Benefits of a properly working throttle linkage
 

I used some white lithium grease as per instructions from my Haynes manual, and I must say my throttle linkage is working better. The throttle linkages were kind of hard to pull off in some places, they were almost rusted together! So, after using the grease and putting everything back together, I have a smoother acceleration rate, and my kickdowns are smooth and not jerky now. It feels even better to drive it now. I'll put it on the SD as well.
-Joe

Hey Joe, it's Karugs. Mine feels alot smoother as well. I don't feel any more drag when flooring it from a stop or just pulling up and catching up to the car in front of me. White lithium grease works great on the sunroof rails too!

By any chance, did you also grease the hard to reach ones (between injection pump and engine block)? I couldn't...

I couldn't get the cable that goes to my transmission off to grease it. I guess it was really stuck. It made replacing the valve cover gasket a real pain. Mine was in such dire need of grease it would stick right before the kickdown switch engaged. Gave me a couple of close shaves. Greased it up and it works great. I guess i really should try it on the sunroof because its so slow and tempermental. Hopefully that's all it needs

I may have posted this before, but the Haynes is wrong on using white litium for the throttle linkages. ATF is the recomended lubricant. Sunroof rails should get lubed with the MB specific lube and not white litium either. The white litium will atrract dirt unlike the MB sunroof grease. The white litium will also tend to harden over time, again, not a big issue if you do it and check it often, but with the recommended lubricants, you can go every 15,000 miles as the manual says without worrying about it. If you check it and redo it often, you should be okay. Just an FYI.

Len

A good tool too use too separate the "ball' from the "socket" in the linkage, is a 10mm open end wrench, pops em right apart.

I just used a pair of long nose pliers and a flathead screwdriver. Flathead to pop the ball joints off and the pliers to "crimp" them back together.

Len, I went to the MB dealership (House of Imports here in CA) and they don't sell that MB grease. They mentioned Speedy-Glo or something like that. I asked the parts department. Should I drop by again and ask somebody else? Also how can the MB stuff not attract dirt, when the sunroof is open the grease is exposed to the dirt/air? Also, did I lube it right? When you open the sunroof the metal rails that are immediately visible are the ones I lubed. But I noticed that there was like a C-section when you look really close. Am I suppose to lube the space in between too? There's like an upper and lower rail, with a space between perhaps where a "guide" runs through for the moving roof.

Also, how do you lube the ball linkages if the ATF will just drip off? Won't that be temporary?