Last night I went through the drive through car wash and then my daughter and I went to Braum's to grab some ice-cream on the way back home. Car was runnin great, pulled up to the drive-thru speaker and turned my car off s I could order. I then turned car back on and drove to the window to pay. Got done there and pulled back out onto the street and my trans would not shift out of first gear. I pulled over in a parking lot and put the car in nuetral, then park then back into drive. I then pulled back out on to the road and it shifted great all the way back home (5 miles) . No problems with it today either. Any ideas? Trans fluid is full and the trans has been service last year.

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2005 Accord Hybrid (Wifes)
1995 Subaru Impreza L AWD (Snow car)
1984 GMC Sierra 1500 (Mine)
1983 300CD Best $ I ever spent. (Mine)
1984 190D (sold and glad I did)
1983 300D (sold and wished I hadn't)

Yeah! We like Braum's as well. Buy their milk all the time.

Hmmm interesting problem. How are the selector bushings? I did have a GM FWD that did that. Turned out to be a problem in the valve body. A check ball some how managed to lodge itself.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Can valve bodies be pulled and cleaned, or is this a waste of time? I think I have something similar going on.

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Bob
'82 300D Petrol B-G Metallic

I know on the GM PowerGlide(Slide) 2 speed, TH350, and TH400, the Ford C4 and C6, and the Chrysler TorqueFlights, they can. You have to be really careful with the little springs and check balls. As You can see I am used to the old stuff, but I do not see why others cannot be. Tranny rebuilders do that.

I have not torn down a MB auto tranny, yet. If I could find a freebie, I would tear it down just to see what is inside.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

WAtch your speedo when the non shifting happens. My spedo stoped working and so did the shifting....then the tranny stoped completely.

My indie was checking it out and he said, "man the only gear that works in this thing is park" i though that was rather funny. so $2000 and the thing is being rebuilt.

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-Trevor

OBK #12
1980 300SD 333,XXX miles - Totaled
1986 Mazda RX-7 212,XXX miles - impounded and auctioned off
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited 33,000- SEGR, Provent, Fumoto

How high did you let it rev in first? If the kickdown switch is stuck it won't shift till near the max rpm.

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John Robbins
'05 E320 CDI - 240k
'87 300TD - 318k

I had the exact same problem and at first thought it was a stuck kick-down switch. It wasn't. If your transmission leaks, like many if not most of ours do, you should check the level using proper warmed up, engine running, transmission in N technique. I had to add quite a bit of fluid, solved it for me. Let us know..

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'79 300D, Ivory "Gunther" ......going
'81 300SD, Metallic Blue Silver, The Grey Ghost.....going
'87 300D Turbo ...gone
'05 CDI.... gone

when i let off the throttle and the engine was high maybe 3500 or so it moved into a neutral type condition and would not catch till the car slowed enough to rev the engine and catch in 1st again. checked all the fluid levels and evertying. then when i was moving it one day it crapped out completely on me.

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-Trevor

OBK #12
1980 300SD 333,XXX miles - Totaled
1986 Mazda RX-7 212,XXX miles - impounded and auctioned off
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited 33,000- SEGR, Provent, Fumoto

Your trans will not shift out of gears until near the rev limit if the kickdown switch is stuck, It is under the pedal, just disconnect it and see what happens.

I also has a vacuum leak that caused the same thing. Near the vacuum amplifier.

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
'85 300SD - 150,000 miles (sold)
'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
'85 300SD - 317,000 miles (sold)
'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
2004 Papillon (Oliver)
2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
2009 Welsh Corgi (Buba)

I wouldn't recommend it. Another member here pointed out that the VB is probably more complicated than the rest of the components in the transmission combined. Rebuilt valve bodies are probably around $200-$300 so best left to the experts.

I'd have to agree...and having torn down an MB transmission, it's not something I'd want to do very often let alone pull apart a valve body

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1982 300TD 210K miles ("The Replacement" aka "The Anvil") - SOLD
1979 300SD 245K miles (never ending project)
2007 Pinarello F3:13
1995 Ducati 916 (SOLD, sniff)
1999 Ducati 900SSie (SOLD)

Remind me to send you some pics later on, I am just about to do exactly that, since I have one that needs help and one dead one I am designating to a learning tool/parts donor. I too know the old domestics well, never got into the euro ones yet until now. I plan to document this one both for myself as well as other many curious minds parousing the threads.

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Chris
64 190D R.I.P.
80 240D W/617 engine -for sale
82 240D -for sale

Thanks for ll of the info. I actually do not have a trans leak whatsoever but I do have a hell of an oil leak (yet to find where it is coming from). I thought it may be some type of vac problem cause I had the under body wash done. Maybe it knocked something loose temporarily. Has been fine since. I guess time will tell.

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2005 Accord Hybrid (Wifes)
1995 Subaru Impreza L AWD (Snow car)
1984 GMC Sierra 1500 (Mine)
1983 300CD Best $ I ever spent. (Mine)
1984 190D (sold and glad I did)
1983 300D (sold and wished I hadn't)

Several items:

1) the mechanic that said the only gear that works is park,,, well park isn't a gear.

2) I had a '76 240D that leaked tranny fluid. I drove that car 2 years having to pull over and add a quart when the engine revved, but I didn't go any faster. The car always shifted even when low on tranny fluid.

3) kickdown switch most likely got stuck, or your linkage might be a little worn and "D" was "1", until you put it back in park, or a little ball bearing got stuck in the tranny and prevented the fluids from being routed to change gears, or a valve stuck open

Good luck

Marty

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Closing the store
Benzbonz.biz on your smart phone or tablet.

Could be early signs of B2 pistion, happened to my 83sd it started in this same way. Ever once in a while it would stick in first gear and not shift did it for 2000 miles off and on ,then one day no forward gears at all. Do search lot of good info, not a hard job.
Bill

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94 dodge cummings,86 ford 6.9,75 mbz 240d[ sold], 82 mbz 300sd,83 mbz 300sd