i have a 90ce and was under the dash yesterday and noticed there is a switch under the gas pedal,it activates when the pedal is to the floor,is this by chance the switch that controls the first gear??and if so can it be rigged to provide first gear start.i would love to cruise 75 down the freeway but with these gears i don't like pushing it over 65,i'd like to drop down into the upper to mid 2's but feel thats a little steep for second gear start.

That's the kickdown switch. It should drop a gear when you press the pedal to the floor. When I got my 300D, I didn't notice it was there, and when I needed to downshift I floored it and it didn't happen. It turns out that I wasn't pressing hard enough...you'll feel a little click in the pedal when you press it.

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Dale

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i guess that makes sense,i guess my question still remains is there any way to bypass the second gear start to make it start in first.

The system can be made to start in first gear by jumping the switch. Unfortunately you can not get high gear with the switch jumped untill really high speed and all shifts are delayed as you would be driving in "passing gear" all the time. There are ways around this and they have been discussed here. There is a company that sells a controller that jumps then disconnects at certain rpms. I personally have done a two simple relay system that uses a switch in the governor passage to disengage.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

o.k. thanks thats what i was after,now i have another question,if i do go for a higher gear how to i get the speedo to show correct,i think i read here somewhere that i would need the speedo out of the car the rear end came from??

You can also wire a toggle switch in parallel with the kick down switch under the gas pedal, when on, the uplifts are later and the down shifts happen earlier.

later upshifts and sooner downshifts really isn't what i'm after.i want to eliminate some engine noise(rpm's) at cruising speed.this car is gonna be for the open road,very little town driving.we go out to denver quite often about 700 miles out and i would like to comfortably cruise at 75.i'm looking into either a 2.82,2.65 or a 2.47 gear.if my calculations are close i'm figuring about 2700 rpm's at 75 with the 2.47.which is about the rpm's i like to drive now with the 3.27 gears.i just need the first gear start for around town,as i feel the 2nd gear start will work the engine too hard.