PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

lrg · #2 06-06-2002, 03:19 PM

Project completed! For the benefit of those who may need to do this job in the future, I managed to replace my vacuum pump in about 2 hours, and that was going at it slowly and carefully. As mentioned above, I had two gaskets but only used the fiber gasket Phil sent me, not the additional metal one that came with the pump, because the original only had the fiber type installed. The instructions that came with the pump were very good and I was able to make the change without removing the radiator or fan. You need only loosen the fan shroud and completely loosen the drivebelt. The rest is pretty intuitive. My old pump still looked pretty good but was leaking oil from the front so it seemed prudent to replace it. The metal gasket that came with the new pump is "filled in" at the bottom which I think is designed to create a kind of resevoir for oil and help keep the pump lubricated. Based upon the amount of oil leaking out of my old pump it was getting plenty of oil. That plus the fact I got 100K+ miles out of the old pump I guess I'm not too worried about not using the newer design gasket. Also, I was concerned that the metal compression gasket supplied with the new pump wouldn't seal as well. I couldn't find a torque spec for the pump housing bolts but they were not on really tight. If I get another 100K+ miles I'll be happy. Hope this is useful to somebody.