It gets worse, I was on my way to a job about 40 miles from my house, towards the end on the freeway I noticed that the shifter was unresponsive for drive down to third. Still shifting based on torque and/or speed well enough but it hit me, if it only knows Drive no matter the handle position, I might need to turn around go back home. Even if my client wasn't at the end of a long driveway I wouldn't be able to turn the car off.

I've never had the shifter console cover off, it's resisting easy removal, but I suspect the problem is further below, where the linkage transfers instructions to the tranny. I found a video on the site which shall not be named, he refers to plastic rings that can disintegrate.

Any great advice? I'm on a gravel turn out close to her house that leaves me the option of pulling forward and going home. She thinks she has some jackstands that her late husband used, she's looking and will bring them to me so I can crawl under and investigate.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Never mind. Fixed it. Thanks to our buddy's vid, my iPhone, and having one jack stand, a work blanket, and some zip ties on board. Holy crap I'm glad I got out of this one.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K