general car problems

[rc3064]

Hi folks,

I'm recent to the forum so I'm going to describe my car  (first Benz) and a short list of issues. 1971 280sl, 23,000 mi., triple black, new interior and paint, undercarriage original and beautiful. Here goes, when the throttle is just openning I get alot of gurggling. If I let off completely it stops, if I give a little more it goes away. I even get some backfiring when I let off while slowing down or while feathering the throttle in traffic. I've only driven the car a couple of hundred miles since buying it and have run two bottles of Teckron through it which has not cleaned up the gurggling, any thoughts. Also, if I'm coming down a hill to a stop sometimes I get a large plume of smoke, but no smoke on accelleration, my first inclination is valve guide seals, hopefully. The auto transmission is pretty clunky as most were I guess, most of which I feel under me or to the rear. On two occassions when pulling out(when car was hot) it went from second gear (where it starts from) directly to fourth. What's up with that?

[menesesjesse]

Sounds like the car sat for quite sometime.  I would have to say the car has several issues and they will all need to be addressed. I would start with the cheap things like the plugs, points, timing, and wires. If the car sat for an extensive period of time ther is likely a large build up of varnish in the tank, lines, and injectors which will give you drivability problems. The poor shifting may be related to linkage issues, a bad modualator, or your selenoids on the tranmission.  I recommend working from cheap to expensive. It may take a little time but once things are cleaned up the and tuned the car will run alot better.
regards
Jesse