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Originally Posted by Wes Bender
I rather doubt that having to include (or not include) the dashpot had anything to do with MB not offering the manual 5 speed with the turbo diesel.
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Agree completely. The reason they didn't sell turbo manuals here or anywhere in the world was that all the turbos were reserved for high-spec (luxury trim) cars. Even in Europe, most of the high-spec Mercedes are automatic. The super-rare S-class manual transmission versions, for example, were equipped with the bottom-of-the-range 280 engine.
The point is that the lack of manual-shifted W123 turbodiesels throughout the world was almost certainly a function of marketing, not engineering.
Nonetheless, some of those who have converted their turbodiesels to manual have said that the shifting is tricky since the engine loses revs quickly. My conjecture is that this would be the case with any automatic-->manual conversion. The special dashpot on manually shifted cars will probably solve the problem.
Unfortunately, it seems it would be very difficult to add the necessary bracket to the injection pump when installed on the engine.
