OK, I have learned more...am a little frustrated and patience is wearing low. I even ate some series 5111 peanut butter to end it all. I do not have my exact maintenance manual so the one I have is not real helpful. If you look at earlier posts about 1982 300d not starting you will see that all I did was replace rear tranny mount and linkage bushings. To accomplish this I unplugged the large elect. connection to the driver side of the tranny. After the job I put it all back as I found it, or so it seems, and then no start, just a click of some solenoid or relay but the starter never energizes or engages. There is also a wire going around to the rear of the tranny on the passenger side. I believe that may be the kickdown solenoid that drops your tranny into a lower gear for passing when you put the pedal to the metal. The big connector on the driver's side has 4 pin holes in it that align with 4 pins on the tranny. With the key on, one of them is hot. One of them gives you the reverse lights, one actually will energize the starter and rotate the engine. The forth I am not sure of but when connected with the one that rotates the engine it started! NOW, the big question is why is all of this not happening when I connect the female wire plug to the pins on the transmission, regardless of what I then do with the transmissio shifter? I did not do anything to damage the switch....This is going on far too long. I hate to have a big weenie cookout with the car just because of this switch. I was really hoping to ride and shift smooth after this, I even have a new vacuum hose coming and then can look forward to that nightmare of tracking down vacuum leaks. Then there is my blower motor or motors. I can hardly get any heat since they barely run, may be the brushes.....alas, if I can get it running good enough, I may have to sell it as I don't have the time for this much learning and troubleshooting....any ideas on the tranny swithch? Thanks . Steve

 

Ok, finally got 'er done, or at least solved. So for advice, whenever removing your transmission linkage, for any reason, be careful not to break the connection with the neutral or park safety switch right next to it. In the dark, geasy area I did not even see the connection when removed the linkage. I do remember a small black piece of plastic falling off with the dirt, grime, and black stuff of 27 years. I didn't know where it came from and just forgot about it. I also believed that the switch was actuated by some internal linkage and did not even see how to remove the safety switch. Well, the switch bolts to the transmission with 2 10mm bolts and has a hole in it for the transmission shift rod to go through and a plastic link to the shift linkage. When I removed it to examine it I could not figure out how it actuated since the key piece to the puzzle was missing, when I realized that the problem was solved! I now just need a new switch and could drive it in emergency. Thanks for all your help and I hope this helps someone else one day. Now to find the part, Steve

 

A good source for the NS switchis thepartsbin.com - I get a lot of my M-B stuff from them.