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Squiggle Dog · #26 12-04-2017, 11:19 PM

I did a permanent fix on my air cleaner. A big problem with the W116 300SDs is that they didn't have room in the engine compartment for an air cleaner, so the air cleaners were mounted on a bracket hanging off an engine that tends to shake.

The air cleaners were mounted to the bracket on rubber buffers with bolts molded in each end. The bolts tend to tear out or the rubber rips in the center, and then the air cleaner starts coming off. Mercedes diesel owners just replace these regularly and figure it's part of the hassle. I said no more and fabricated my own unbreakable mounts.

I bought six new mounts and cut the bolts off the ends, leaving just the rubber.

Then I ran the rubber on a belt sander to get them flat and the correct height.

Next I made some holders out of hardware. If I remember correctly, for each mount I used a 35mm M6 1.0 bolt and cut it down to about 33mm. I put a split washer and then a flat washer on it and threaded it up through the bottom of the air cleaner mounting bracket. Then I installed the heat shield, three 1/4 X 1" stainless fender washers (the lowest one needed to be filed around the edges until it fit down all the way). Then I threaded on an 11mm long M6 1.0 coupler nut (I couldn't find these locally and had to order them online) and secured it with blue threadlocker.

I drilled holes in the rubber and slid them down onto the holders. I think that the clearance between the air cleaner and bracket is supposed to be 18mm, so I probably made the lower rubber spacer 14mm tall as the total height of the heat shield and washers was about 4mm.