I'm looking at buying a 1984 300SD. It runs great, A/C works, all the interior electronics work. However there is one major problem, the trans has no forward gears. Reverse seems to work ok, the trans fluid level looks ok, however the trans is leaking from at least one place. The previous owner seems convinced that its something with the linkage.

I read a couple articles on here about the vacumn system, I checked, and sure enough, the line running from the drivers side of the tranny was disconnected near the pump looking thing on the injector pump. Wierd thing is, it looks like it was done on purpose, the rubber end had a makeshift plug in it, and the plastic tranny end had electrical tape over it.

I reconnected it, but there was no change, no forward gears. Reverse works fine, what I'm wondering is if there is any creedence to the theory by the previous owner that its something with the shift linkage? The leak is no good, however the tranny looks to still have the proper amount of fluid in it, and it shifts into reverse that tells me it may not be a fluid related problem.

Any ideas for a lost Volkswagen guy?

Thanks!!

Could be lots of stuff, or something really simple.

Could be seals, stuck valve/piston like the B2. When was the tranny last serviced?

You can test the linkage by going through all the gears.

I do not know if your tranny has adjustable bands or not.

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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

no personal experience with this but from reading on the forum sounds to me like you should do some searching on the b2 piston

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1996 E300 110,000
1985 300TD 212,000
1980 300D 238,000