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  #1  
Old 02-16-2018, 07:36 PM
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Bad News On My 300TE Transmission

Had my weekend planned out to replace the B1 and K1 valves in the valve body and give it a good general cleaning, due to a weak or non existent 1-2 shift. Start in drive, manually shift to 2nd and ease off the pedal a little and it hooks right up. Sometimes it shifts perfectly. Sometimes it just revs like mad between and then skips directly to 3rd. Even the factory manual says bad B1 valve in the body.

Found the torque converter drain, found the STRIPPED Allen head pan drain plug (vise grips). Got the pan off, got the filter loose and took it into the shop to see what was up. Not much of anything in the pan, fluid isn't badly burned or full of metal, but being the aviation type, I wanted a look in the filter, so I pried the crimped edge off with pliers and opened it up like an oyster. Ignorance is bliss and I shouldn't have looked inside. Pics below. (Well, no pics. Can't get them to upload. Pretty useless forum feature.)

At any rate, there is a small handful of fingernail and smaller sized pieces of what looks like paper gasket and one piece about an inch and a half long, but being these bits are radiused, I am guessing that's the lining of my B1 band. Now for the $2000 question that might save me a rebuild... Is a 4spd transmission out of a 93 300E sedan with the M104 the same as the one in this 300TE wagon? If so, I can probably make it work with the trans out of my parts car combined with the one in my wagon. If not, I'm in for a major rebuild, I guess.

I have no choice but to put it back together, so I'm going to go ahead and do the valve body work and drive it until I decide what to do.

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  #2  
Old 02-16-2018, 07:38 PM
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Where are you located? Maybe I’ve got something for you?


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Past mb: '73 450sl, '81 280slc stick, '71 250, '72 250c, '70 250c, '79 280sl, '73 450sl, parted: '75 240d stick, '69 280s, '73 450slc, '72 450sl,
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  #3  
Old 02-16-2018, 07:43 PM
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Alabama
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  #4  
Old 02-16-2018, 08:26 PM
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If you’ve got a trans from an m104, I believe it will work. Probably too far for me to ship one.


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Past mb: '73 450sl, '81 280slc stick, '71 250, '72 250c, '70 250c, '79 280sl, '73 450sl, parted: '75 240d stick, '69 280s, '73 450slc, '72 450sl,
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  #5  
Old 02-17-2018, 01:27 AM
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Tore down and rebuilt the valve body tonight. It was not nearly as nasty as I had expected, given the amount of lining in that filter. I'll put it together tomorrow and see if it changed anything. Got more work I'm doing, as well, so won't be driving until tomorrow afternoon.

Somebody has been messing with this transmission before. The drain plug in the pan had the Allen head stripped (grrrrr), and there was some line brackets and such left loose. Nothing in the fluid or the valve body looked nasty enough for such a catastrophic failure. Wondering if somebody put a used trans in it and didn't flush the cooler and/or torque converter after it lost a band. We'll see.
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  #6  
Old 02-18-2018, 09:23 PM
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Drove it last nigh and tonight. 70 miles round trip, both nights. Good news is that I can still rebuild a valve body and make it work. Bad news is that it didn't fix anything, which is what I expected after the shards of band in the filter. Looks like I'm going to pull the 93 300E trans, put my valve body in it, and see if it's any good. If that works, I'll live with it. If it's wanky, I'll get the original trans rebuilt and swap it out later.
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  #7  
Old 02-28-2018, 12:19 AM
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Alright, screw it. Ordered one from Sun Valley today. Will report on how it works out, but I talked to Marc on the phone and REALLY seemed like a good guy that knows what he's doing.
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  #8  
Old 02-28-2018, 12:34 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MCallahan View Post
Alright, screw it. Ordered one from Sun Valley today. Will report on how it works out, but I talked to Marc on the phone and REALLY seemed like a good guy that knows what he's doing.
Just think, you'll pretty much have the big "oh crap" out of the way from this point on. I've always heard good things about Sun Valley.
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Old 02-28-2018, 11:30 AM
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Yup +1 on Sun Valley, I have only heard good things about their work. Once a trans is terminal no point in buggering around any further.
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  #10  
Old 04-04-2018, 02:34 PM
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Huge recommendation for Marc and Sun Valley!! The trans was IDENTICAL to mine in terms of fittings and switches. Shipped in a sturdy tote with a new dipstick O-ring included. Only weirdness was a strange vac fitting that my car didn't have, but I emailed on Sat morning (Sun Valley is closed on Sat) and Marc replied in minutes, saying just ignore it.

Only downside was they took a little longer getting my new transmission built than I was originally told. 3 days turned into almost 2 weeks. No huge deal in the end, as it was a rear wheel bearing that downed the car before the transmission quit.

I looked at several rebuild options, including rebuilding it myself. In the end, by the time you buy all the parts and a converter, then risk having to buy new internal parts if they are bad (new front pump is $500, by itself), might as well throw another few hundred bucks Marc's way and know it's done right.
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  #11  
Old 04-05-2018, 03:05 PM
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Sounds like you bought a rebuilt and installed that, and also sent in the old transmission to have that rebuilt, so you can put that on the shelf?
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  #12  
Old 04-06-2018, 12:07 AM
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Sun Valley sells rebuilt Mercedes transmissions. That is what they specialize in. The old transmission will be sent back as a core.

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