84-85 300DT owners look at this bulletin
 

Hi Folks:
We all are going crazy about our 1-2 hard shift and 3-4 soft shift. Found that MB actually had a recall on this. Found this at NHTSA website Following is the summary. Does any one have more detail on this bulletin and fix.
Make: MERCEDES BENZ Model: 300 Year: All years

"Service Bulletin Number: MBNA 27/7 Bulletin Sequence Number: 044 Date of Bulletin: 07/84

NHTSA Item Number: 74854
Component: POWER TRAIN:TRANSMISSION:AUTOMATIC
Summary:
IMPROVED SHIFT QUALITY, AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION 722.3 MODELS 123.133/153/193 A ND 126.120- A MODIFIED VALVE BODY INSTALLED TOIMPROVE PARTIAL-LOAD UPSHIFTS. NOW A VALVE BODY REPAIR KIT AVAILABLE TO IMPROVE HARD 1-2 AND SOFT 3-4 UPSHIFTS . M-B MODEL300D TURBODIESEL, 300CD TURBODIESEL, 300TD TURBDIESEL, AND 300SD TURBODIESEL. "


Now which valve are they talking about.

MVK

Credit for finding following site goes to ictamots
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb/central2.cfm

"Valve Body"??
 

Usually a tranny "valve body" is a large complex casting that covers the whole bottom of the transmission. It forms channels with various valving mechanisms, i. e. check valves, restrictors etc. that direct the flow of the ATF. You can remove the tranny pan and the filter and most likely all of what you see is the "valve body" I have seen upgraded rebuilds $300-400 in the past.

Here's a pic of one from this site

http://www.transonline.com/bottomFrameset.html

Thanks Billybob
 

Well I thought it would be a small part like a valve itself. I guess its not worth spending all that $ at this point on my car. I lived with it for so long so why not now.

MVK

So why does this only cover 84-85 models? Looks like the bulliten states Year: All.

And how can I tell if this recall has been done without dropping the trans pan and looking for the dam(s)?

MBWayne-

If you take the VIN to the dealer they can run it and see if there were any recalls done (e.g. Trap Oxidizer).

Be sure to take a copy of that bulletin to the dealer, they probably have forgotten about that fix.

I'm interested in knowing what you find out. Link didn't work for me.

Craig