Background on newly acquired car. 1st to 2nd was very sloppy and had to hunt for it and hoping it didn't go into 4th. So this morning I put her up on ramps and the "reverse cable orange button was out and not pushed in" which is normal. I used my Miller Special Tool 9120 on the shifter, crawled under and pushed the orange button "IN" unlocking the cable. Screwed up and did not follow instructions and should have released the button back out Got back in the car and 1st to 2nd shifting and "seemed" all good. Was wanting to take it for a spin, put it in reverse and "NOW it wants to go FORWARD!" Corrected myself and pushed release button. IS THERE SOMETHING I'M MISSING ON PROPER ADJUSTMENT OF THE REVERSE CABLE????

 

I'm just about ready to throw in the towel on this one. Re-read PDF manual and followed instructions three more times. I even tried adjusted the reverse cable without using the Miller Tool. The orange button is supposed released "out" which locks it in place. It's really hard for me to believe the syncros in the tranny are keeping it from shifting properly. Never hear any grinding. My really good deal buy isn't going to be such a good deal if I have to buy another used tranny. Rebuilding is cost prohibitive for tranny synchronizers. I bought another shifter assembly thinking it might be that. That was $429 and am returning it for a refund.

 

After talking to a trusted shop mechanic, he said my problem is a bad clutch! If that is true, what would that have to do with locating 2nd gear? There is no clutch disk slipping or problem with other the gears! What would mechanically change the operation of 2nd gear? Anyone have any insight about this? I hate just throwing money at this project car until the problem disappears.
So I've ordered a $388 clutch kit.

Former owner told me last year, when another engine installed, the flywheel was resurfaced but did not know if they put new disk and pressure plate in. The shop he had it in kept the car six months, $7500 bill and was still unusable.

 

Sometimes you just have to know when to let go and move on.

 

Oh no ZERACER! This is a rescue project! Am having a lot of fun doing it. More than likely my clutch is going bad. The pedal wants to grab at the top with a little jump even after bleeding the slave cylinder. Kit comes with slave cylinder, disk, pressure plate and alignment tool. Watched great video on Youboob about changing the clutch assembly even though it was on a Mercedes. Video guy said a T-55 long reach Torx bit was needed but I didn't see anything where it was used. Bought one just the same.

 

It's great that you are saving it, it just seems like a major project. ENJOY !

 

SUCCESS! YEA! After much contemplation about the reverse cable adjustment I figured it out. 2nd gear and all the others are fine now. Fourth time adjusting worked like a charm. Jacked up car, crawled under, pushed in the orange lock button, crawled back out, inserted Miller 9120 tool, jiggled the shifter around, crawled but under and released the cable lock. By jiggling the shifter it was moving the cable lock in the proper position before locking in the cable lock.
So now I have to do a clutch job this Wednesday and put new 5w-40 Synthetic in the tranny. (Maybe a cup of fine saw dust to quiet things down. Just "kidding" don't anyone do this as it's a joke!).

 

This process would probably make a good sticky for future reference.

 

Yes I think so! After doing the reverse lockout alignment this morning I've been driving around quite a bit . I just wanted to make sure i wasn't dreaming that second gear and all others are working properly. SHE RUNS SOOOOO SWEET NOW! I'll bleed the clutch slave cylinder again to make sure all the air and water is out of the system and see if the clutch engage is any better. "Hopefully I'll be sending the clutch kit back when it arrives tomorrow. Pretty sure the clutch is going to require changing but you just never know."

 

That's great!
Nice work and thank you for all of the information.