Grinding into reverse-what parts 83' manual 300d euro?

Hi Christopher, I use to own two 300D Euro four speeds about 10 years ago. Great cars. I still have one of the transmissions. Too long ago I don't remember about the clutch parts. The transmission looks to be exactly the same as the 240D. I am almost positive the clutch disk is the same. Would not be absolutely certain about the pressure plate and the throw out bearing. If you don't want to take it apart first we could send you the parts but there would be a restocking fee if you had to return them. If you take it apart first you could send us measurements and photos and we could compare before shipping. Kent

thank you Kent. i will be contacting you when i get back home and decide what to do. Kaia recommended basically the same thing- that i take it apart and send you pictures. That is probably what we'll do. By the way , my clutch sympton is that it always grinds when going into reverse only. Does that reveal anything particular? A friend of mine had the same problem and then his clutch just failed him. Thanks for response. Sincerely, christopher

My experience has been if it is only grinding into reverse it may not be the clutch. It could be out-of-adjustment or bent linkage or worn out shift lever bushings. Be sure to check both of those first. It could also just be the mesh gears inside the transmission are worn or have been abused in the past.

Thank you very much Kent for the advise and taking the time to answer our questions. So now i am stuck in reverse. Does that narrow down the problem that i am looking for? One more thing that may be a useful bit of information in this diagnosis- with the shifter in reverse, the reverse lights do not come on. It seems that the shifter does not engage the button that controls those lights. However, we can manually push the little button and the reverse lights come on. Does that reveal anything? This car was, and needs to soon again, be my daily driver. I understand that the first things i should be looking for are bent or worn linkage and shifter bushings. I was just wondering if these symptoms would help pin down the possible problem. Transmission repair seems a little intimidating to me as a novice mechanic. But if it is a matter of linkage or bushings i may take a go at at fixing it myself. One more question, if you don't mind. If it would happen to be an issue with the mesh gears, can those gears be replaced? or is best to just seek to replace the whole transmission? Thanks so much for any more advice! Sincerely, christopher. p.s. i have decided to go with the manual glow plug relay. but that is secondary right now.

Thanks for the advice. Having a resource like this forum helps with the confidence to approach otherwise intimidating (to me) repairs. I learned alot about how the manual transmission works, it is really quite simple, once i got down under there several times and took the time to figure things out. It seems that there was a cracked bushing in the shifter assembly, and then in the process of taking apart linages , i got things mixed. I finally , sat and studied it, and as i said it was very straight forward. Just a little linkage adjustment. And now it shifts as good as new, as least the best it has since the car has been new to me. Now i just need to do the flex disc, the front crank seal, motor mounts, oil cooler lines, fuel lines,... And the exciting part, finalizing the wvo conversion. Thanks again, christopher

Christopfer, Great job on figuring that problem out. You probably saved a bunch of money - and I can tell you are excited that you did it on your own. Kent