HOW-TO: Removing & Replacing 722.3 transmission (W124/M104)

[gerryvz]

Well, as I'd mentioned on another thread, last Sunday my wife's 1995 E320 wagon transmission died, with 203,200 miles on the odometer. It died suddenly, losing all four forward gears. Reverse worked fine.

This is the classic 722.3 "B2 piston failure" that is very common to the 722.3 transmission. The transmission can be fixed fairly easily by removing it from the car and replacing the B2 piston and associated parts, which are accessible from the exterior of the transmission.

However, with the overall mileage on the car, and the fact that I'd just rebuilt the top end of the motor, I decided to just replace the transmission with a professionally rebuilt unit, rather than to apply a "Band-aid" approach by fixing just the B2 piston assembly. Either way, the transmission was going to have to come out of the car.

I decided to go with Sun Valley Mercedes Transmission, located in Van Nuys, CA. A couple of conversations with Marc there helped along my decision. On Wednesday, I had Marc begin a build-up of an existing core unit, and a progress report on Friday indicated that the transmission would be done and ready for shipment either at the end of the day on Friday, or on Saturday. Once shipped, it will take 2 (at the outside 3) days to get from Southern California to Houston.

My local mechanic quoted me $2,500 to rebuild the transmission (if I removed it), and $2,700 to rebuild and remove/install it. Sun Valley quoted me $1,750 for the rebuild, and $200 for shipping to me (with return postage of my existing transmission paid for by Sun Valley). No sales tax was charged because I am outside of California. I would have had to pay an additional 8.25% sales tax if I'd have had the work done locally, on top of the quoted price.

So, doing a bit of research during the week, I launched the job late this afternoon, and put about two hours into it so far (taking my time and documenting things). About one hour of time was just spent letting the transmission pan and torque converter drain its fluid, so the actual labor time was really only about 1.25 hours total.

Here's how I got started.

First off, I jacked up the front of the car as high as I could. To do this, I put three small sections of 2x4 on top of my floor jack saddle (which JUST fit under the rubber lift point on the S124). Next, I raised the jack as high as it would go, and then placed a jack stand with a small section of 2x4 on top of it (extended as high as it would go), and slowly let the jack down. Then I repeated this on the other side. As a safety factor, I also kept the hydraulic floor jack pumped up under one side of the car near one of the jack stands, to serve as an additional safety support. It is just snug against the jack point.

Once the car was jacked up, I opened the hood and disconnected the negative terminal of the battery. I did my customary thing of removing the clamp from the terminal and wrapping it in several layers of shop rag, and carefully bending it aside.



The next step was to remove the underbelly plastic cladding and then survey what things look like at the transmission. Here are a few views of things, including views of the driver's and passenger side of the automatic transmission.



After that, I drained the ATF from the transmission pan, and then rotated the engine with a large, flat-blade screwdriver, and drained the torque converter. This took about 45 minutes to an hour to let totally drain.



Next I removed the plastic plug in the engine housing, which allows access to the back side of the torque converter. This was for a later step where I would remove the six bolts that hold the torque converter to the engine flywheel.



And when I removed the plug, and turned it over, lo and behold what did I find?!? A "Trucktec" part ... basically the equivalent of a URO part. I raced down my driveway with this highly toxic, faux hot potato part in my hand, and flung it off my property just as far as I could. No wonder my transmission decided to give up the ghost .. it was rejecting that crap part near it. And to think that this $3.00 factory part had been replaced by a cheap, ersatz part. Shiver me timbers !!



Here's what the back of the torque converter looks like with the plug removed, with one of the six bolts visible.



I proceeded to remove the six bolts, rotating the engine in between pairs. A 13mm socket on my 3/8" ratchet took care of the job with little difficulty.



Next up, I turned my attention to disconnecting the items that were attached to the driver's side of the transmission, such as.....

... the neutral safety switch



... the transmission overload connector



... the vacuum line going to the modulator


... and the end of the shift rod



Then I turned my attention to loosening the two bolts that held the transmission mount to the cross-piece.



Next up were the 5mm Allen bolts that held the transmission coolant pipes to the engine block and transmission bell housing. These were rather quickly removed, getting things ready for the removal of the actual lines themselves from the transmission.



The last job for the night was to remove the exhaust pipe support (that "rare" piece of metal on the E320 that attaches to the transmission and the exhaust pipes).


That's about it for tonight's installment, folks.

More to come very soon.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Maui]

Another great thread. Thanks for taking the time post these wonderful DIY's.

 

[texas993]

Gerry. Do you plan to have that muffler support powder coated?

