Thanks, and an into - 1980 300D - Greasecar

[driad_98]

Hey there, thanks a ton to all of you for creating this excellent pool of knowlege. The archives here are amazing. It's helped me a ton. I wish I'd gotten here sooner, as I just replaced the tranny in my 300D and after reading the archives, I suspect I didn't need to. Ooops. It was flaring badly on all shifts, and kept doing it with the new tranny.

Here's the deal: The car has an aftermarket TC, a RayJay from back in the day. Adding this TC apparently required the removal of the EGR system. I was just about to replace my switch over valve, 'cause the vacuum to the modulator wasn't going down with increased throttle, thus the soft shifts and flaring. Turns out that the vac line going to the EGR valve, through the 17C temp switch had simply been plugged. When I disconnected the vac line to that temp switch, the tranny shifts like a champ. Shift point for the 3/4 is a little high for my taste, but still a whole new world of tasty tranny action.

So I still have to do some work on the ACC action, I'm losing some coolant from the servo, and my heat doesn't work at present, but I am not afraid. I figure if I can swap trannys in my driveway, there's nothing on this car I can't do.

I also installed a second fuel system on this car, with a heated 24 gallon tank in the trunk, and a heated 10mic filter in the front. *This* 300D burns straight vegetable oil. Woo woo!

Oh, so has anyone heard of problems with aftermarket TC's on normally aspirated cars? Something about missing oil-jets under the pistons... I heard a tale of an old diesel (220D?) burning up a piston from an afterthought TC. How fast does your 300D go? Mine'll get up to 80 real easily, but shudders a bit above that. Prolly need some suspension work... alignment and wheel balance, at least.

Oh, one more question for now, the lights for my instruments and ACC console are out. The came on for a little while, a couple weeks ago, but now they're out again. Is there a common cause/simple fix? Thanks a ton, you all, and I'm looking way forward to becomming a member of the community.

Cheers,
Ash