This has nothing to do with any car I now own. But I am curious to know if any of you with a 220D & manual trannie have had any problem with the out put shaft stripping the splines? The 220D I had several years ago did this very thing to my wife. Luckily it was in our driveway when it happened. Dealer wanted like $300 bucks for a new output shaft, and couldn't find one at the local wreckers, so parked the car until it go to rusty and I gave it away. Was a real bummer, because it was a good runner. But I heard later that this was a weak spot with those cars. Did the 240D's get improved?
I ask all this because would like to pick up another someday for their simplicity and otherwise dependability.

__________________
past MB rides:
'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
'67 230
'84 SD
Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
2011 Polaris Assault
'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)

rickg,
I have run two 240D's (1974 and 1982) well over 240,000 miles each and a 1971 220D at least that far with no problems with the parts you mentioned. I would suspect something else failed to contribute to the problem you experienced. All my old Diesels were, or will be, victims of the Northeast road salting practices in the Winter. If you are concerned with what happens after the 240,000 mile mark, well, the 1982 is edging towards 300,000 now, and others on this site have manual transmission equipped W123 machines that are still running with up to half a million miles, so if there was a generic weakness it seems to have been cured. Hope this helps, and expect you will get a few responses from the rest of manual transmission owners on the site.

Even with the confidence I have in these machines, when I look to buy another I am very wary of signs of abuse. Twenty years is a long time for a machine to operate, with proper care. Without resonable care, even one of these potentially indestructable transmissions can be broken down in twenty years or more. Good luck hunting for one of these machines, Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

I agree with Jim.

My first 240D, a '77 went 280,000 miles before I got rid of it. My second, an '84 now has 533,000 miles. My wife also had a manual transmission 240D for awhile.

None of them ever required any work whatsoever on the transmission. A few clutches have been replaced, and some hydraulic problems had to be sorted out, but the transmissions themselves never required anything but lubricant changes.

I expect the problem you experienced was due to driveshaft problems of some sort.

Good luck,

Thanx for the responses! I think I should have specified it was '68 220D, just in case that makes any diff. I did take the trans apart, and the splines were gone inside flange, and half gone on the output shaft itself. When I was shopping around for replacement parts, I was told by two different places that the 220D had a problem with that, and it was from taking off hard(which I did trying to pull out in traffic). The heavy flywheel of those engines would keep torquing on the splines until they would strip out.
I was hoping if it really was a weak spot, it was fixed on the 240D, which is what I would look for anyway. From your experiences, sounds like there isn't that problem, real or percieved, on the 240D.

__________________
past MB rides:
'68 220D
'68 220D(another one)
'67 230
'84 SD
Current rides:
'06 Lexus RX330
'93 Ford F-250
'96 Corvette
'99 Polaris 700 RMK sled
2011 Polaris Assault
'86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper)

I ran a '68 220D/8 for about 325,000 miles before setting it aside. It was bought used in 1970 and ran till 1990 with a rebuild on the engine at about 230k. Also replaced the clutch at the 230k mark and that was the only time the output shaft had been parted from the driveline. In all of that mileage there was no problem with the tranny, in fact I was amazed that it was so easy to move from gear to gear in the dead of winter. Once I found out that it was filled with ATF, it made sense. The car went all over the country from here in Okla to Vancouver Canada, Central Florida, Toronto/Buffalo; so it had seen Interstate and stop and go commuter traffic as well. During the engine rebuild the transmission was here at the house and spent some time cleaning up the outside, but was advised to leave it sealed since it sounded and worked so fine.

__________________
1961 190Db retired
1968 220D/8 325,000
1983 300D 164,150

The 4 speed is bulletproof. My car's engine was replaced after neglect before the first clutch was changed. They are definately extremely heavy duty. I can remember taxi drivers in the Azores going like mad, bucking the car, doing various things for quick take offs, extremely hard shifting...amazed the syncromesh lasted a day with their psychotic driving. From what I've heard, European 5spd tranny in the 300D is a totally different machine for reliabilities sake....when it's cold the tranny in my car is a bit stiff...let it idle for 5-8 minutes, and its nice again.

pretty bulletproof.

I had the input bearing go bad at about 340,000 (the clutch which had 250kmi was still ok).

__________________
Jovan

'84 (11/83) 190D 2.2 5-Speed; Silver/Blue; Motor No. 00354, 402k mi (340+kmi mine)

'89 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe; Black/Black; 53kmi
'05 BMW 530i 6-Speed; 302kmi
'19 Range Rover; 30kmi