Nice work and thanks for documenting the process!

 

[gerryvz]

Well, I spent a good four hours this afternoon out in the shop, starting around 4 PM. Made a lot of progress -- I'm down to just four bolts that need to be removed that hold the transmission to the engine block.

Here's how the day progressed:

Picking up where I left off last night, I needed to remove the Bowden cable (transmission control pressure cable) from the accelerator linkage underhood, which is located immediately underneath the black plastic intake manifold, attached to the aluminum lower portion of the intake manifold.

To remove the cable, you pop the ball socket off of the end of it that attaches it to the linkage, and then you have to take a pair of pliers and squeeze together the top and bottom of the cable housing to compress it, and let it slide out of the square hole in the bracket. It's a bit of a tough angle, but a pair of bent-nose needle-nose pliers made the job fairly easy. You can probably also squeeze it together with your fingers from below. Then you just slide out the ball-socket end of the cable through the square hole.



Then, I loosened the 6mm Allen bolt that held the transmission dipstick bracket to the back corner of the cylinder head. This is a bit of a "toughie" to get at, and I remembered it from my recent top-end rebuild. To make the job just a bit easier, I removed the cross-over plastic air-intake tube that attaches to the MAF, which gave me a bit more room to get at the Allen bolt. A small size hex key works best to get this bolt out. After a LOT of work, I finally got it out, and put it away.



The next part of the job was to remove the two ATF lines that go up to the radiator's transmission cooler. These were straight 19mm banjo bolts. A little ATF bled out of the lines, so I had my drain pan at the ready underneath both bolts. Notice the aluminum crush washers. These will be replaced when I reassemble the transmission.



And here's the other side's line coming off.



Then it was time to take the center cross-piece off, which holds the transmission mount and keeps the rear end of the transmission in alignment. This is held to the floor of the vehicle by four stout bolts, which MB says that you have to replace when you re-install the cross-piece. So, I'll have four bolts go on my parts order.



From there, I removed the speedometer cable, which was held into the transmission housing by a single, 8mm "pinch" bolt. Easy to remove, and pulled right out and moved aside.



I also removed this connector from the rear end of the transmission. Simply pulled it straight out.



Then, it was time to begin removing the bolts that held the transmission to the engine block. I got out my 3/8" "breaker" ratchet and my 17mm socket. It made fairly short work of 5 of the bolts.



After removing a few of the transmission bolts, I turned my attention to the bottom 5mm Allen bolt that secured the transmission dipstick to the top of the transmission housing, directly above the pan. This is what the transmission dipstick slides through to measure ATF level. I used a short 5mm Allen key to loosen and remove the bolt. The dipstick housing was also secured to the transmission bell housing by the top-most bolt, which I also loosened so that I could slide the dipstick assembly up and out of the way. I will need to remove and thoroughly clean it once the transmission is removed from the car, and replace it before I re-install the new transmission. Of course, I already have the o-ring for the transmission dipstick in my parts stock, so will replace this o-ring, which is a fairly common source of ATF leakage.



Then, it was time to do a portion of the job that I was dreading -- that of loosening the large driveshaft clamping nut that holds together tightly the two portions of the driveshaft. This nut is ABOVE the exhaust system, and I spent a good 90 minutes progressively loosening and then removing the exhaust system to drop it from the downpipes back to the rear muffler, so that I had enough room to access this nut. I also removed the heat shield that sits above the driveshaft, immediately below this not and the driveshaft center support bearing. When I slid the heat shield down and off the car, the following fell down, much to my surprise !!



It is the remnants of the driveshaft center support rubber boot, which covers the splines of the driveshaft where they are clamped by the large nut, between the nut and the center support bearing itself. Since the boot was totally mangled, I figured it is probably a good point "since I'm in there" to just replace the driveshaft support bearing itself once the transmission is out of the car. There will be much more room to do this with the transmission out.

Here are a few views of the splines that mate the two halves of the driveshaft, and the area that the boot covers. You can also see the large driveshaft nut as I loosen it with a large pair of Knipex pliers.



And here's what the nut looks like, totally loosened. This allows the forward portion of the driveshaft to move rearward onto the splines toward the rear driveshaft, because the next step is to remove the three 10mm Allen bolts that hold the flex disc onto the transmission output flange, and to separate the transmission from the driveshaft. So the whole driveshaft needs to be able to move rearward to provide enough room for the transmission to drop straight down.



And here is me, after removing the three flex disc bolts that hold the output shaft to the flex disc, separating the flex disc from the transmission's output shaft. I used a large screwdriver to accomplish this task.



