Scoot,
now you've got me hooked! How do you actually push-start an automatic? I don't own one, but that's useful info.
It's in the owner's manual which I don't have handy, but my recollection is it is something like turn the key to on, put car in N, roll down a hill and when you get to 25 - 30 mph move the selector into 2. I think the instructions on the diesel cars say something the effect of "expect it to run like **** for a few minutes since the glow plugs probably are not hot". On the gas cars it pretty much just starts the same as push-starting a manual transmission car.
An interesting note (which I may be providing with errors). My recollection is that when Sun Valley rebuilt the transmission in my 85 300TD (722.416 transmission) this feature no longer worked as it had been disabled as part of the rebuild process. The explanation I got was something about the secondary pump being unreliable and usually didn't work to push start the car. Having said that, it worked just fine on my 85 300TD prior to rebuild, my 71 250C W114, my 67 250 S (280S engine), and on my 67 250SL.
I don't think this works on American auto transmissions, however I never really tried. They certainly have never listed in in the owner's manuals as an approved starting method in any of the American cars I have owned.
