1983 240D Auto Trans not engaging

[thedrpepper]

Hi there! I just received a 1983 Mercedes 240D with 198k miles for Christmas!!!


The interior and exterior is a great condition and the engine runs like a champ!

Here is the problem (isnt there always?), she wont go into gear! It was like this when it was bought so we are not sure what happened to make the trans go out. When you take the car and put it into gear, you can hear it trying to go into gear. It does not move at all, you can just hear a slight decrease in RPM's.

I have changed the transmission filter and trans fluid. The filter looked normal and the transmission was not burnt... so now we are left scratching our heads.

Does anyone have any ideas on what it might be before we put a new trans in this car. Might there be something obvious there that we might be missing? This is my first 240D so I did not know if there was something obvious out there that might be an easy fix for this problem!

Any and all help would be GREATLY GREATLY GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance for all of your help!