I am very close now to being able to drop the transmission. Only four bolts hold it to the engine block: one of the the two top bolts, on the driver's side; a side bolt at the 2:30 position on the clock; a side bolt at the 3:30 position on the clock, and a side bolt at the 9:00 position on the clock (one of the long starter bolts). My next move will be to remove the top-bolt, and the 2:30 bolt. Then I will support the transmission with a transmission jack, and remove the remaining 3:30 and 9:00 bolts. Then I can break the transmission free and carefully lower it down and under the car. This will be a very delicate operation, so I will take my time doing this. I hope to get to it on Monday or Tuesday night, work permitting.

Hope folks find this useful.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Trae]

If it is not useful now, it will be in the future when, eventually, all our trannies will need service.
My wagon is at 240k on the original tranny.
Thanks for documenting another "how to" for us!

Trae

 

[emerydc8]

Great pics, Gerry. How would this removal compare with removing the transmission on a 500E? Much of it seems similar, but I'm thinking with the V8, the bell housing bolts would be harder to access.

In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing it come out.

 

[gerryvz]

There are a couple more bolts on the bell housing (and I think a couple of them are actually nuts, not bolts) on the M119. There is the cross-piece (easy removal) between the lower control arm mounts, which I believe is exclusive to the V-8 cars only. There is a different setup for the six bolts that connect the torque-converter to the flywheel ("driver plate") on the M119 ... it doesn't have that plastic plug that the M104 does, IIRC and they are accessed in a slightly different location, but the principle is exactly the same.. Obviously the 036 has an electronic speedo connection (pulse generator), while my E320 has a traditional square speedo cable inside of a circular housing.

I also believe the center crosspiece on the 124 V-8s has three bolts on each side instead of two bolts on each side as the 6-cylinder cars do. The Bowden cable linkage is different too on the M119. The V-8 cars have an upshift delay cable connection which not all of the six-cylinder cars do, although the M104-engined cars do.

Honestly though, I'd say the procedure is probably 90-95% applicable to the M119 cars. The bell housing is different on the V-8 cars, for sure. But the principle as far as removal and installation is the same. I believe the two top bolts on the M119 should be accessed from above. I have found that I can get both M104 bolts from below the car. One of them is out, and the other one I can easily get a bite on. I need to find the optimal combination of extensions and u-joint to get it off, but that will be tomorrow or Tuesday night.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Gerry

 

[emerydc8]

Thanks. It does help. I have been thinking about buying a transmission jack and giving this a try on my '94, but there were a few concerns: Accessibility to the bolts; damaging something while trying to get it out of the car; and adjusting the shift points once it is reinstalled. I plan to follow your work and see if it's something I'm capable of doing. Thanks again for the attention to detail and all the pictures.

 

[samiam44]

Gerry,

So you are you going to use a Jono Transmission the 500e or build it yourself??

The flex disc/TC bolts on a M119 are on the driverside where the flywheel lock goes or I guess you can pull the starter and use that side. The lower bell housing attachment uses bolt/nut combinations.

For the upper bolts, use 1/2 extension about 3 ft long. W a flex socket. Reassembly, chamfer the upper holes slightly on the ending side and then use an o-ring to hold your bolt in place.

I'm surprised by the low hours your mechanic quoted you on R&R the transmission. I was thinking book time was 6-7 hrs.

Michael

 

[gerryvz]

I'm surprised by the low hours your mechanic quoted you on R&R the transmission. I was thinking book time was 6-7 hrs.

I think it was a package deal if I had him spend the time to rebuild the unit in his shop. That said, he's super experienced so I have no doubt that he could have the transmission removed in probably 3 hours and re-installed in same. He said that the parts for a rebuild would run $1,200 out of the $2,500 he quoted me ... was probably quoting retail pricing (to me) though.

I decided to purchase a rebuild through Sun Valley Mercedes Transmissions in SoCal, which has been built and is now on its way to me in Houston.

 

[emerydc8]

For the upper bolts, use 1/2 extension about 3 ft long. W a flex socket.

That's on my list of things to buy. Is your flex socket also 1/2" drive or do you step down to 3/8"? Thanks, Michael.

 

[M104-AMG]

<SNIP>

I decided to purchase a rebuild through Sun Valley Mercedes Transmissions in SoCal, which has been built and is now on its way to me in Houston.

Wait till you see the customized tub and pallet they use to ship. So nice. FWIW, for the '95 E320, no core was required and it was still < $1.7K shipped. With my buddy who's a Master ASE tech and Mercedes experienced for 18+ years, we pulled the tranny in 2-hrs, and put it in 3-hrs changing.

