I have the 2nd to 3rd flare . No door locks, Car shuts off if I lock it. Diesel door on central locking doesn't lock as well as doors. The trans will shift manually 1st to 2nd, then will flare. Reverse works, flare to 3rd and 4th gear is on vacation. K1 K2? vacuum? where do I begin? The car is sharp, cruise c works and starts right up and is worth my time and effort since its low miles..

I can walk out and start my car right up... put the car in any gear and nothing. no forward or reverse till the car the car warms up. Then it will work. My plan is to pull it and put a 4 speed in.

First thing is to sort out the mixed up vacuum lines.....

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Is there a viable vacuum line diagram on here or at a link?

Just to be efficient, I'd disconnect the vac to your locks and EGR for the time being. You'll have plenty of time to address that stuff soon.

Get the vac shut off valve vacuum system plumbed properly, then get vac to the white transmission modulator (throttle linkage is attached to it). After you get adequate vacuum to these places, you can tune/adjust the white modulator and the kick down cable. Probably wouldn't touch the green vac modulator thing on the side of the trans. From there, if you're still getting flaring and all kinds of crazy trans stuff, it's time to start looking at other options.....

Really depends on what your goals are and what kinda mileage you have on the trans.

After you deal with the vac issues, you can make this decision. I'd bet after you get done, you're gonna conclude that there's a buncha crap in the valve body. You can clean the valve body and install a shift kit, which might cure your probs. Lot of guys do this with great success. If that doesn't work, then it's basically time for a rebuild. There's a place in Sun Valley, CA that does a lot of OEM Benz rebuild stuff.

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Thanks for the tips and diagram. She's a baby with 120k on her.

Yes but at 36 years old, how good is the ATF ? .

It should be translucent red and sweet smelling, much more often it's brown or black and stinks like burned coffee .

There are multiple diagrams of the vacuum lines / pipes/ etc., as mentioned above, for the newbie it's best to disconnect and cap off the yellow and green pipes, , plug the ones leading to the EGR valve and begin testing, finding and correcting leaks as a tiny leak anywhere will upset the entire system .

Once the leaks are all fixed you can attach a vacuum gauge to the black plastic pipe leading to the tranny's modulator valve and adjust the vacuum signal, it varies with throttle input and is covered in minute detail elsewhere in these forums, someone will shortly post the best link .

Once that's done it'll prolly shift better , no flaring etc. and you can change the ATF and tranny filter along with the torque converter's fluid, then see what's what .

If it still shifts too softly you can adjust the pressure using a pressure gauge as you drive .

It isn't difficult, just do the steps in the proper order, no skipping ahead or short cuts else you'll wind up chasing your tail .

If all this soulds like too much hassle you're going to need a god Mercedes Mechanic who's familiar with all this vacuum fiddling and adjusting, if you just slap in a rebuilt tranny and the vacuum isn't *perfect* the new tranny will shift poorly and fail ere long, why you mustn't go to the big brand tranny places, only one who does Mercedes trannies regularly .

If you've ever done tune ups and so on before, YOU can do this at home, it takes time and effort, most shops won't want to take sufficient time .

No $pecial tools, just some gauges etc. you can get cheaply at pawn shops or Harbor Freight....

-Nate

I know how to work on the engine. Trans is another story..

Good info. Report back after you get to the end of Nate's suggestions.

I assume you recently acquired this car? Even if the fluid is nice and fresh, and the filter is clean, that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't a buncha gunk built up in the valve body. There are a bazillion channels/screens/checkballs/screens/springs in there where clutch particulate can accumulate and cause problems. Fresh ATF after a long time of ickiness won't necessarily wash it out. Wouldn't be surprised if fixing the vac issues cure most of your prob though, but we shall see!

Just so .

When I was a Dealer Mechanic there was always -one- guy who did all the slushbox overhauls in house, this one guy would talk about how easy it was, just mind the cleanliness aspect........

Didn't matter the brand of Dealer, they always insisted I could and should learn slushboxes .

I looked into one and saw too many tiny little parts, no thanx .

OTOH, the basics, just like on any engine, are the basics and easy enough to do, once they're all prefect the rest tends to fall into place and the Mercedes tranny is reasonably easy to adjust, just DON'T make the common mistake of skipping any steps, that's where most DIY'ers fail .

Actually, most of the Mechanics I've ever met are lazy and either rush things, skip steps or fail to CLEAN properly and a whisker from your beard, or more likely cat/dog hair can get in and cause you no end of grief .

The reason so many here have such good happy results is : THEY CARE and so try hard to do the good and proper job, not as fast/cheaply as possible like most shops .

Anyways, let us know, the knowledge pool here is incredible .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better