OK....I cannot for the life of me get my kick down switch to work....it ohms right, new switch.... Gets 12v at the switch...I know its capable of working....as it had worked twice out of the total blue....

Today while soldering a suspicious looking connection....I confirmed that one wire going to the switch measured at 12v and the other coming from the solenoid showed 0...

When I turned the car on....the solenoid wire, showed 9v.....after the glows kicked off....it showed 0v.......

Now how the heck is that possible?

My friend said its the ground connection, so tomorrow....I will clean the bell housing to the body ground....

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Kick down solenoid gets its ground via the transmission casing.

Where were you measuring the 9 V against?

Have you verified that if you apply 12 V to the solenoid directly, it picks up?

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

Had the positive lead in the line that runs from the solenoid and the negative end....connected to the body....

Get 12v at the wire going to the switch and then 12v at the wire going into the solenoid...

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Where are you picking up the ground for meter? Are you using a digital meter?

Digital meter.

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