PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

junqueyardjim · #14 10-11-2012, 12:42 PM

OK, after two weeks of driving with Pennzoil Synchromesh, and it was very smooth and oily, the transmission took a turn for the worse. And where previously the problem was only under a high torque load in 1st gear, suddenly in appeared in 2nd gear also, along with increasingly noisier running, at times sounding almost like rock crusher with loud banging sounds. Occasionally it makes a loud bang, like someone just smacked it with a regular shop hammer-hard. Sunday I took out the Synchromesh oil and replaced it with lowest cost Dextron Mercon. I drive this car almost exactly 50 miles a day. Monday it did seem better, (maybe). Tuesday was worse and I heard that rock crusher noise. Wednesday about the same, though yesterday on the return 12.5 mile trip, it was really noisy. Then this AM I had difficult to get it to move in the garage, but it did on the third try, but shakey! Out of the drive way I shifted to second and it didn't pick up the load, just that grinding noise. Coasted slightly downgrade to the stop sign, planned to turn around and take another car, but at the stop sign it would not move - all gears including reverse are inoperative. The speedometer registers speed, slight gear noise in 3rd and 4th, no sound at all from 1st and 2nd. Oh well, it didn't surprise me to much, I already made an appointment with my Indy for two weeks from today to pull and replace the transmission, along with upper control arms and bushings. I think the gear box is well due for a rebuild. The fellow I bought it from has removed all his posts from the Forum. There should be safeguards that they can do that. Nate had a lot of information on that car which I would love to have saved. Anyway, if I recall he said the car had close to 300,000 miles and of course after he rebuilt the engine, about 8000 miles later it puked the VP into engine and locked it up tight. As I recall he said he was getting on the interstate in Bradenton and had it floored and wound up tight in 2nd gear when the pump exploded and the engine locked up. Well, in a case like that, all the damage that you will get will be done before you even think of getting your foot on the clutch. That is a tremendous load to dump on any drive line and I think it not surprising that it has failed. So I am going to pull it and am hopeful that I can go through it next summer. I am going to get prices from Mercedes on what I think it might need before I do that. The case also has damage in that one of the ears for mounting the exhaust has been knocked off and so I can't get a good hold on the exhaust system. That plate is really the back cover for the transmission and I suspect is quite costly. Well, we will find out. I am not much of a gear head and if any of you experts have an idea of what internal parts this would take, (not counting bearings and seals) please list the part name and if possible the part number. The Haynes Manual has an exploded view of parts on page 140 & 142.