This is dangerous, Rolf. I could bore you cross-eyed on this subject.
The wagon was manufactured with this transmission. The PO (a Brit padre
with an RAF Tornado squadron in Holland) selected that option at the
Dutch assembly plant he toured with his options tick-sheet. I bought the
wagon from him after he emigrated to the Colonies in 1987. It had 29000
miles on it then.
Because I like to *drive* my cars, I particularly wanted the manual
transmission and was very lucky indeed to find this one. 300TDs are rare
here and most are auto trans. It was for these reasons, I suspect, that
*all* the dealers I spoke to about the asking price said the same thing:
"It's a diesel! For God's sake, man, forget it!"
"It's non-turbo? Are you serious?"
"Manual transmission?!! <guffaw> It's a dog! Don't touch it."
Well, I did and it ain't.
But it does have a few peculiarities which I suspect you auto-trans
drivers won't be familiar with (or would tolerate). These may be generic
to manual trans 300TDs:
First, and most obviously, the engine is sensitive to low revs. Which
means that revs always have to kept high, especially in gears 3-5. If
not revving adequately, the transmission gives you instant feedback in
the form of juddering. I'm told this is something to do with the
fly-wheel but I'm not qualified to comment on that. This feature of the
wagon appears to be a design flaw. Although I have learned to adjust
revs and gear shifting to avoid this feedback, it's the single-most
disappointing aspect of this otherwise charming wagon.
Second, the harmonic damper on the short driveshaft is twice the mass of
your auto dampers. So, the rubber spokes work harder and fracture more
readily. Because the manual trans TDs are relatively few, it's been
*extremely* difficult to find replacement dampers (MB does not sell them
without the full driveshaft). If the juddering was bad with the damper
intact, it's unbearable with no damper at all.
Third, in my wagon, the gearing is exceptionally long-legged. This is a
car built for cruising the autobahns, not suburbia. So, to stay within
the 50kph urban speed limits here, it's necessary to jockey up and down
from 3rd to 4th gear all the time, to keep the dreaded feedback at bay.
Apart from these issues, and the normal aches and pains of late
adolescence, this wagon is marvellous.
Euan
1985 300TD 5-spd manual
213K mi
Interesting, tell me more. Was this a DIY conversion? I saw a 300TD
5spd @ the Stuttgart MBZ Museum. It was beautiful.
-Rolf
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