I have decided to go ahead and just replace the transmission since I have already purchased another. I did not give MB the 6700 they were asking for, I bought another from Potomac German in FL for $1400 with 2000 miles on it when the truck was totalled. I really appreciate all the great advise and it is wonderful to have MB experts online to to help us all out to understand the working of our autos. Since so much of new vehicles has become computerized diaognostic the avg user cannot afford the thousands of dollars for the equiptment to do this. I wll have the truck trailered to my brothers shop this weekend and R & R the trans the following weekend. My last question is the new trans is out of a 2002 ML320 and mine is a 2000 model. After I change the trans, fluid, filter, front seal for good measure, is there anything I will have to do ie: reprogram the computer etc. I believe that all values stored in the module after disconnected will reset and following the drive 1st through 5th less that 1900 rpm and then let run for 10 ,minutes should reset all adaptation values. Are my assumptions correct?? I will also post my findings from the bottom of the pan of the old one so it can be interpreted to the adaptation values that were read. Share the findings??blue