1987 300sdl; 305k. Just started having cold troubles - tranny does not shift into high gear until warmed up..probably 1/4 mile or so. Will not shift even by moving shift lever to neutral or any other setting. Runs up to 3000 rpm and will not shift. Fluid is fairly new, car well maintained and no leaks (vacuum or others.) Frustrated, as car runs REALLY well and this is baffling. Have done search on site and didn't find any definitive answer yet. Input appreciated!

Are we looking at tranny problems in the near future?


Thx!

We've owned car for 15 years and this just started happening..what would cause this/ any adjustments?

Probably not. Shift points are controlled by rack position. The deeper you are in to the accelerator, the higher the shift point. Cold diesels have substantially less horsepower than warm diesels, meaning you have to push the accelerator harder to get the same speed, hence the shift points move upward with a cold engine. You could adjust the bowden cable to bring the shift points down but that would bring them down lower on a warm engine.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Wow, sounds like a transmission problem, if the manual position is in N and it still didn't shift then I would worry a lot. The trans in these models is good for 250K to 300K anyway so you are on borrowed time with the original trans.
DDH

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

As mentioned via PM, there is no adjustment for that issue.

My thought is to change to synthetic fluid which will provide cold performance that is much closer to the warm performance. The problem will be reduced or eliminated.

its a 6 bolt pan unit and the 2 drums inside the trans one being High gear have a riverted plate in the drum and an O ring under it, that o ring gets hard as a rock ( years and years of temp cycles ) and that allows the fluid when cold to by pass the clutches causing the the netural you are having,

it would make sence to think a syn oil might help but it will not fix it and its pricy to do in my opinion for nothing

your only choice is the car worth the money to have the unit redone my take -- jz