Jimmy, I checked the previous posts you cited... Lots of good stuff. Wish I'd found that when I was searching the posts before.
Yep, same car. first and third gear, no second and slipping in fourth. I drove up from San Antonio (300mi) with my nephew in my old 300SD and drove the 190 back in third gear at 55mph (about 3000rpm) No problems on the trip, and the fuel economy was 31mpg on the 190d in third gear. Curiously, I got 31mpg on the old 300d on the drive up at 65 to 70 mph with the AC on all the way, and driving back tes 300 got the same 31mpg following the little blue car at 55mph all night with the AC off. Seems to prove the old 300d has a 'sweet spot' for fuel economy at about 65mph. It was funny to pull into the truck stop in Austin and tank up both cars after 184 miles... They were both full to the brim with 5.9 gallons each.
Yes, Durango Motors was dishonest in their listing. They only said that it 'shifted hard' into second gear. I probably wouldn't have bid on it if I had known the truth. But once I got there, I managed to get the price down considerably below my ebay bid. Not enough knocked off the price to pay for the trans rebuild or replacement, but hey... I was expecting some trouble with it anyway, and I've been wanting one of the turbo 190d's for some time. Aside from the trans problems, it's a pretty good example of a fairly rare car. I'm sure I'll get many years of enjoyment from it.
AAR... CAN ANYBODY TELL ME WHERE TO LOOK FOR REBUILD PARTS FOR THE 722.413, OR WHAT USED TRANSMISSION TO LOOK FOR? I can't just drive it in third gear forever. Thanks again for the response.