11 October 2009: Yet another Mercury innovation which whetted America's appetite for gadgetry was the transmission keyboard control. Rather than the common old column shifted transmission selector lever, Mercury's automatic transmissions came with a "push-button keyboard-control" situated to the left of the steering column. This contained 5 or 6 illuminated buttons depending on the transmission. The four buttons across the bottom, from left to right, are "Brake Release" to release the parking brake, "Neutral / Start" to firstly put the transmission into neutral and pushing harder to start the engine, "Hill Control" to lock the transmission in intermediate gear for hill climbing or engine braking, and "Reverse" which is fairly self-evident. Across the top are one or two buttons, one for a single-range transmission and two for the "multi-drive" dual-range transmission. Standard on Park Lanes and optional on other models, the "Multi-Drive Merc-O-Matic" has two driving ranges. The first range, or "Performance Range", uses all three forward gears in driving. The second range, or "Cruising Range", uses only second and third gears so as to improve fuel economy when starting from stationary. With a beefy V8 under the bonnet, second gear starts were more than adequate. Situated below the keyboard control is a chrome "Parking Bar" which engages and disengages the transmission parking lock.
Being interested in mechanical things I was intrigued by the workings of the Keyboard Control. Each button is connected to a vertical plate with a stop and the stop for each plate is in a differnt position. When a button is depressed, it releases the previously depressed button which then pops out, and then another plate at right-angles to all the others is released and comes to rest on the stop of the button being depressed. This right-angle plate is connected to the transmission manual valve via a cable. Because the stops of all the different buttons are in different positions, when each different button is pressed, the right-angle plate comes to rest in a different position and so the cable moves the manual valve on the transmission through its different settings. There are several interlocks in the Keyboard Control to prevent conflicting actions. One of these is that Reverse cannot be selected or the parking lock applied while the car is moving forward. An electric solenoid connected to the transmission blocks the movements of these two buttons in this situation. Another interlock is that the car cannot be started if the transmission is not in neutral. Finally the Keyboard Control incorporates a switch for the rear reversing lights and a lamp to illuminate the buttons at night and another lamp to indicate when the parking brake is applied. It's one complex assembly.
While the Keyboard Control seemed to work OK, there was good access to it while the instrument cluster was removed so it was a good opportunity to do anything to it that needed doing. While not critical, the parking brake button is supposed to illuminate when the ignition is on and the parking brake is applied, as a warning device. It didn't and so I assumed a burned out globe was the culprit. Seeing as it was mostly working I didn't have to do very much. I just cleaned the dust off it and lubricated all the sliding parts. I put a new globe in the parking brake warning light and removed all the buttons and the escutcheon and cleaned all the Arizona dust out of them.
