1986 240 DL HARD TO SHIFT

It's hard to say without feeling it for myself, but if it takes much effort the linkage probably needs cleaning, lube and/or adjustment, pretty simple once you're under the car.

Besides the linkage (as James Sweet suggests), a peek at the engine mounts will tell you whether the tranny is tilting to one side because of a broken or smooshed (technical term) mount. Don't forget the one that holds the tail of the transmission.

Mike

And, as James and Michael said, there are two easy explinations:

1) The linkage is in and of itself binding. If you can get under the car safely with a bright light you will see that there are three pivot points to the linkage. One is at the base of the shifter itself, and the two others are at each end of the rodt that connects the stick shifter to the tranny. At each of thise three points there is one or two bushings. If these are really dirty, broken, or missing it should be easy to tell. You could even disconnect the one at the tranny and have someone CAREFULLY shift through the gears to see if it is stiff. 1b) With the linkage off it may be possible to manually shift through the gears by moving the lever on the side of the ranny to ascertain whether that is he problem (see "3" below). 2) You may find that the linkage is difficult to remove becasue it is under stress. This would be from the failure or shifting of one of the "3" motor mounts (two front mounts and one tranny mount). With teh stiuck shift car, it doesn't take much movement to make shifting difficult. The mounts should not be deformed or shifted away from parallel along their sides. If they like more like parallelograms than rectangles, if they have separated, or are noticeably bulged or disformed, then they need to be replaced. Fortunately, they are inexpensive. Unfortunately, without a floor jack, firm ground, and jack stands it can be difficult or even dangerous to change them if you don't know what you are doing. 3) Those are the two easy solutions... unfortunatewly, the last one would mean that there is probably something wrong in the tranny.

__ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvos '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate "Shelby" & "Kate"

That's a good point, bad mounts will also make the fan grind into the shroud, been there, done that, should have thought of it here.

Thanks for the troubleshooting! All of it is beyond my mechanical skills, but now I know what to suggest to my mechanic. I am, however, going to take a crack at the notorious odometer repair.

And how about the erratic fuel gauge? Most people online are suggesting it's probably the wires on top of the sending unit, and not the unit itself. If it's the wires, are they fairly simple to replace?

But hey, body in excellent shape and only 100K on the engine, so I'm happy.

Yeah the body/interior are the hard part to find in good shape on such an old car, the inner workings are a breeze to deal with in comparison.

For the erratic fuel guage, in my 85 765T the guage was erratic because the sender ground was screwed down, but the paint wasn't cleaned away under it. A minute of scraping with a pocketknife and fastening the terminal back down fixed it.

Mike

_____ Wires above the fuel tank are exposed since there is an air gap. the harness to that point is usually good, but the connector under the carpet could be dirty. Check the ground at that location. I would also suspect the sender unit. Have a look at what i found in a 1981 245DL at

Go to section 3.1 Fuel injection system, and look for notes about the fuel sender. If the sender unit is bad, you are in for a lot of work. Finally, it is possible that the connections to the instrument cluster need cleaning./ JCH

_____ Note that this ground connection also provides the current path for the in-tank fuel pump. The spade connector on top of the fuel sender top must also be checked and cleaned. To reach that connector, remove the two screws on the sender access cover. Reseal the cover with fresh caulking compound if needed.

/ JCH

I thought it was separate in the 760, but I could be wrong. It can also be different in the 240 anyway. If it is a combo ground, it won't take much resistance to drive the guage crazy.

Mike

Okay guys. I've determined that the shifting issue is just a matter of the car not having been driven much over the last 10 years. The previous owner just kept it for his housekeeper to make weekly runs to the market. So now it's broken in a bit more and working fine. But the gas level sender issue remains, and I thank you for your input.

Change oil in gearbox.

Gas sender level - wir>