What kinda of ham-fingered hack would do this to my car??!!
 

Oh wait, that's me.

If anyone is feeling down about their holiday weekend productivity, try mine on for size.

Friday, armed with a pick n pull injection pump with a virgin ALDA, I decide to R and R my IP. The reason is that some ham-fingered hack (see the first sentence) had badly cross threaded the rack damper pin, with the result that the engine rocked badly at idle (even with new engine mounts). After carefully scoping out the job in the manual and here at the forum, I decided to go the proper route and pull the oil filter housing. Cool, I can replace that gasket too, it definitely leaks.

Problem 1: Oil cooler line removal. I had done this job, and put on anti seize, so I wasn't worried. Put my 24 mm counterhold wrench on the nut. Hmm. Not gripping all the way. Oh well, I'm sure I've got enough of the fitting. Turn ed the nut and :eek: :eek: I've pretzeled my upper oil cooler line. After a pause for poetic reflection, I hammer the wrench into place to get a good grip, and get the lines off.

Problem 2: bolt removal. Two of the allen head screws were rounded off by some ham-fingered hack (not the one in sentence one). Apply penetrating spray, heat, repeat 8x. Pause for poetic reflection and retire for the evening.

Saturday: Run and pick up a sacrificial 12 pt socket to coax out the screws. Realize that there really isnt enough room to force the 12 pt socket on the screw head. Pause for poetic reflection. Try more spray and heat. Reflect again. Go acquire set of Craftman damaged bolt removal sockets. Success!

Problem 3: Bolt replacement. What do you mean, you don't have an M8 50mm 1.25 pitch 8.8 allen head bolt?? Grrrr...

Find the above in pile of supplies aquired from forum member Mattdave in a gag Ebay auction that he made good on :bowrofl:

Remove filter housing, take 2 hours to clean old gasket. Remove IP. Retire.

Sunday. Religious services and family obligation greatly diminish available work time.

Problem 4: Setting the IP. Timing mark, timing mark, I definitely remember something about a timing mark. I don't see one, but it has to be here, right?

Keep looking. Can't find it. Well, this is why I brought the manual on CD with me. Let's see. Hmm. Why, this CD doesn't have the 126 manual. Spontaneously engage in poetical reflection so sublime that applause breaks out. Feel abashed at my verbal desecration of the day of rest.
Retire.

Monday: Back to the garage. I now know the timing mark is at 10 o'clock. Match spline to timing mark, put engine at TDC, replace IP. Button up IP, set engine to 24 degrees and set the timing with drip tube.. err, where'd drip tube go? After the not-all-together joyous (but lyrical!) refrain ceased its echoing across the countryside, I recalled the bubble method. Mmmm, nothing like sucking diesel. Well, as long as it gets the job done. Set timing to point at which bubbles stop, snug down IP. Replace oil filter housing. Reattach hoses and oil pressure sensor. Prime IP lots. Crank engine. Lots of sound and fury signifying nothing. Prime and prime and prime. Crank and crank and crank. Ok, must be air in the IP. Tighten all connections, crank and crank and crank. Engine roars to life. Well, at least it fires. A little. If I floor it, engine will stumble along at about 400 rpm. Get out of car, slip. Notice body-size pool of oil gently sweeping out from underneath car. The hills are alive with the sounds of anatomical impossibilities. Retire.

Thanks to anyone who read this far. Hope your projects went better.

Sounds like one of my "repair" jobs:rolleyes:

Ouch, that is rough. You have my sympathies.

Glenn

The hills are alive with the sounds of anatomical impossibilities...........LOL........just too funny...........I can sure sympathize..........the SD kept me in a litany of comment for nearly five months.:eek:

I'm old and slow...........you see..........this is a benefit on a M/B...........stop...........pause...........reflect.............think............don't break anything.:o

Ahh, I love the good DIY story in well written form. Why can't these jobs go smoothly? (rhetorical) Sounds like you have some more work in front of you, and some more well placed metaphors.......:D

Yeah, thanks for sharing.
This is reality DIY.


D.

Jimmy, the jobs always go smoothly..............the second time around.:o

You know Brian, on many jobs the second time around going smoothly would sound pretty good up front.l

Hmm...guess I really complain about my stripped oil drain plug... :eek: Good luck sorting the rest of the project out.

You must not have a big enough hammer... Talk to Sady about IP woes if ya want a fun story. On his car, we proved you could remove and install the IP on a 617 motor without removing the oil filter housing. I think his thread still holds the record for length.
Poetic reflection...Gawd, I love it!

I learn a ton of little things the first time around. The second time is a relative breeze, provided that too much time has not elapsed..............then it's the first time all over again.:o

I recently checked the valve lash on the SD. 15 minutes to get the valve cover off.......including all the injector hard lines, and the air cleaner and U-tube. A ton of little things.....................:)

tjohn,

Does this story have a final chapter?