FWIW, a shot of Kroil on all exhaust nuts/bolts two days before made short work of it.

neil

 

[gerryvz]

Oh trust me, I'm going to be documenting everything I am looking forward to visiting them a week from this Friday too. I will take plenty of photos and post them here.

 

[samiam44]

So there is no plan to put gauges on the transmission and adjust pressures per the TDM?

Guess Sun Valley has a way to bench run them and adjust.

5 hrs is pretty darn good.

I'm not sure what I used the last times I did a transmission. I just know the 1/2 works so much better when your on a lift. The 3/8 extension is flexible. I have some a few pin-lock extensions with the ball-swivel ends. Bet I used one of those. I think they are S&K purchased about 15 years ago.


Michael

 

[emerydc8]

I just know the 1/2 works so much better when your on a lift.

I had the same problem trying to get a starter bolt out using a long 3/8' extension--it was way too flexible. I had to get a two-foot, 1/2" drive extension. If you're using a 3-foot, 1/2" drive extension, I suspect it is a Snap-on, because that was the only brand I could find on ebay that offered 36." All the others were 30."

So there is no plan to put gauges on the transmission and adjust pressures per the TDM?

Are these adjustments made at the transmission, in addition to the Bowden cable?

 

[gerryvz]

So there is no plan to put gauges on the transmission and adjust pressures per the TDM?

Guess Sun Valley has a way to bench run them and adjust.

5 hrs is pretty darn good.

I'm not sure what I used the last times I did a transmission. I just know the 1/2 works so much better when your on a lift. The 3/8 extension is flexible. I have some a few pin-lock extensions with the ball-swivel ends. Bet I used one of those. I think they are S&K purchased about 15 years ago.


Michael

Sun Valley tests all of their transmissions on a dyno before shipping them out. According to Marc, the only thing that should be needed is proper hookup and a control pressure cable & perhaps modulator adjustment once installed.

 

[emerydc8]

Gerry,

Is the control pressure cable the same as the Bowden cable?

 

[Stevester 500E]

Great thread Gerry, How do you keep your camera free of oil and grease?

 

[gsxr]

Is the control pressure cable the same as the Bowden cable?

Yup. Same thing, different name. Looks like dis:

 

[gerryvz]

Tonight was a fairly quick night in the shop. Taking my time, it was under one hour to remove the transmission from the car.

Basically I attacked the top-most and upper side bolts of the four that were holding the transmission to the engine block. Then I loosened the remaining 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock bolts a couple of turns, and then put the transmssion jack underneath the transmission to hold it up. Then it was just a matter of removing the two loosened bolts, and wiggling the transmission back and slowly downward with the jack, until it was free of the engine and driveshaft/flex disc.

Here are a few photos of the final process:



And a few photos of the transmission free of the car:



Placing some lint-free towels in the open oil cooler line holes, and where the transmission dipstick fits down into the pan. This will keep dust and dirt out of the interior of the transmission.



Removing the shift lever and neutral safety switch, which will be re-used on the new transmission. It is less than a year old and in excellent condition.



Removing the transmission mount from the rear of the transmission. This requires a 19mm socket to remove, but is quite easy. This one did not seem to be a Mercedes part, and had the markings "S3" on it as well as a date code of "09." So it must have been installed in 2010 when I had the chassis rubber totally replaced on the car. This mount, despite being in good condition, will be replaced with a Mercedes-Benz factory mount.



And for now, that is about all for this installment. I have plenty of inspection and maintenance to do, and I will take careful notes as to anything that needs replacement. I already see that one of the foam condensation tubes from the evaporator needs to be replaced, so i will probably just do both of these. The "blanket" lining the transmission tunnel looks to be in very good condition.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Great thread Gerry, How do you keep your camera free of oil and grease?

Wipe it off lightly every night with a rag lightly soaked with ..... what else .... CRC Chlorinated Brake Cleaner.

 

[emerydc8]

I like the nice, new transmission jack. Maybe pulling a transmission is not the horrific job that I thought it would be.

 

[Glen]

Using a trans jack makes R&R'ing a trans so much easier! Another "trick" if you have a lift and a sturdy table is to use the lift to move the car while the trans rests on the table...assuming you don't have a high rise trans jack.

 

[emerydc8]

I would love to have a lift; but I think I will have to settle for a transmission jack.

 

[albdentist]

Great write up Gerry, much appreciated....
Any thoughts on gathering up great articles such as this and publishing them in a book format ? Kinda similar to what Dempsey has done over at Pelican with his 911 books etc. Similar to the argument of Kindle vs physical book, I feel some readers would appreciate the format... just a complimentary thought....
Such a wealth of information, probably the best auto forum yet.
I look forward to future threads....

