Transmission manual was a separate
book (and I don't know if they were included in the media transfer to CD)

This is a link to the online CD disc #2 that whunter posted in another post:


His reply #6
W123 Service Manual Library

Mercedes-Benz Model 123 - Disc 2

(Just as an example.)

And I don't have the older software and used chrome with java 8 V 25 and the link opened for me.
(It's Christmas, maybe usually recalcitrant software works)

Send whunter a message and ask him about access to the manuals AND your possible solutions.
(Or hopefully by daylight,someone with a W123 240D 4 Spd./5 Spd Manual Tranny will see your post and chime in)

LOTS of those very Mercedes were used as Taxis (And still are) in almost "End of the World" places.
Where the roadways are pothole filled (Not what we know as a pothole in the U.S. ,but the size of Tank Traps.),
huge rock enabled,cattle paths.

The pictogram is the result of googling "W123 240D manual transmission linkage"

Attached Thumbnails

 

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

'83 240D Manual Transmission linkage issues - Mercedes-Benz Forum

(This post "over there" has some great pictures and will give you an idea of what you're working towards.)
(BUT,I'd wait and ask whunter the best plan of attack before jumping in.)

from Benzworld member JBG3 :

"you should put everything back to neutral and readjust the linkage bars. There is a provision under the stick to lock all three linkage arms together for adjustment, you can see in this pic (W201 shifter, but same principle), to the right and the left of the for arms, are plastic bosses that match holes through the arms themselves. You can put a rod through them and lock them in place.

There are proper adjustment procedures in the FSM, but id probably wing it and put all the levers on the transmission straight up and down (neutral), and put all the levers on the stick in the same orientation (neutral), and see how off my actual connecting linkage bars are, and adjust accordingly."

(What I Think the picture is showing is the underside of the Console Shifter apparatus with the shifter rods attached.)

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

'Curse of having Blind,Deaf Calligraphers reproduce the FSM from the Sanskrit
translation to the Urdu text to be read by Italians,In Italian, to Cuban Cigar
factory readers Reading While They Roll: Cuba's Cigar Factory Tradition - Video - TIME.com
who then read ,In Cubano patois,to the Tennessee Coal Miner (In The Actual Mine),
over a Short Wave radio connection, the Translation to be Digitized into the MB FSM service CD discs .

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__________________
'84 300SD sold
124.128

That the pitch changes upward with each gear is the clue. The output shaft three-legged flange has probably stripped its splines.

Weaknesses of the aluminum trans in the 83...

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Ok, I really think I'm over my head. I'm going to go in to town in a little while & poke around on the car to see if I can figure anything out. I found a youtube video that showed me where front mounts are...and am now thinking that might be it because they talked about engine vibration and noise & my car seemed to be getting noisier over the last month or so.

2 questions:
1. How many motor mounts are there?
2. Is it possible that failing motor mount could cause vibration while turning steering wheel one direction but not the other?

Checked the car out...as much as I could not knowing what I'm doing LOL. This is what I did. Jacked the back driver's side up & spun the wheel. Drive shaft turned so I crawled under the car & had someone turn the wheel while I held the drive shaft in place & it still spun. I think I found levers & there's about 3/4" play in one of them at the top. That's about all I could do. Well, that and I found 2 motor mounts, or what's left of them, ok, nonexistant really.

Going to have it towed to the shop and hopefully, whatever it is, it's not going to cost an arm and a leg. Will post when I find out what's going on.

While it's in the air is there anything specific I should ask to have replaced or at least checked? Thanks!!

I'll never crawl under anything that's not on immovable supports!

The Flex discs in the driveline look at them also the center
driveshaft bearing and support.

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

LOL Yep, it made me a bit nervous even though I blocked the front and back of every single wheel!

This is one area where the Mercedes-Benz Diesel 123 Series 1976 thru 1985 4&5 Cyl Hannes 63012(697) Manual may be helpful. There is drawings of the outer and inside of the 4 speed Transmissions.

You can get a used one on ebay so you don't pay the full price or some large Libraries have them. Now that I think of it large Libraries also have Chilton or Motors Manuals where you could get a look at the Transmssion.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

For the Tow join one of the Auto Clubs if you are not already a Member or have Insurance that does that.

As far as costing an arm and a leg goes fixing things yourself can relive some of the cost of things but anyone can get stuck with a hefty Bill once in a while and it does not matter what Motorvehicle you Drive.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

DONT EVER GET UNDER THE CAR WITH ONLY A SINGLE JACK. I dont do the caps thing often BUT DONT DO IT. Minimally a floor jack and the spare tire jack and even then not more than an arm in there.

__________________
http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42