P E H

He's braver than me for taking on a job like that.;) I've found that most relatively simple jobs turn out to be at least 10X harder than they should be. Either because someone else has already screwed something up or "I have the tool that I need, but where is it?". Good luck, hope you get everything straightened out.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/104222-wont-start-anything-1985-300sd.html

:rolleyes:

Nice job on the write up, injoyed it till the last couple lines :eek: maybe the second time will be better, or maybe you just forgot to hook up the oil line to the IP, heres hopping:)

...............oil line to the oil filter housing?????:confused:

no he said and ment the oil line to the IP.....4.5 inches directly below the #5 delivery valve on the drivers side of the IP. goes directly forward to the engine block. more likely dropped a crush washer or forgot to tighten it..

Thanks for all the kind words.

Not until Saturday at the earliest. I'm in the reserves, and I was wrenching on base at the auto hobby shop. This is a place where you can rent a stall and tools by the hour. The car is in their short term storage section, and I won't be able to get back to it until the weekend - even though this is my daily driver.

The leak is almost certainly the oil line to oil filter housing just above the hook up to the oil pressure sensor. I noticed the sensor was bathed in oil, and I remember thinking "Hmm, seems like a 19mm nut would need more torque..."

Anyway, I'll keep you all updated.

I thought so.........

Make sure you have two new aluminum crush washers for this connection. My old ones were in sorry shape..........fortunately the head gasket set had two new washers.

ouch...hope you didn't overtourque and crack it....

"...............oil line to the oil filter housing?????"

No, I was thinking maybe the oil line to the IP. I cant imagine a oil leaK big enough to cause a puddle coming from the O/F or IP to block, gasket:eek:

The oil line to the turbo attaches to the rear of the oil filter housing. Leave one of those crush washers off the fitting, or use a damaged crush washer, and that engine will push a puddle of oil out of there in about a minute or less.

Roger that...I,m just thinking its something easy to fix as opposed to pulling the o/f or IP again, man I hate to do things over. I once forgot the oil gallery plugs (on a overhaul) and had to pull all the stuff off the front of the eng to put em back:eek:

It's an easy fix.

The fitting screws into the back of the housing. You need to access it from underneath, and it's not very visible.

However, and this is important:

The supply tube is secured to the back of the head and to the top of the air cleaner support bracket before it finally is attached to the top of the turbo.

If you secure all the brackets and then attempt to start the large fitting bolt into the oil cooler housing.........it likely won't start.......due to the slight errors in the manufacture of the tube. So, the brackets and the two bolts that attach the tube to the turbo need to be loosened to ensure that the fitting bolt will start without a cross thread.

The worst scenario is to try to cut a corner and force the threads on the fitting bolt.

I hope it is not post #194
 

I hope it is not post #194

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/104222-wont-start-anything-1985-300sd-5.html

Roy,

I understand perfectly why this can happen. Try and start the fitting bolt with the line attached and clamped in place and it's almost a certainty. It's a blind metric fitting and none to easy to start even with the oil line completely free to move.

Epilogue
 

As with all things, it seems as if a little time makes it all better. I was able to complete this job in a couple of hours without any impromptu poetry readings at all. The oil leak was simply the above-mentioned bolt, a few more twists and it was leak free. The timing issue was a bit more involved. The replacement IP must have been from a 1982 SD. Since I already have an 82 SD, that seems like it should present no difficulties BUT: as most of you know all ready, an IP has a timing mark at 10:00. You line up the wide gap on the driven element with the timining mark, and your pump is set at the start of delivery position, which for my car is approx. 24 BTDC. All well and good, no problem - but the engine wouldn't run properly. It turns out that a number of IPs made in 1982 were mismarked, so that you actually have to set the driven element so that the wide mark is 3 splines TO THE LEFT of the timing mark. If you've done this, the pump works like any other. This information is clearly set forth in the OM617 engine manual, proving yet again that, even if you know how to do a job, RTFM first.

On the positive side, the car runs smoothly. The ALDA on the replacement IP was virgin, and I've been able to set it for better performance. Its too early to be sure on mileage, but the indicators are I've gained a bit on that too. I'll wait until I've put a few tanks of diesel through her to be sure.

Needless to say, when recounting this tale, I will speak only of how a difficult job for lesser men was easy for a man of my talents. :D

tjohn

Very intreesting, some mismarked in 82, I'll make a note of that, thanks, its always great to hear the out come of the story. As in, I wonder what happened to the guy that was stuck in the camp ground with a clutch slave out, did the bears get him :eek: or did he fix it?:D , anyway thanks for the Epilogue.

I learned the hard way that it is always best to have the other end of that line off so that it can be moved about easily. This will let you thread that bolt the right way:D :rolleyes:

Well, I have a few years of experience on you so, I'll say that I almost learned the hard way. But, when it would not start by hand, I decided to spend the 30 minutes to completely remove all the line clamps and the fitting on the turbo and then install that bolt........now without any problems.;)