 

[gerryvz]

If my photos were professional quality, and I re-wrote things, then it would be a good idea to compile into a publication. But unfortunately I'm just an amateur DIYer, so I don't think the material warrants doing much with it. There are plenty of better HOW-TOs on this same job posted on forums like PeachParts and Banzworld that others have done in the past.

Honestly I'm using a 10+ year old "thrasher" digital camera, and more or less talking out of my ass with the running commentary.

I guess the main purpose of the HOW-TOs is to inspire other people to do the same work, and perhaps also inspire others to post their own HOW-TOs for jobs that I haven't done. GSXR is a walking encyclopedia of HOW-TOs and I'd love to see him post some of his, particularly for things like suspension/chassis rubber replacements.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Well, tonight in the shop it was just 15 minutes or so to do some inspections of the underside of the car, since the transmission is out. I took some observations and photographs that you all should be interested to see. Glad I did this as I am getting ready to make my AutohauZ and parts.com parts orders tonight, and there are a few new parts I need to tack onto my p.com order....

First off is a good look at the flex disc. I'm going to remove it entirely from the car to inspect it closely, but here's a good close-up shot. From what I can see, there is no abnormal wear that would require its immediate replacement. However, I have one on my parts order and I'm going to replace it out of hand, because it's a consumable ("wear") part that will require replacement sooner or later. And it's MUCH easier to do it now, since I have extremely easy access to it....



Next is a view of the evaporator condensation drain tubes, located on either side of the transmission tunnel above the bell housing. These are the foam hoses with coiled wire inside. The 126 uses one of these hoses, too. The first one, on the driver's side, looked pretty good (first photo below), but it crumbled to dust when I touched the end of the hose portion. You can see from the second one that the only thing left of the end of it, is coiled wire, LOL!! So, automatic replacement. This is done from INSIDE the car, but you poke the ends of the hoses through the floor and into the transmission tunnel. Inexpensive but a good thing to do.


I'll bet your hoses on most of your .036s are close to or just as bad as these. Probably a couple hundred dollars of labor out of that $5K deferred labor bill that I'm always harping that EVERY .036 has. Even Dave's cars.

Next, it was time to look at the two-way water drain that channels water from the blower motor area under the windshield, down underneath the car into the bell housing area. This is sort of a "Y" shaped water collector.



You can see that the end of the collector on the right-hand (passenger) side is cracked off, and another chunk is in danger of cracking. So, automatic replacement time. Both of the ends were mildly clogged up with leaves and other dust/dirt, so I cleaned them out with a screwdriver. Then I just decided to pull the whole assembly off and order a new one.



Then, I checked out the oil pressure sender, which I just recently replaced around the time I did the top-end rebuild. You can see it clearly in the photo below, along with its electrical connector. Just below it in the photo, you can also see the crankshaft position sensor's black connector. I decided to replace the crank position sensor (it's a ~$55 part) as it is difficult to get to when the transmission is in the car, and an extremely simple one-bolt replacement now.



Then I looked backward to check the oxygen sensor. It looks quite original to the car, and since the car has 203,200 miles on the odometer, and I have a brand-new factory MB replacement O2 sensor, I'm going to replace it as well. It will NEVER be as accessible as it currently is, staring me right in the face...



From there, I inspected the steering box. Again, in plain view and extremely accessible from this vantage point. I have never seen a drier steering box in my life, so this is one sleeping dog that I'm going to let "lie."



Lastly, I looked straight upward to check out the flywheel and rear crankshaft seal, for any leakage or weeping. The area under the seal (actually a good portion of the entire rear of the engine block around and above the seal) was slightly damp and oil/dirt coated, but I did not see any active leakage from the large seal. Nevertheless, I'm going to pull the flywheel off (you can see that it is held on by eight XZN bolts) and replace this rather large seal. Just because if it ever DOES leak, the transmission has to come off to replace it, and it's an 8-10 hour job that I don't want to do again, any time soon. So 30 minutes of extra labor now, before I install the new transmission, is probably well spent doing this job.

Here are a couple of views of the flywheel and crank seal area.



I sincerely hope you enjoyed this little visual inspection tour of the underside of the car and transmission tunnel.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Maui]

Very good stuff. Thanks.

 

[emerydc8]

I'll bet your hoses on most of your .036s are close to or just as bad as these. Probably a couple hundred dollars of labor out of that $5K deferred labor bill that I'm always harping that EVERY .036 has. Even Dave's cars.

