Hey Everyone,

Im a long time lurker who doesn't post often, but I couldn't find much on the subject via searching. Just picked up a 1984 190e 5spd for $650. When I went to look at it the guy told me it has trouble going into gear. I noticed right away the shifter is very sloppy, much more so than my 240's 4spd manual. When I test drove it,

1st Gear - No problems, went right in
2nd Gear - Never engaged into gear, tried slamming the shifter down, pumping clutch, nothing. If I put the shifter in 2nd and let out the clutch the shifter would just vibrate.

3rd Gear - no problems
4th Gear - no problems
5th Gear - takes a minute messing w/the shifter to find but would engage
Reverse - engages but takes a minute for me to find it

So I know this is not much info but from experience am I looking at an entire trans rebuild or do these have problems with the linkages/shift rods? I'm bringing her home Wednesday so I will take a closer look then.

There are allen bolts that hold the shift arms onto the shift forks (external).

Most likely that bolt on the 1-2 shift arm is loose.

Try a long 6MM allen wrench to tighten that bolt.

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Hey Doc,

Thanks for the info, I will give that a try when I get the car back. Are the shift arms accessible from the top of the engine or do I need to crawl underneath?

You'll need to access the side of the transmission from below. For safety sake use ramps or jack stands. Of course, that assumes you don't have a lift available.

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Fred Hoelzle

Well I have access to a lift, but I probably wont be able to use it for about 2 weeks so I will probably end up putting it on jackstands and crawling underneath. Hope its just these linkages, I have found a few transmissions but they seem to be rare and expensive.

Well I just drove the 190 home from Jackson, about 70 miles. Trans was quirky, popped out of 5th twice driving on the highway, and scared me to death driving through town when I went to go from 1st to 3rd since there is no 2nd, and the car would not move from first!!! After a couple "launches" to keep from getting hit by 5:00 traffic, I pulled into a parking lot and after a lot of wiggling the shifter, it started going through gears again. I was only 2 miles away from my house so I decided I would try driving it home. After a few 1st - 3rd shifts I decided to try 2nd just to see what happened and.......It went into gear!! Now it seems to work fine in all gears. I'm not going to drive it again until I have a chance to tighten up all of those rods! I must say not a bad car for $650, I will have to get some pictures up here.

I recommend changing the oil as well - not sure what it calls for but Redline is generally good. For the refill you may need a small squeeze due to the limited access.

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Prost!

Well I drove it over to the parents place today, got a 6mm and tightened all of the arms on the transmission. Went for a test drive, everything was fine until I got up to 5th gear, and then it acted like it did in first the other day and I couldn't get it out of 5th! I ended up pulling over to the side of the road and messed with it again for about 5 minutes and got 1st and 3rd back so I could drive it home. Had my dad move the shifter around while I was underneath watching the rods.

Looks like the issue is with the actual shifter in the vehicle. Has a LOT of play and knocks the reverse rod every time you go to fourth. It would get stuck every once in awhile while he was going through gears which was quickly corrected by me moving rods from the underside of the vehicle. Anyone ever rebuilt one of these before? I am assuming I need to remove the center counsel to get it out. I saw a thread about EPC-net and registered, however it does not appear to work on Macs Would anyone who has an account mind posting a picture of the shifter assembly with the part numbers?

Thanks for all of the help so far

There's bushings on the shifter arms AND in the shifter. I changed them first, then tightened the 6mm bolts. I should have asked here first

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5 speed '91 190E 2.6 320,000 mi. (new car, fast, smooth as silk six, couldn't find any more Peugeots)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.5l Turbo Diesel 266,000 mi. (old car, fast for a diesel, had 2 others)
5 speed '01 Jetta V6 (new wifes car, pretty quick)
5 speed '85 Peugeot 505 2.2l Turbo Gas 197,000 mi. (wifes car, faster, sadly gone just short of 200k )
5 speed '83 Yamaha 750 Maxim 14,000 mi. (fastest)
0 speed 4' x 8' 1800 lb Harbor Freight utility trailer (only as fast as what's pulling it)

Well went to the parents again today and pulled the shifter assembly out. Turns out there was a snap ring on the right hand side of the assembly that was missing, replaced the ring and all is well. I did notice it still grinds slightly when going into 4th gear, the grind seems to be reduced by either shifting at a lower rpm and moving it into gear slower, or by pulling slightly to the left when putting it into that gear. What do you guys think, is the gear just slowly wearing out?

Also never did figure this out, but I left my parents angry because everything was done and I appeared to have lost reverse. After having my Dad push me out of the driveway (I probably tried to get it into reverse for 15 minutes!) I drove the car 10 miles home, and in my parking lot it went into reverse just fine and has been working ever since. Any way this is related to my 4th gear issue? Its probably not but I figured I would ask. Car is drivable and shifts into ever gear now, that was my goal.

The gears won't wear, but the synchronizers do. Different gear oils can also affect shifting characteristics.

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Prost!

Looks like it has gear oil in it currently. A drain and change to ATF might be in order

Well I though this issue was corrected but it is not! Car drove around fine all day, had no reason to go into 5th gear until this afternoon. I'm in 5th for maybe 2 miles, once again I go to shift out and it wont come out!!! After a lot of wiggling the shifter I got it out, but its not nearly as smooth as before and now I cannot shift into reverse again!!! I have a feeling that when it goes into 5th, the other two forks/levers are moving around just enough so that they are no longer aligned and when I go to get out of gear I cant go anywhere with it. Currently it is very hard to shift into gears 1-5 but with force it will go into all of them, except reverse.

It looks like I need to rebuild the shifter. Anyone done this before? I am sure some of the parts that don't wear are reusable. I will be replacing the two washers that look like pressure plates, along with any rubber components. Any other parts I should consider replacing?

Your synchros are worn. About $30 a piece. 1st and 2nd gear synchros are the same

202:

Perhaps you noticed the date of the thread?