This all started three weeks ago. Took my 87 535is in for a fluid change. It had a small leak, from which I determined that the tranny was filled with gear oil. BAD. So, I got redline and wanted to get it put in. In my infinite wisdom, I calculated that the gear oil wasn't compatible with the seals, thereby not 'swelling' them sufficiently to prevent leaks. wrong. The output shaft had about 1/16" slop. OK. Time for a replacement transmission. After two attempts in which I sourced the WRONG transmission, I finally got the right replacement (a g260/6). Felt nice and tight, with no endplay on the output shaft. Success. wrong. The shop got it installed today and discovered that it works great, if you ONLY NEED TO GO BACKWARD. It almost feels like there are no forward gears present. I know this to not be the case, though, because before I took it to the shop, I spun the input shaft in all gears and made sure that the output shaft followed at varying ratios (when in different gear positions).
Any ideas? Is there some external adjustment needed in the shift linkage that I'm missing or something?
Any and all help are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Jason
'87 535is (about to cause me to lose my religion)
'88 325ic (runs like a champ at 180k miles)