Hi all! It's been a while.
For the most part my OM617.951/722.303 swapped '53 F100 has been trouble free for over 100K miles.....till today. Drove to town, made several stops and headed home, all was fine. I came to a full stop and when I started off the transmission didn't shift to 2nd gear till about 35-40 MPH and never would make the shift to high gear. It was raining mixed with wet snow, so I parked it at a friend's house and caught a ride home. Going to check it out tomorrow and need a few points to check. My first thought is vacuum loss to the modulator, but I thought it should eventually shift.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated, Jeff

I remembered that I had previously had a similar issue with this trans several years ago, the problem then was the bowden cable adjuster had disintegrated and was way out of adjustment. Then I wrapped a zip tie around to hold it. Well, it's still there and playing with the cable adjustment made no difference. I'm leaning towards the valve being stuck.
Thoughts anyone?

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1971 R600 Mack toterhome (SuperDawg)
99 NU-WA Snowbird 34+2 SE 102 5er
If it's not diesel, it's not in my stable!
53 F100 617.951/auto
95 Dodge 3500 Cummins/5 speed service truck

Check the basics, what does the ATF smell like ? .

After 100,000 miles it and the filter need changing as well as drain the torque converter .

Any chance of pix of your truck ? sounds nice to me .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Vacuum loss (alone) won't prevent the transmission from shifting.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

Stuck kickdown switch or solenoid?

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Check the pressure first ~ that bit of *excellent* advice was given to by by an older member here who's gone away ~ I didn't bother at first and nearly $pent big $ on a rebuilt I didn't need .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Check the vac modulator (could also be a bad cap), recheck the bowden cable and per many others on this forum have suggested maybe a quart of TransX to help clean the valve body, could be a stuck valve or clutch material clog in the valve body. Then if cleared a fluid filter change would be in order.

Good luck

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Stable Mates:
1987 300TD 310K mi (Hans)
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee OM642 165k mi (Benzrokee)

Shorted or stuck on kickdown switch would be the first place I looked. In a conversion like yours weather may have better access to it. Than it did in the original situation.

As well as bowden cable issues. Like a disconnected end.

Ok, I haven't had time to look at it this week, hopefully this weekend.
1- no kickdown switch installed.
2- fluid and filter maybe 20K.
3- fluid is normal color and smells good.
4- vacuum lines are all attached.
When I had this similar issue before I could manually shift it and get high gear, not so this time though.

__________________
1971 R600 Mack toterhome (SuperDawg)
99 NU-WA Snowbird 34+2 SE 102 5er
If it's not diesel, it's not in my stable!
53 F100 617.951/auto
95 Dodge 3500 Cummins/5 speed service truck

Trying to attach pic.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
1971 R600 Mack toterhome (SuperDawg)
99 NU-WA Snowbird 34+2 SE 102 5er
If it's not diesel, it's not in my stable!
53 F100 617.951/auto
95 Dodge 3500 Cummins/5 speed service truck

Sun Valley Mercedes Transmissions in Van Nuys, CA is the expert on all Mércedes automatic transmissions. They have an excellent website with lots of tips regarding Mercedes auto transmissions. The owner is Marc and he is very friendly and helpful.

IMO Sounds like the bowden cable slipped off of a mount, either at the ends or a chassis brace. You said was working fine, came to a stop, didnt shift to 2nd afterwards until reaching 35-40mph. To me this sounds like shifting is now 100% fluid pressure/vacuum controlled and not cable controlled. I would look at your throttle linkage to bowden cable and ensure that as the throttle cable begins to move the linkage it is also moving the bowden cable. If not, adjust till it does. The other end would be the cable linkage to the trans. Lastly, depending on your installation, if the bowden cable is attached to the chassis/body to hold an arc, make sure that fitment is still present.

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Stable Mates:
1987 300TD 310K mi (Hans)
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee OM642 165k mi (Benzrokee)

However, a loss of control pressure (loose or disconnected control pressure cable) would result in early and/or stacked shifts, not late shifts.

Thank you for posting, that's a good truck, I remember them well and the OM617 just makes it better in my view .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Sure it's the B2 piston, as I recently had this problem with my 83 300TDT. Checked the cable, kickdown, actuators, vac and all. Took cover off of B2 piston...it fell in my hand in pieces.

I had to rev it high just to get it moving.

IHTH

B