My sons car (82 240d) won’t always turn over. To get it to turn over you have to move the shifter around. I’ve changed the 2 linkage bushings under the car a few years back. Can the ones that are accessible from inside the car cause this problem also & if yes which ones are they on pelicans web site. If they aren’t the culprit is there anything else other than the neutral safety switch it could be?
Thanks

Is the shifter sloppy or making rattling noises? The neutral safety switch may be spent. Just went through that in my car, did the bushings last year, so the shifter is still nice and tight, but had to fiddle with the shifter in the morning to get going. Post-mortem on the NSS showed a plastic lever in it was worn out when in P.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

The shifter doesn’t seem sloppy to me. But then again I’ve only driven one other Mercedes & that we a mid 60s 220sb with a column shift 4 speed so I may not be the best judge. My guess is the NSS is going bad but if it could be the bushings I’d try them first.

The 2 bushings you get at from inside of the Car are cheap and not too hard to get at. But, there is no guarentee that if you change them you problem will be cured.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Ebay had the least expensive OE bushings delivered when I needed only the bushings. Otherwise, Peach was the go to place if you can add them to an order. I could easily change 3 out of 4 on my 84SD (126). Not sure how much room there is on the 123. The spring load on the shifter made it seem like there was no slop but a quick look at the bushings made it obvious what the problem was.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Check a thread I started last week on some shifting (manual trans, not sure if yours is too) problems I was having - nobody has responded yet but I outline a good amount of info and the part numbers and photo step by step of rebuilding a four speed W123 floor shifter.......still hoping somebody can weigh in on my thread!! :-)


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