I would probably bet it's virtually everyone except Dave's cars.

Great pictures, Gerry! When you remove the 8 XZN bolts, are you going to have to somehow lock the flywheel from turning or do you think at 30-40nm you can angle it and break them loose without turning the crank? I see they are microencapsulated and require replacement.

 

[036/199]

It might be worth mentioning to check the tunnel insulation.
Actually to replace it anyway as it will sag down eventually and rub against guibo and prop shaft.

Just for the records,I replaced insulation and all drains on my minor project of course..

Is also a good time to replace the shifter rod bushings when all the stuff is out.

And LOL at your 5k statement.....again....

 

[gerryvz]

When you remove the 8 XZN bolts, are you going to have to somehow lock the flywheel from turning or do you think at 30-40nm you can angle it and break them loose without turning the crank? I see they are microencapsulated and require replacement.

I will lock the crank from turning at the front of the engine, for the very reason you mention. Given that the transmission is removed there is now even less drag on the crank, so the engine will likely be easier to turn, requiring locking of the crank to get those flywheel bolts off, aye.

It might be worth mentioning to check the tunnel insulation.
Actually to replace it anyway as it will sag down eventually and rub against guibo and prop shaft.

I inspected the tunnel insulation carefully last night. It is quite well attached to the bottom of the car, and the only real "damage" to it is at the bottom edge where I have repeatedly replaced the neutral safety switch, but this is inconsequential really. It is firmly attached and in good condition in the tunnel. I had an eye to inspect this carefully, trust me.

I do know that on my E500 I will DEFINITELY change this insulation because it's a known weakness on these cars. That transmission is not far from failing (reverse engagement problem is slowly happening) so I'd bet within the next year or two I will have this issue.

And LOL at your 5k statement.....again....

Laughing AT the statement (because it's an exaggeration) or WITH the statement (because it's true)?

You know all of these "little jobs" add up....people don't consider these soft parts as problems because they don't see them. How often are the condensation drain pipes discussed here on this forum? Practically never....nobody pays attention to them. Same thing with parts like the upper strut mounts. But a few hundred for parts and labour here, a few more hundred for this other job, and it starts adding up fast whether you have a "stealer" or an indy shop do the work, or you do it yourself.

Heck, my parts orders just for replacements for this E320 transmission job are totaling over $400, and if I didn't have AHAZ and parts.com pricing, the parts would be pushing $1,000 in total cost and that's just to proactively change out worn (or soon to wear) parts.

 

[clarkz71]

I also believe the center crosspiece on the 124 V-8s has three bolts on each side instead of two bolts on each side as the 6-cylinder cars do. The Bowden cable linkage is different too on the M119.

Same 4 bolts, just much larger. Also, the trans mount is a HD W140 part

That's on my list of things to buy. Is your flex socket also 1/2" drive or do you step down to 3/8"? Thanks, Michael.

I use a 1/2" extension with a 1/2" to 3/8: adaptor. And a 3/8" drive 17mm swival

 

[gerryvz]

Yes, that crossover part is MUCH beefier than the stamped sheetmetal E320 unit, also a wider spaced bolt pattern.

 

[clarkz71]

Indeed, for context, here's the cross member on my car vs your E320

Also visible is the elusive exhaust bracket...........

 

[036/199]

Laughing AT the statement (because it's an exaggeration) or WITH the statement (because it's true)?

Both.

Want to see anyone trying to pull off the 5k statement while negotiating the price for the Brabus or reincarnation car.....

I am sure mine does not need 5k maintenance either...


BTW,there is a difference between maintenance and cosmetics...

 

[samiam44]

Gerry,

How high is the car jacked off the ground? I want to say thanks on this and many great write-ups. I think they really encourage ppl to do jobs which they might not consider given the scope. Without you/DaveM/Jono, I don't think I'd have purchased my 500e or kept it.

Michael

 

[gerryvz]

The car is a couple of feet off the ground. Having it up on ramps would not have placed the car high enough, so I have the front of the car up on two jackstands at their highest extension, along with one short section of 2x4 on top of that. This is the highest I could get the car with my floor jack with three pieces of 2x4 placed on top of the saddle of the jack.

With the transmission lowered all the way on the transmission jack, it was about three inches too tall to wheel out from under the car. So, to get around this I carefully slid the transmission off of the jack to the side, onto a moving blanket to protect it. Then I pulled it out from under the car (it cleared the car after it was off the jack) and then lifted it back onto the jack for easy transit around the garage.

