F that thing. I could only get the car up about 4" above my nose where it was parked and I went under there and there was a huge CA only exhaust pipe no one told me about right under the side of the trans I was to work on and I didnt have the 18" extensions to get them loose, and the damn thing is an inch from the trans tunnel and no amount of leverage is going to move that tailshaft over 3" to "access the piston" with both motor mounts attached. So I drop the pan and valve bodies (2) and I see (backside only) that the B2 piston has already been replaced or upgraded to the plastic one that doesnt bind and break. I feel tension on the band, it still has the dogbone in place and there is manual piston movement So we put it all back together, get it started (runs fine after a charge) and there is nothing in the way of movement: forward, reverse or even a drag on the motor when anything is selected. Now the fluid we drained looked like motor oil (!) and we put it right back in just because we needed it moved ASAP, even reverse would have helped as we could have backed it out the alley and parked it on the street for 48 hours. I made sure the valve body went back on correctly, everything was cleaned with lint free towels, and I made sure the spool valve was connected to the sector shaft. Only thing I can think is lack of fluid (probably as we just put in what we got out, but didnt have time or extra fluid to top off) or maybe a check ball in the valve body was lost when I took it out? I never inverted it, I just layed it upright in a pan. You know for a "refined" car such as a Mercedes, that trans sure had a lot of yellow plastic inside. I remembered that car being alot nicer when I last saw it. It now has some rust issues under the paint on the hood, rims and some rust through spots at the rear window. Beach life was tough on the old girl. I told her to strip and flip the perfect interior and call the yard on the rest.
