New 300D owner, serious fuel / trans problem, help

[pwalsh53]

Hi guys, just got my '84 300 turbodiesel sedan today. 197k on the clock.

Everythings pretty much fine except for this problem I had on its first drive home today. First of all, it would not do a 0-60 run. Period. It would get hung up somewhere in between and just not go any farther with my foot down. The revs would just sort of hang and the car wouldn't pick up speed.

Now, if I did it leisurely, I could do 60 or 70 just fine, but if I put my foot down, the car would kick down fine but nothing would happen....it wouldn't go any faster, and when I was going up hills the car would SLOW down alarmingly, like the engine wasnt getting enough fuel or something.

I've read up on the trans flaring and such, but I'm really not sure where to start with this problem. I'm a total Mercedes noob (I only know BMW stuff) and even more noobish with diesel. I've gone through FAQ's and "READ THIS FIRST"'s but I'm really not sure. I tried giving it more fuel by backing the screw out of the ALDA. Didn't do anything.

The car will go through first fine and shift to second fine. Then it will get to the top of second and just hang there. Won't shift. At least I didn't give it long enough, and I gave it a good 5-7 seconds while it was revving dead. So it might be a combination of fuel delivery and trans issues. Anyone know what I should do? I'm pretty sure the turbo is working as it should because 1st and 2nd acceleration are completely acceptable.

Thanks!
Patrick