While having the injection harness replaced on my 300se(1992) by a local repair shop, I decided to get a general service. Included was a transmission fluid change and I asked'm to look for something rubbing against the drive shaft. In reverse I was hearing what I thought, was a rubbing or gear like sound. Yesterday I got the car back. After driving about an hour I got to a place where I had to back-up and NO REVERSE! It felt like it was trying to go backwards and I'm not sure if it rolled or had a little help from the tranny but I got the car home and parked it. Forward shifting seems fine. I checked the fluid but can't seem to get a good reading...franky never have...it either looks way past full or too low...Is there a trick that I'm missing to get an accurate reading on how much fluid is in the tranny? The fluid that came out of the car doesn't smell bad and was the correct color. I did notice that dip stick and filler tube seemed to be abnormally hot. Is it possible that there is simply not enough fluid in the tranny or was that noise a prelude to having some major tranny work. I'm bumming out that harness bull set me back a "G".

I am not familiar with that cars dipstick, but I hope you immediately called the shop that did the work. I would guess they may have replaced the filter incorrectly or did any number of thing to inhibit hydraulic pressure and prevent reverse from grabbing fully.

Trans. Fluid should be checked at OPERATING temp. after a 10-15 mile drive to FULLY warm and EXPAND the fluid . . . A SLIGHTLY LOW LEVEL is OK . . . A HIGH level should be drained to correct it . . .

There is an UPDATED Dipstick which has TEMP indicators printed on it . . .

I can not imagine why you have forward gears with low trans fluid, but if you do not want to go back to the shop, you can try adding 1/2 a quart of trans fuild until reverse engages or until you have added 1 quart. If you have added 1 quart and it still does not engage you have another problem.

How many miles are on this vehicle?

Cars got 127,000 miles on it. Recently joined a HotRod/Car Club here on Long Island and a couple guys have had VERY good luck with a local tranny guy...it's going there today...I'll keep you all posted...Thank you for the kind replies!

The trick to reading those dipsticks is to look at both sides there will be one side that has fluid all the way up. The other side will show a level. Always look at both sides the wrong side has no obvious level on it with fluid going quite high. I have always figured it came from riding on the tube which has oil on it.

Based upon the noise before failure you probably have failing reverse clutches.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

I was told by the tranny shop that the adhesive used to bond the clutch material has a tendancy to fail and the material winds up falling off. Anyone ever hear of this?

Been there, done that. Front clutches will fail. If the remainder of the unit is ok, you can replace the front pack and reseal the apply piston but I'd go for the rebuild. The noise you heard was probaly the apply piston hitting the front drum.



Joe

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Project Smoker, '87 603 powered wagon
Hauler, 96 CTD can you say torque?
Toy 73 Cougar xr7 convertible
Acme Automotive Inc.
Raleigh NC
919-881-0364

Tranny is being rebuilt...THANK YOU ALL FOR THE INPUT:p