The car feels very solid atop the jack stands, and I have the extended hydraulic floor jack placed under one side of the car as an additional safety precaution. Also, for the first time -- to take advantage of the extended light in the evenings (sundown is around 7:45 PM now) -- I have the car backed into the garage.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[baviking1]

Great how-to thread again GVZ. I'm about to tackle this in one of my e420's, but dont think I'd EVER brave doing it without the car being up on the lift. BTW my issue is the classic "slow to go in reverse (5-6 seconds) and then clicks while backing up" syndrome. I've read a quote from you that's a sign the clutches at the front of the tranny are gone. Has anyone torn into the tranny themselves in lieu of taking a chance at the junkyard etc? I seem to recall you as saying those failing clutches were right at the front and were the easiest thing to replace.....

 

[M104-AMG]

Gerry- who's our best supplier for latex & nitrile gloves ?

What type are the one's you're using in the pics ?

I did quick search, and couldn't find anything. Was it captruff ?

TIA,
neil

 

[gsxr]

Captruff has some very nice black nitrile gloves... ping him if you're interested!

 

[gerryvz]

I plan to hit captruff up for gloves when I'm out there next week. But I've tried many types over the years.

The very best ones I've found from a durability and feel perspective are the black ones I've been using.

They are available at Lowe's Hardware stores (not at Home Depot) and are called "Venom Steel" and they are quite good.

You can also order them at Amazon.com at this link.

The gloves come in 50-pack boxes (25 pairs).

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Great how-to thread again GVZ. I'm about to tackle this in one of my e420's, but dont think I'd EVER brave doing it without the car being up on the lift. BTW my issue is the classic "slow to go in reverse (5-6 seconds) and then clicks while backing up" syndrome. I've read a quote from you that's a sign the clutches at the front of the tranny are gone. Has anyone torn into the tranny themselves in lieu of taking a chance at the junkyard etc? I seem to recall you as saying those failing clutches were right at the front and were the easiest thing to replace.....

Generally with the E500E, it's more the "reverse clicking and delayed engagement" syndrome rather than the B2 piston failure that my wife's E320 experienced. With the reverse clicking, you gradually sink into the abyss and eventually lose your reverse gear. With the B2 piston failure, you very suddenly lose all four forward gears, but reverse remains just fine.

The reverse clutches are located immediately behind the front pump, which is itself located immediately behind the torque converter. So, yes, you don't have to tear into the transmission very far to access the reverse clutches.

However, and I thought a lot about this .... if you're going to go the distance to pull the transmission, there are going to be other "wear" issues with it and perhaps external seal leaks, above and beyond just the problem at hand (whether reverse clutch discs or a cracked/broken B2 piston). So in my opinion, it doesn't make sense to pull the transmission and simply repair the issue that is causing the immediate problem.

Rather, it makes more sense to have the entire transmission overhauled, including friction materials, bands, seals, o-rings and other wear parts. This is a situation where if something on the box goes bad, it's likely that the whole subsystem needs overhauling, so why not just "do it right" and get the whole thing done? The last thing anyone wants to do is lose reverse, fix just that, and then have something else fail, like an external seal leak.

Just my two cents.

 

[samiam44]

I thought MB had update the B2 to be metal by 1995? Ie I though this was more an issue on 84-91' 722.3 transmissions.

Does the rebuilt transmission have the rear pump deleted?

Michael

 

[gerryvz]

I thought MB had update the B2 to be metal by 1995? Ie I though this was more an issue on 84-91' 722.3 transmissions.

Does the rebuilt transmission have the rear pump deleted?

Michael

I don't know with regard to the rear pump, as the transmission has not yet arrived. I am expecting it today. But since MB did away with the rear pump in the later 722.3 models, and my 722.369 car doesn't have a rear pump, I would not expect the new one to have a rear pump either (as they built me a 722.369).

MB did make running changes to the 722.3 over the years. I will find out more details from Marc when I visit him next week at Sun Valley Transmissions, but I am of the understanding that the B2 piston was strengthened on later 722.3 models. Also a running change was made around 1991 that caused the reverse loss situation -- you don't hear about it so frequently on earlier cars, because the parts used were different and more durable. Like I said, I'll learn more from Marc and will take notes when I see him. Hopefully will be able to get some photos of broken-down units so that folks can see what fails.

 

[baviking1]

Generally with the E500E, it's more the "reverse clicking and delayed engagement" syndrome rather than the B2 piston failure that my wife's E320 experienced. With the reverse clicking, you gradually sink into the abyss and eventually lose your reverse gear. With the B2 piston failure, you very suddenly lose all four forward gears, but reverse remains just fine.

