Hi again. Ive been doing a lot of work on a 190D 2.5 I just got and really like. SO far I have worked out all of the bugs except for one, which I tried to fix today. The transmission has been flaring from 2-3 and 3-4. Here are the things I did.

Disconnected the vacuum modulator to see if it was a symptom of too much vacuum. No change except more clunky to shift once it actually tried to shift gears.

Changed the K1 and K2 springs.

Filter: marked "china". It looked like the transmission was about to suck the element right out of it. I replaced it with an elring, but I'm kind of mad at myself for not using a mann.

filled with Valvoline synthetic ATF and a bottle of lucas.

Here is my filter



I drove around expecting things to be at least a little better. Not really. Maybe slightly, but could just be placebo effect.


Here are the facts:

Bowden cable is set correctly and the shift points feel right.

Engine has proper power.

The kick down switch appears to be working correctly.

1-2 shift is perfect, reverse takes a second or 2, but engages very solidly.

The old fluid wasn't burnt and didn't have an abnormal amount of crap in it. No clutch material.

The shifting feels as if someone holds the clutch in for too long while upshifting on a manual transmission. Once it is engaged, it stays there. No slipping at all.

Downshifting is solid, no flaring in any gear.

I purchased this car from a woman who's husband died and it belonged to him, so i have no idea about how it acted before it sat for over a year.

The dipstick that was in the car had been intentionally shortened for some reason. about 1 cm. I really can't wrap my head around why this was done. it was also 1.5 quarts low when I got it.

-

I read that maybe a valve is sticking from lacquer or varnish. I don't have much experience with lucas, but I'm thinking that maybe it could take a little while to loosen things up. This doesn't feel like worn clutches, but more like a hydraulic thing. The car has 153K on it, so it doesn't seem like the transmission should be worn out. If anyone has any ideas i would be grateful. You all have helped me get the engine running right, so I have faith that the smart people on this forum and help me with this too. Thank you.

There is a lot of talk of "check your vacuum". If I'm getting flares while the modulator is disconnected from the vacuum, that essentially eliminates over-vacuum as a possibility, or is there something i'm not understanding? I would love it if something like that was the cause.

I just investigated the vacuum modulator. Its brown. The cap is missing. It doesn't hold vacuum particularly well, and the vacuum line itself has an ATF odor up at the engine bay. I guess it would explain hard shifts if that was the problem. Maybe the thrust pin out be broken, or the spring failed inside? Its too much of a pain to get this thing off just to investigate. i wonder if I should just get a new one.