So my uncle is selling me his 240d, his source of wvo has dried up and he doesn't have the time for the 'hobby' of owning one beautiful beasts. Its been sitting at his place for about a year. He said the tranny was acting funny when he parked it so over the last few days I have been getting it back up to working order to see if I am going to take it not.

I noticed the clutch was not working at all, I figured it maybe had a air bubble or just needed to be worked a bit with the car running. I was running it through all the gears noticing the gear start to 'rub' but that was it, Clutch was having zero effect. When testing out reverse the gears ground a little which did not scare me, think it would align and side into gear (thinking the clutch was coming to life) I pressed on it pretty hard. I didn't slam it, but I gave it a good push. I heard a gears grind a little harder then complete silence and the stick went all the way forward as if it was in reverse, clutch depressed engine idling.... not good...

I discovered there was no brake fluid at all in the reservoir, I filled it watched it drop way to fast and found a pint of brake fluid on the floor under the brake/clutch pedals. I discovered that the hose from the res to the master cylinder was completely disconnected. so I pushed the plastic connection back into the rubber bushing and it holds fluid now and the clutch/brakes are great.

but still no reverse, completely dead no resistance or sound.

I've fumbled with it a fair bit but have not dug into it trying to do research first. I've never tinkered with the tranny before and I don't really know what I am getting into. Could it be a slipped linkage/fork/rod whatever? did I actually break something off inside the transmission? (shudder) I am having a hell of a time finding any advice on this anywhere on the internet so i am guessing this is not a normal issue

Any ideas where I should start first?

 

Linkages look good, I was just under the car manipulating the rods myself and the reverse rod/linkage moves freely with no restriction, and the shaft coming out of the transmission itself appears to be moving... *gulp*

I think its pretty certain that it is internal, what do you you think?

The next question, would you drive it 2,500 miles like this? I'd really like to get this back to NY. But I just don't know the chances of something knocking out the rest of my gears.