The reverse clutches are located immediately behind the front pump, which is itself located immediately behind the torque converter. So, yes, you don't have to tear into the transmission very far to access the reverse clutches.

However, and I thought a lot about this .... if you're going to go the distance to pull the transmission, there are going to be other "wear" issues with it and perhaps external seal leaks, above and beyond just the problem at hand (whether reverse clutch discs or a cracked/broken B2 piston). So in my opinion, it doesn't make sense to pull the transmission and simply repair the issue that is causing the immediate problem.

Rather, it makes more sense to have the entire transmission overhauled, including friction materials, bands, seals, o-rings and other wear parts. This is a situation where if something on the box goes bad, it's likely that the whole subsystem needs overhauling, so why not just "do it right" and get the whole thing done? The last thing anyone wants to do is lose reverse, fix just that, and then have something else fail, like an external seal leak.

Just my two cents.

Indeed I would take that action on the E500, however the tranny clicking in question is on my $800 former "parts car" E420. Dont know if I want to sink a whole new rebuild into the car at this point, but it runs FAR too well not to fix any immediate issues. I have a 420 donor with only 125k miles that might be ripe for a tranny swap, but no way to evaluate its condition sitting in a yard. Was just thinking a quick fix on the clutches could be another route to take (depending on parts cost)....

 

[clarkz71]

One of the benefits of my Mercedes factory reman transmission was that in 2011,
I'm sure any updates and mods were incorporated into it.

I noticed the front pump bolts were female button head torx instead of the long time 13mm standard bolts.


.

 

[emerydc8]

I want to say thanks on this and many great write-ups. I think they really encourage ppl to do jobs which they might not consider given the scope.

 

[gerryvz]

My sincere apologies for being such a loser with the lack of updates to this thread in recent days. Tonight I spent all of 10 minutes out in the shop, on a couple of things.

First of all, I replaced the rubber center water drain, which came while I was out of town last week. This part had to come from Germany, so it took a few days longer to arrive than most of the other parts. Obviously, this is a part that no one on this board has ever seen before, unless you have removed the transmission from the car !! It was only $18 via parts.com.

The new drain was extremely pliable rubber, as compared to the rather hardened OE piece with cracked end pieces. Here is a comparison of the two pieces, the older one being on the top.



And here are a few shots of me fitting the piece into position. The oval-shaped sealing area has a special, double-edged lip into which the metal edge of the blower motor compartment drain hole fits. Thus, the bottom portion of the lip sits on the OUTSIDE of the hole, and the top portion of the lip sits INSIDE of the hole. You can see a close-up of the bottom portion of the lip and how it seats, in the third photo below.



Next, I was perusing the flywheel area, and thought, "Heck, why not replace the oil pressure sender with a new unit?" I had just recently replaced the original one, but seeing as there will never be an easier time to do it, I just installed one of the stash of new VDO units that I have in my stock (all of my cars use 'em) and used a copper crush washer. Coincidentally, the copper or aluminum crush washers that come with Hengst and Mann oil filter kits are the same, exact size as the washer for the oil pressure sender (which DOESN'T come with the sender). So I just grabbed one of my stash of spare drain plug washers (remember ... I use a vacuum engine oil extractor, so rarely if ever remove the drain plug from the pan, so have a LOT of these washers in stock) and slipped it onto the sender, and tightened things up by hand, and then cinched it down with my 17mm "stubby" combination wrench.



After that, I decided to take a gander and preview for tomorrow night's job -- removing the rear crankshaft seal. Generally speaking, the seal was dry, but there was some light moisture around it. I can't complain given it has 203,000 miles on it, but it is definitely a no-brainer to replace.



Tomorrow night I'll lock the flywheel and remove it, and remove and then install the new crankshaft (rear main) seal and a new cast-aluminum bracket that holds the seal. There are nine bolts that hold that bracket to the back of the block, and it is held to the block with special black MB RTV sealant.

Onward & upward !!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

Transmission Arrival & Unboxing

Well, the transmission arrived today via freight forwarder.

I just opened the box, and this is what I found.

The shipping container (a Home Depot plastic bin screwed to a half-pallet:



Removing the zip-ties securing the bin lid, with my shop razor-blade I use for breaking down boxes:



And....the contents revealed !



A few close-ups of key parts installed on the transmission -- all Gen-Yoo-Whine MB factory parts:



The information packet that came inside the bin:



And here are a couple of close-ups as to how the transmission was shipped:

 

[clarkz71]

Re: Transmission Arrival & Unboxing

.

Those are the collar nuts from the exhaust support bracket on that output flange.

Part# 126-492-0172