Your model commonly looses 1st gear. It looses it because the only way you get it in drive is electrically.

The treans should be in second gear with your foot on the brake. When you remove your foot the relay kicksdown to first.

The positions D,S,L replaced the numbers 4,3, and 2. In D you should get all four gears but only with electrical kickdown do you get first. In S and L you reduce the top gear and change the shift points upward for the lower gears.

The control unit for first gear is in the right kick panel and often fails because of shorted kickdown solenoids. The same solenoid worked on other models flawlessly but there were numerous failures on 116.120 chassis. The fact that kickdown was used on every take-off probably did in the two parts, but I often see these cars running around missing a gear.

To really verify this start in L. With a full throttle you should start in first and only shift to second. Bump the shifter to S and you should shift to third and finally move the lever to D and you should get a third shift into 4th.

The only MB 3 spd autos came on the 4.5 and 6.9 V8s and the Detroit automatic used in the 300d (as in 1958).

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Steve Brotherton
Owner 24 bay BSC
Bosch Master, ASE master L1
26 years MB technician