I have the motor and trans from a 83 300sd 5 cylinder turbo diesel setup going into my 97 Sonoma. When I pulled the motor and trans from the car I thought the trans looked quite similar to a th350/700r4 (vacuum modulator & kick down cable)simple. I didn't think that the trans was electronicly controlled. The switch on the side of the trans by the shifter I thought was just a electric shift indicator and neutral switch and the little black round switch near the rear of the trans was a speed sensor. does anyone know wither any of this stuff has to be hooked? up also I heard some word about a kick down switch in the car under the accelerator, if so does anyone know how this is supposed to be wired i don't have the car to trace wires any more had to junk the rest of it right away to make the pops happy. any insight on this would be appreciated
Adam
REDNECKVETTE
83om617/97sonoma

 

Adam,

The switch on the side by the shifter is the neutral safety switch (starter lockout) and backup light / reverse switch. The black widget at the rear passenger side (probably looks like this) is not a speed sensor, that is the kickdown solenoid. This gets energized by a switch located under the accelerator pedal when at WOT. This increases WOT shift points but isn't required to make the trans work.

I'm not sure if the '83 300SD had an electronic or mechanical speedo, but either way the speedo connection (flex cable or sensor wires) will be at the rear driver's side.

 

awesome then the only thing i have to do is wire in the kick down swith, sounds simple enough. do you or any one know the wiring to hook up the kickdown switch. from the pictures of the switch on the internet it only looks like two wires go to the switch.

 

It's even simpler than that. One wire to the kickdown solenoid... only takes +12v signal to energize the coil. You supply +12v to the (momentary!) switch behind the pedal, at full throttle the switch closes and sends +12v to the solenoid at the tranny. That's it.

 

awesome thanks. At first i didn't reconize the kick down solenoid but thats what 189,000 miles of leaking oil can hide. both trans and motor need a real good bath before work starts