[continued]

The four photos in this second half of the skid plate installation procedure are numbers five through eight in the procedure.

To get the nut up through that slot and onto the bolt, I used a tool from my previous life in the semiconductor industry. Photo #5 shows an inexpensive tool used to pull chips out of their sockets on a PC board. The left tool holds a chip; the right one holds an 8x1.25mm nut. I added the rubber band to hold the tool closed on the nut.

Using this tool, I lifted the nut up through the slot and held the nut against the end of the bolt while I turned the bolt with my free hand. Once the nut had caught on the bolt, I removed the holder. The slot is just big enough to admit a 13mm box-end wrench and it is then easy to tighten the nut and bolt.

The rear of the skid plate is easy to bolt to the frame brackets with two more 8mm bolts, nuts, and lock washers (Photo #6). Other interesting things in this photo are the hole for draining engine oil (white arrow) and the "drip hole" at the lower rear of the skid plate. Anything falling on the skid plate from above will drip out this hole or the oil drain hole.

Photo #7 shows the finished installation from the driver's (left) side and photo #8 from the passenger's (right) side. It took me about an hour including taking the photographs. Remember to remove the jack stands before driving the car.

Jeremy

Attached Thumbnails

       

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970