Here is how mine works -
1985 300D showing right at 230k miles.
Absolutely no complaints in the tranny dept BUT it shifts funny. The car is in high gear at 30 mph. I have tightened up the Bowden cable pretty tight just to see what was happening and the only thing that did was make it go into gear REAL FAST as soon as you moved the selector - you could feel it kinda jerk. I put the Bowden back where it was and just gotten used to it - I consider it a GOOD THING because it prevents that sweet diesel from having to rev very high. It is almost like a CVT trannys.

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Jim