85 300D wont shift out of 1st
 

85 300D wont shift out of 1st. I doubt lending the car to my son had anything to do with it. Car ran well with a bang shift until warmed up prior to this week. I'm gonna start checking the usual trouble areas that I gleened from the diy links, but thought I'd post this now. Any help will save me time dicking around with it of course. Thanks.

The problem is probably the governor in the transmission. It can be removed with out trans removal. Do a search on "transmission governor" and you will find the information you need. I had this problem with my 91 300D and repaired it at the grand total of about $2.00 and change if you don't count the service I did at the same time. In my case, the plastic governor drive gear was broken. It's not a hard thing to do, but does take a little time.
Paul

whshiew! there sure are a lot of posts about governor's in MB trannies... unfortunately, I could find none that relate to the 85 and older MB's ... can a friendly tech point us in the right direction? I have 3 cars with this malady... thanks!

The usual trouble area is the kickdown switch under the accelerator pedal. It's a bad environment and the switch can stick closed due to accumulated dirt in this location.

When the switch is closed, the shifts are severely delayed..........you might get it to shift out of first above 4000 rpm..........if you went that high.

Or a stuck bowden cable.

i have the same problem with the 85 i got

if i took it to 4500 it would shift but i wont drive it again like that

i looked at the switch on the floor and its not there, ill look harder


havent really checked anything else yet, working on my other 1 first

tho, the seller told me he took it for a drive before we picked it up so who knows, we paid $500 for it and over half the parts are new, i wonder why it was so cheap :rolleyes:

Brian,
It was the switch. Stuck in the closed position. Down. How do I remove it? Can I open the switch up and clean out the dirt and lube the insides?
Mike

It's happened to me as well. Get a can of aerosol lubricant with a long narrow nozzle. Stick the nozzle into the switch and pump it up and down continuously while giving it a few blasts. That should do the trick.

OK,
I got the switch out, by pressing the two "ears" that lock it into the metal collar on the floor. I'm gonna try to drill a small hole in it, flood it with oil and then tomorrow wash it out with brake clean. I know it's only a $15 part, but I like to fix stuff if I don't have to toss it. (later) I'm back. I took the solonoid apart with great difficulty. The two pieces sleeve into one another and there was just too much friction and not enough spring pressure to pop the switch to the open position. No dirt inside, but rather tight tolerances between the two parts. I wonder if these plastic parts might swell as they age making the part stick. I'd recommend that anyone with this similar problem just bit the bullet and pay the $15 bucks for a new switch. (think of how much fun passing will be with that new switch?)