<<"In the early '90s Mercedes saw the error of their ways and allowed the gas transmissions to start in 1st. Cars built a year or two before 1st gear starts became standard COULD be converted (it was NOT a cheap conversion - required that the valve body be removed and some pieces replaced) but cars with transmissions build before that (about '89 and earlier I think) can't be converted (you'd need a completely replace the valve body).">>
If I had any personal archives, I could exhume a post I made more than ten years back on this subject but I don't, so I won't. Paraphrasing, when I was driving my '89 190E 2.6 and my friend SJB got his new '91 300E with 1st gear start and I drove it, I was hot to add that feature to my '89. So, after repeated talks with one of the two MB reps in my area, one of them called Montvale, in my presence, and asked what could be done. The answer was that they had converted several company cars and the fix was to remove the little spring from behind the kickdown piston. Soon after, the shop foreman, with me watching, removed the valve body (a few fasteners), removed one of the cheesehead screws from the end of it (they are numbered) and out dropped a little piston followed by the spring in question. Reassemble in reverse order. After a careful adjustment of the trans cable (or was it a rod?) I had first gear start. What a difference! I carried that little spring in a zip-loc bag in the car for a few years until I traded it of in '95. Probably cost about $150 including the fluid change. RLE