722.3x Very hard downshifting into 1st gear

[ebehne]

I wanted to post an issue with my 722.303 transmission that showed up about a week ago. The transmission is in my '81 300SD and has about 250k on it. It had been shifting as most do, firm 1-2 and then a bit of flaring on the 2-3 up shift. However, one day the flaring stopped on the 2-3 up shift. All other shifts seemed slightly more jarring, but not so significantly that I would have noticed any change.

The really concerning issue was the 2-1 downshift. While braking from about 10+ MPH the car would slam very hard into 1st gear. After doing some reading on this forum I had hypothesized that the transmission vacuum modulator may have gone bad. It seemed this was a very common failure, but I haven't seen anyone mention the hard 2-1 downshift in relation to the failure.

I removed the vacuum line going from the VCV to the modulator and sure enough it was full of ATF. The modulator in my car was the original style with the metal band around the outside. I bought the replacement ($45), pulled the two Allen screws holding it on and replaced it. I haven't tuned it yet, but on the initial test drives it was shifting very smoothly throughout all gears and not slamming into 1st anymore.

I thought I'd put this out there to let anyone know who is having this problem that it is a very easy fix.