Hey Guys,

I just bought a 1965 200D. The shifter is a little wacky, and I have a hard time finding gears... A couple of times, I’ll be starting out in third from a dead stop and almost stall, or I’ll pull the shift lever too far back and find reverse... I don’t think it’s the unfamiliarity of a column shifter, but more likely that the shifter itself is getting sloppy... I’ve seen videos of people driving these cars on YouTube where the gear lever seems to spring backwards towards third or fourth gear after shifting to neutral from first or second (as a floor shifter would spring towards the right when shifted into neutral...). I’m thinking the shift mechanism somehow needs to be rebuilt. If that’s the case, how does one go about this? Where can one find the parts? I want to get my W110 driving the way it should!

Thank you guys,

Nick O.

Nick,

Congrats on your purchase. The very first thing you should do is inspect all the bushings in the shifter and linkages and replace as needed. Mercedes used plastic bushings and they disintegrate over time. There is a bushing at the ball on the end of the shift lever which probably is causing most of your problems and bushings at both ends of the linkages under the car. They should still be available from Mercedes or Mercedes Classic Center, and probably from other online vendors. Lubricate pivot points with light oil as the shift mechanism should move nice and free, maybe some cleaner first if gummed up. Unless the shifter has been abused, they are pretty durable and shouldn't require much more repair.

The shift lever normally is spring loaded to go away from you when sitting in the car, and when pulling back into reverse you should feel a definite detent that you must pull past before shifting into reverse. Remember these don't shift like a floor shifter. Don't try to shift fast and don't try to force the lever to do what you want. Let it slide into place as you shift.

Hey KCM,
Thanks! It really is a nice car. I shipped it from California to New York, so there’s very little rust. I expect I’ll be spending a lot of my time keeping it that way now. Besides those ball-end shift bushings, where can I find the other bushings? I see these near the firewall connected to the linkages, and I Imagine that there are the same bushings at the other end of these linkages... I haven’t had much time to poke around under the car yet, all the work I’ve been doing has been standing up.