Hi all,

Adjusting my throttle linkage and doing a repair there to try and remedy some shift issues, for all who helped me on my long thread about those issues, a big thank you.


My question is whats the tension like of your Bowden cable? How long does the cable measure (under the rubber sleeve from exact attachment points?)? I have all the other proper lengths for the rods but I couldn't find this piece of info.

When you pull on the cable how much resistance do you have?

I need to know for my 82 300D (setup pictured) but hopefully this thread may be useful to other folks and different models.

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1985 300D Surfblau "Blueberry" 250K R.I.P
1984 300CD Manila Beige "The Banana" 238K R.I.P
1984 300TD Cypress Green "Olive" 390K (M.I.A.)
1982 300D Orient Red "Steak" 195K
1985 Euro 300TD Lapis Blue “Pancake” 200k KM
1982 300D Light Ivory “Butter” 183k
1984 300TD Black “Pepper” 55k

This information is specifically what I ended up with on my 84 & 85SDs with 722.303 and 85TD with 722.315. Your 82 may be different.

Disconnect the cable at the valve cover and take it out of the bracket. You can feel when it comes under tension from the transmission. None of my cars have much tension when the accelerator pedal is released.

The boden mostly controls how long the trans holds before up shifting. Governor pressure and total vacuum and VCV have to be in specs for the boden need to be where you expect it.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

The Bowden cable should be neither loose nor under tension when the linkage is in idle position. This is true of all Mercedes equipped with a Bowden cable.

On my om603 it is not tense but not loose, i.e. when you move the throttle it gains tension immediately, but it's not tense at its idle position. Shifts good; when it was shorter there was flaring, when it was loose - car was sluggish and it was dangerous.

Thanks for the responses, I was under the impression it should be fairly taut in idling position, which neither of mine are, but both gain tension quickly. I was getting concerned that I had ALWAYS had my linkage set up incorrectly.

It wasn't the culprit for my issue but I got it sorted!

84-85 models from Mercedes 1/2 ball short. You went to far if does not down shift properly.