ok, I'm so sick and tired of these rubbery, imprecise, long as hell MB manual transmissions. replaced the mechanism and all bushings with new ones, still no help. is there a way to make the shift knob more precise with shorter and easier throws? any short shifter kits?

plus my reverse sometimes requires a second clutch, which is in the first attempt it doesn't get into gear, then i take it to neutral and release the clucth and try the reverse again. this tranny drives me nuts.

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2001 E200 Kompressor Avantgarde
1987 300E 5-speed
1976 450SLC
1975 280S (sold)
1973 230.6 (sold)

I drive a manual transmission 300E 190 miles almost every day. I've never so much as changed a bushing in the shifter in well over 150,000 miles since I've had it and it works perfectly.

I don't totally understand your question. Is there something not working correctly? If you just don't like the FEEL that is due to the design of the shifter, there's not a lot you can do about it without doing some pretty serious fabrication. You could fabricate some transmission levers that are shorter to give a shorter throw. You could fabricate brass bushings for all the pivot points to make it less smooth and more noisy.

MB's, even ones with manual transmissions are designed with extremely high concern for quiet, smooth operation. They are very successful at this. Their goal is not to make a stripped down, noisy, harsh race car. With this design goal in mind, they mount the shifter to the chassis rather than the hot, vibrating transmission.

I have driven way over a million miles in all sorts of cars and very, very few of those miles in cars with automatic transmissions. I started in cars with three speeds on the column, knuckle buster non synchro light truck transmissions, sixties muscle cars with various four speeds and hurst shifters, etc, etc, and I find the shifter in my Benz to be excellent. It is not a short throw Muncie, but it doesn't need to be, that engineering necessity is found in cars that are snap shifted hard while going through the 1/4 mile or mixing the gears quickly up and down while working through a road course. The MB was not exactly designed with this in mind.

After finishing the above and posting it, it occurred to me that what might be giving you trouble is the clutch not fully releasing. You need to check the hydraulics and ensure that it is bled properly and in proper order.

Good luck,

Hi Larry, I was expecting your reply knowing your 300E.

My W124 started its journey in 1987 with a carburated M102 2.0 (luckily US market never got that engine although it was very reliable for 430000 km's) coupled to a 4 speed manual. Then I came up with this 180000 km old 260E engine, tranny, diff and other items such as sportline suspension, swaybars, exhaust, etc.. Entire swap took 5 days and the change was unbelievable. However, I was not really impressed with the new shifter mechanism (i put brand new). It's like the difference between the rack&pinion and the old recirculating ball; the accuracy and the feel of it. Yeah sure the good old steering box was reliable to hell but MB changed it for some reason. I'm feeling the same thing for the shifter. I'm not a fan of BMW, but after driving their stick, I know that I want that same shifter feeling in my car. It would be great if I could manufacture shorter levers.

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2001 E200 Kompressor Avantgarde
1987 300E 5-speed
1976 450SLC
1975 280S (sold)
1973 230.6 (sold)