I recently bought a 1980 280E and am having some transmission issues. I have hardly any acceleration when coming from a stop. When I merge into traffic I have to wait for a large opening. When on the hwy I can accelerate without too much trouble but then I notice it shifts rather hard. From the searches I have done on this forum it seems like it might be vacuum related. I found a DIY for adjusting it but it is for a diesel car. Is it the same? The VIN on my car is 12303312070741 if that helps. If I am leaving anything out please let me know. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Take a close look at the linkage on the intake area, make sure that the throttle linkage is
opening the throttle completely!

Many times a "nylon" insulator wears out & causes the accelerator not to open completely.

That will make the trans act funny as well.

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Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, between working long hours and poor weather I wasn't able to check it out until just yesterday. The throttle does move all the way but there is a lot of slack in the cable. Is that normal? One other thing, the car has over 244000km on it. How long do these transmissions last?