Hello,

Wanted to see what you all thought about the following. I have a 78 W116 with 617.950 engine. I recently had a loud rattling noise appear from the bottom end of the engine. I was thinking that it was exhaust...but I put it up on the jacks today.

Based on what I've read on the site about flex plates and the associated noise that goes with them as they deteriorate, I inspected and found a crack in the flex plate.

My question is as follows. Can a motivated but shade tree mechanic do this repair? It looks to be a pretty big deal..or am I just intimidated by what I've never tried before? If I did try to take this on, are there good reference materials I can lay my hands on that deal with dropping the trans...because once it's dropped it looks to be a straight forward repair from there.

The indy quoted me parts ($50ish) and 7 hours of labor at $93 and hour. OUCH.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The car runs great and appears to have lots of life left in it.

Thanks,
Duke 1

PS- I checked both my flex discs and they look new, and if I'm not mistaken were replaced by the PO about a year or two before I got the vehicle.