give me a hour ill see what i can find

 

Some guy managed to do it. He said he had to CNC a different valve body, modify the bowden cable, have someone program a microcontroller and connect it to the transmission, make his own cable to connect to the transmission, change out the modulator with a different model, modify the CE board, CNC some interior parts. On his post he mentioned he was only he can manually shift 1-2-3 but if you shifted at the wrong RPM to Drive you would take it out of third to put it back into third only to have the RPMS go higher then shift into 4th.

 

Christ, why not swap in something that works the way you want it and not spend $4k modifying 80's technology?

 

Sean,

Can't you see the logic? Way better to spend $4k to pay someone to more than likely wreck your auto box than spend 30 minutes of your own time at no cost to achieve for the most part exactly the same thing [10+ years of experience with this mod to date] with seemingly little to no risk whatsover!

Your screws have come a bit loose- you really must try to avoid using logic- thought you guys had horrendously expensive shrinks to stop you doing that!

Best wishes

Fred

 

FredR, with his Mod you can stay in 1, 2, and 3rd longer. Mainly first longer compared to the kick down Mod. It shifts faster than a manual, just a slide and your there. You don't have to worry about messing up, missing gears or grinding gears like a manual transmission.

 

The original post was about how to set off in first gear- not about how to blow your engine up with 2/6 failure as quickly as possible.

The stock S4/GTS motors are basically all done by 6k rpm so why would you want the tranny to change past 6200 rpm [where the torque curve is in free fall] which is more or less where mine changes?

I can see some [not much] merit in this if you have a tuned, race prepped [i.e capable of keeping the 2/6 bearing intact] motor that keeps on going well past 6k rpm and you want to track an auto model?????

Regards

Fred

 

fred he can probably down shift around a series of tight corners alot easier than a non modifies transmission.

 

Mine is an anemic 288HP 5.0l with several horses that have died. Going to take it to a Benz mechainc and see what he can do. Taking off in 2nd sucks. Makes the car feel like a family sedan.

 

how did several horses die? did you test to see if you lost engine compression? i draind my gas tank to find a bunch of nasty particles in it like rust then i replaced both fuel pumps and filters. i replaced the seals on the fuel injectors but before i did that i cleaned the outside and applied power and cleaned the inside with solvent. i plan on sending it somewhere or using the ultrasonic cleaner i have at work to clean any particles. i dont have testing equipment to check the spray pattern or volume.

 

thats kind of a downside to having unmodified automatics. some time their just not in their right gear at the right time when you randomly want to go fast

 

Why don't you just try what I advised you in post 5? You can take it in two steps- first tighten the kick down cable then try jumping the kickdown switch altogether- it is just behind the throttle pedal- very easy- totally reversible.

Have you even checked that the kick down cable is adjusted correctly according to the book never mind modifications to that? If the cable is too slack [ever heard of cable stretch over 25 years?] I suspect it will never start in first even if you trigger the kick down switch and even that is pathetic.

Oh- and you can also try putting some sewing machine oil on the throttle cable as it goes into the bulkhead working the cable as you add a few more drops of oil.

Regards

Fred

 

The 288 hp 5.0? You mean an 85, 86 or 86.5? It is supposed to start in first. (Same with 83 and 84, btw). If not, it is in need of service. I'd begin with fluid & filter change (being **** about level check thereafter), then vac check and replacement of vac modulator valve bolted to the drivers side. Then bowden cable adj. Basics first. A couple of mine had bad vac leaks so they shifted up so fast from 1 to 2 that you couldn't tell it was starting in first.
(building on SMTCapeCod's informational post)


It wasn't until sometime in the early 87 model year that the valve body was changed to the economy "start in second" valve body feature that mercedes was using.

So GregBBRD's answer is appropriate for most 87 S4 cars and all S4 afterward. Do not misread it as being applicable to the earlier cars, per se, unless he is suggesting a valve body repair of some sort to fix a failure area he is aware of and we aren't.

 

I may be wrong but from all the transmission crap Ive browsed through over the last month, it only seems to require a swap out of a piston and spring assembly in one of the cylinders of the valve body.

 

Like this.
Don't know if it works as I never tried it.

 

I really don't understand the obsession with the first gear take off. If I want to start in first I drop it down manually and hammer it. If I am in second and going below 20 I can mash it and get into first. My transmission is set up properly and operates as designed. Also, the engine performs as designed. If your car is a pig off the line it is not the fault of the transmission.