Inherited this car from my dad who is 93 and trying to get it up to snuff for my son. Car has 134K miles and sat for a long time but started fine and engine runs strong after some initial smoking and shaking. Drove it to my house 100miles away this summer without any problems but did notice that steering creaked.

Before I give it to my son I decided to have a shop check it out and they said steering pump and box were shot so I had them replaced with rebulits and also put new tires on it.

Now that its much colder here it CT tranny is acting up and shifts hard but also sometimes will not shift up or even but rarely will stick in neutral. Had tranny fluid replaced and still more of the same but not always and sometimes not even for a few days.

Read about someone else's experience with the same car and they noticed that if you turn off the engine and restart when this happens that it goes away. Well its my experience as well.

Don't know if its serious or not but I have heard that it could be the B2 piston, modulator, vacuum related, or the kick down relay?

Would welcome any comments that could shed some light on this dilemma.

Thanks,

Steve

Hey Steve,

If the shifts are normally fine and the problem comes and goes, vacuum modulator is my first thought. Meaning check for vacuum leaks and also pull the vacuum tube from the modulator and check for fluid. If its pulling fluid then the modulator is most likely shot.
If the kickdown switch were causing the problem, I don't think it would cause it to stick in neutral. It could be delaying the upshift but I don't see how it would cause it not to engage into gear.

check out the modulator and look around the engine back for cracked vacuum connections. If you have a mighty vac, pull vacuum on the system from the modulator vacuum tube and see if it holds vacuum or if it leaks down.

__________________

77' 300D, "Cartman" SOLD @ 150K (didn't know what I had)
83' 300SD, "The Superdon" 325k+ @ 28mpg
95 E320 wagon, "Millennium Falcon" 231k+ @ 24 Mpg
95 E300D, "Sherley" 308k @ 33.69 Mpg, currently anticipating a head
99 Suzuki Intruder "Trudy" @ 45 mpg

Thanks for info on the modulator. Took it to a shop and they said that it needed alot of adjustments. Will drive and cross my fingers that its fixed.

Steve