Different opinions
 

Pete hit on the SPOT. "Many people believe differently in doing things"

My personal variation that will get me booed off the forum is "Many people believe differently in doing things; but only 30% really do things and the rest just love to tell you how to do it.." :D :D I
( I really feel bad about lack of humility being a second generation immigrant. Actually I always tell my wife to not underestimate Americans; they are much tougher and capable than anyone would believe...)

If I read the word "balance" and "mercedes diesel" in the same post again here I'm going to, ah, something un-good. :D

This reminds me of the great debate on weather one can stick a 240D many trany flywheel on a 617 and have a stick. The FSM and a lot of very sure people say no, a whole lot of people driveing stick shift 300D turbo's say otherwise...

If a motor is so ill designed that a slightly off harmonic balancer kills it inside 100K it's a POS. And the OM617 is many, many things, but not a POS.

Stick it on and ride Will.

flip coin.
Either way he has a 50/50 chance of being right and in good shape or haveing to pull motor and spend a bunch of money. I'd stick it on.
Hell you can probibly buy a beat up car with a good motor for what it'd cost to have someone pull it and do what's required.

MB should really have keyed it or something. Or made them so they don't fall off like that.

MB USA Engineer
 

Ok. I am a pain in the butt or whatever someone may call me for not going ahead and helicoiling the old counterweight. But since replacing the assembly by one bolt is easier than helicoil for six bolts I called MB USA and left a message for an engineer to call me.

The engineer at MB USA returned my call promptly and said that I could remove the counterweight from the salvage car and bolt it to my crankshaft without any problem whatsoever. He said as long as it came from the same engine there would be no risk of damage whatsoever.

I am not saying anyone on the forum is wrong about how to repair this problem, but it seems that the shop forman at the dealership and the MB USA engineer who spoke with a German accent by the way both say otherwise.

Just thought I would include this NOT to criticize anyone for how they would fix it, but just in case someone else has the same problem.

PS - you can't put the vibration dampener on the wrong way. It has two holes drilled in the plate for timing marks. Besides, the parts yard left the pully, dampener and balancer all assembled and removed them by the center bolt to the crankshaft. I'll be darned if I am going to disassemble them. I am just going to TopDeadCenter the engine and bolt the thing on properly and torque it.

Yep. :sun_smile


Cool that he had a German accent..

An engineer in what? Electrical?

I hope it works well for ya!


Michael

Bolts Sheared Off!
 

OK, the repair will be complete today. Every bolt in the balancer sheared completely off. I will post pics later.

As of today, new motor mounts, new balancer and pulley, new exhaust header pipe since one of the rubber exhaust mounts had broken and caused the flex pipe to crack. REPLACE YOUR WORN OUT RUBBER EXHAUST HANGERS!!! I asked a mechanic to do this a year ago when I was a newbie and first got the car. I assumed he had done what I asked him. Now I have to replace the pipe! The extra vibration caused the flex pipe to crack.

This crankshaft repair is not fun. It took borrowing a lift and a torque wrench with an 8 foot pipe to get the bolt loose. New balancer, vibration damper and pulley installed. While I had the rack borrowed the new motor mounts went in fine - only one mount was semi-collapsed.

Whew! This 112 degree heat is killing us in North Carolina right now!

Pictures
 

Here are the promised pictures of the bolts sheared off in the balancer and my old motor mounts too.

Surprisinly the motor mounts have the mercedes star. I wonder if they have ever been changed?

The thermometer hit 105 degrees today. This was not a good day to work on a car!!! :mad:

Working on your car in 105 degrees
 

Boy you are one tough guy. I admire your resolve and drive, but I said that in Post #2~~~~~

Carrameow - your web site is great
 

Really like your website.
Thanks for the help.

Found out my neighbor had a pressurized bead blaster. He says I can borrow it any time. Now for some body work!!! YES!

correction of an earlier post in thread
 

I need to correct some information earlier posted here since my car is back on the road.

My crankshaft pully that came off the car was the correct pully. I just got the old one back from the mechanic. Part#617-035-0612

I talked one more time with Bernard in the technical support group in New Jersey at MB USA and we had an in depth discussion over this entire issue including what the factory service manual says about static balancing of the disc being absolutely required. He said that balancing was only necessary on the counter weight if it was a new part counter weight from parts that had never been installed on a 617 engine. He said that every weight was balanced at the factory identically and not to the individual crankshaft. He said you could absolutely pull one off of a salvage car and install it on another 617 engine without any problems. Apparently from his explanation - the weights were drilled out at the factory on a machine line and not while on the crankshaft itself. A new one from the dealer comes without being drilled. Renewing assumes it is a new undrilled balancing disc.

Hope this helps someone in the future. The car is running great.

That is certainly interesting. But it makes one wonder why the dealer would be furnished with "unfinished" parts. If they are generically balanced (as most domestic balancers are) it seems strange that they would not ship "balanced" from the factory.

Thanks for the explanation. It's great to hear that perserverence prevailed and all is well. Hopefully it will stay that way for a while!!!

a agree with
 

tango. why would they ship it unfinished?

tom w

FYI
 

Mount the three cup springs (washers) with the crown (raised dome) toward bolt head.

The harmonic balancer is secured to the crankshaft by a single 18mm X 45 mm bolt torqued to 270 - 330 Nm = 200-244 ft. lbs.