Marlene let me down...gently.
 

The worn-out manual tranny that I installed in my wagon finally failed. After two years, seven months and 42,000 miles of retreving parts cars, pulling my pig-cart trailer and buzzing, rattling irritation it failed last night in Manor, TX when shifting to 2nd gear after a stop.

I'm a truly blessed man because it couldn't have happened at better time and place since I had spent the ENTIRE day in the car, hauling my 75 year-old father to his various medical appointments. Other than the buzzing and rattling, there was no warning. I shifted 1 -> 2 there was a 'pop' and she quit pulling. Thank heaven for a AAA "RV Plus" membership; the tow truck took me, the car and the dog straight home and we rolled it right into the shop.

I've known for a long time that the output shaft on the transmission was in bad shape and actually have a spare 4-speed on the floor of the shop for this sort of thing but, when I came across my 5-speed a while back I figured that it would be better to go straight to the fiver when I had the the time to do the swap. I guess I have the time now...

It did let you down gently...
You have to admit that dragging parts cars home with a 120 hp engine sorta puts a big load on a transmission...
So, did you find the last straws ? Pictures up from the Straw Stacking ?

Yep, I was lucky that it didn't happen yesterday morning on the way to Temple, between Roberts and Pettibone.

I don't think a tranny in good shape would have failed from the towing. That particular box was trashed when I installed it two years ago...I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. The straw pix are still in my digital..I'll post today. I'm still looking for the last straw but I'm a lot closer to it than I was a week ago.

The five speeds are rare to find? I was dreaming of a five speed for my newly aquired 84 300dt.Ive seen a 240d which had the 4 spd missing at a junkyard ,some other mb nut is hunting at this yard and Ive got to be quick or else.I arrive every mon. morning to check for any yard parkers that didnt make it.I was thinking, what a waste of good engineering, I could build a pretty descent generator out of one of these 240d motors,I hope to do just that next yr.

Chicken teeth are far easier to find than a five-speed that will fit on a 616/617 engine.

Someone posted from another site about a five speed trannie from a volvo working,you ever heard the like.R LEO , this is dave from the centerville meet in july,that orange 240d still treating you too many miles of free travel?I had my 79 yellow wagon their,it got a new owner over the weekend ,but Ive aquired other mbs from her sell.

That's the first I've heard of a Volvo tranny fitting a Benz...would definitely be worth a look. I wish I had the time to explore that possibility.

And yes, Nellybell, my 115 is still ginning along; she's my daughter's daily driver and is reliable as the sunrise. After the GTG, I spent a bunch of time getting my SDL going and cleaned up...

You have pigs on your farm too?:huepfenic

...and you call yourself an Aggie?

EVERYONE in central/east Texas has (feral) pigs on their farms...at one time or another.

No pigs on my farm. Just a roly-poly wiener mutt that kind of looks like a spotty piglet.

I hate pigs...except for eating or shooting. It all goes back to right after I got out of the Army, went on a 4 day drunk with a buddy of mine and woke up in the pig farming business. It took me two years to get back out (could have gotten out sooner, but we were actually making good money!) and I still have many bad memories!

I learned two things. One...always work at something you love. Two...bourbon will NOT go flat if you don't drink it all at once so you can put the cork back in the bottle and quit drinking anytime you want to...or at least before you get into pig farming! :laugh2:

Feral ah. I thought you raised Pigs. I had a summer internship at Texas Farm in north Texas while at A&M, raised pigs for FFA in High School! I love the little buggers!

Any idea what the actual failure is?

Not that odd

Just guessing but, I think the output splines were worn out and have ceased to engage the final drive in the tailpiece of the tranny.

I'll do a photo autopsy after it's out of the car. I'm going ahead with the swap to the five-speed but first, I have to stab the spare 4-speed and driveshaft into the 5-speed donor car...I'm moving the five-speed donor from storage to the shop this afternoon.

Eeewww!!

Ok, I pulled the 5-speed out of the Euro tonight. Tomorrow evening, I'll replace it with the 4-speed that I have in inventory. All went well except, I forgot that I needed to have the back wheels off the ground to be able to rotate the driveshaft to disconnect the flex disk. So, in the middle of things, I had to reinstall the rear mount, pull the jack out, go around and raise up the back of the car and stick the stands undeneath it.

Maybe Saturday morning I can get the wagon into the shop and pull the bad 4-speed.

Installed a new support bearing and support on the 4-speed 240D driveshaft. and installed it and the 4-speed into the Euro Friday night. Pushed it out and rolled the wagon into the shop Saturday am. Probably won't do anything this afternoon except lay on the couch and read...

I'm getting pretty good at this...
 

Dead 4-speed is out now; I started at 7:30 with wheels on the ground and had the driveshaft and tranny out by 8:45. I'll stab the 5 speed tomorrow evening and figure the length of the stub shaft so Thrash can do their thing next week.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two trannies (notice the shift arms are completely different on the 5-speed - the longer transmission):

Good news.
 

I stabbed the 5-speed on Wednesday night, installed the driveshaft and calculated the length needed on the stub shaft (16") in preparation of taking the shaft to Thrash for mods.

After I finished up, I was thinking about the length of that shaft and wondered if I might have a shaft on a parts car that would be close to the right length. So, on Thursday, I buzzed out to my parts annex (leathermang's farm) and retreived the stub shaft from a W115 240D w/auto. It turns out that the shaft from the 115 is 15.25 inches long.

There's already about +2.5 inches of overlap in the splines with a 16" stub shaft so I believe that a 15.25" shaft will work just fine on the 5-speed. Basically, all that needs to be done is balance the new assembly but, first I'm going to trial fit all of the components and confirm that there's plenty of overlap.

For the 5-speed rear cross member, I'll use the 617/automatic crossmember which will actually place the rear mount bolt about 3.5" too far back. I'll use heavy steel strap to fab a tab that will bolt to the the tranny's rear mountpoint and extend aft to the new motor mount location.

Leo ,congrates ,this is good info for the rest of us who've wondered on exactly this same solution.4spds are good ,but 5spds bring you valued mileage.

5-speed shaft went to Thrash Driveline this AM.
 

I spent part of the weekend determining exactly how long the driveshaft's stub end needs to be and, deciding how to go about shortening the shift rods on the 5-speed so they'll work on the Wagon.

Inspired, I rolled out of the sack early this morning and hauled the driveline pieces to San Antonio; Thrash sez the driveshaft should be done by Friday and, I'm pretty sure I can get everything else finished by then. Hopefully, I'll be driving a 5-speed by this weekend.

YAY!!!

Thrash called this morning and said the shaft will be ready tomorrow (1-26-07) will drive down early to get it...last night I cut the shift rods, made their coupling sleeves from thinwall 1/2ID steel tube and fitted it all in place...looks good. Will post pictures soon.

The 1/4 steel tab I fabbed as an extension to the mount still needs to be drilled for the rear mount and the bolthole on the end of the tranny. I'll find a big-ass drill on the way home this evening...

Rollin',
 

with a 5-speed...

...it's just too fine in my head.

...it's just too fine in my head.

...it's just too fine in my head.

Lucky dog

I had a 1976 BMW 2002 that had the splines on the output shaft truncate one day when I was doing a less than gentle takeoff. BMW had a newer design on the shaft and tranny yoke and it was easy enough to put in.