I recently acquired one of those rare 300TD's with the Euro headlights. It had all of the service records going back to 1985 and came from a good home in New Mexico, so I couldn't resist. The previous owners were M-B fanatics and dumped a ton of money into it over the years. Now I'm carrying on the tradition! Check out the photo.

My center bearing carrier and rear flex disc show some deterioration and cracking and I want to replace them both. I think I can remove the driveshaft. Not sure how to remove the old bearing carrier & slide the new bearing carrier into position. Do I need to loosen the large locking nuts fore of the bearing on the driveshaft?? It doesn't look like it will come off the driveshaft past the large end yokes. The bearing itself was recently replaced so I'm going to try to work around that. I spent three days reading various posts on this component but I'm still not sure what to do here .

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

You will have to take the shaft halves apart to get the carrier in place - just be sure to mark the shafts with paint to make sure you put them back together right so it will be balanced. The carrier will not slide over the yoke ends.

John

__________________
John Hughes, was in Landstuhl, Germany but currently in San Antonio, TX


1978 280CE Astral Silver now 59,xxx miles and counting "Silber-Kugel"
1986 300E Black Pearl Metallic 143,xxx miles 5-spd daily driver w/ blk leather "Schwarz-Schönheit"
1989 190E 2.6 (euro) 5-spd Desert Taupe 112,xxx kms Had to leave behind in Germany!!! "Helga"
1983 300D Pastel Beige now 312,xxx + miles SOLD

OBK#24

John, thanks for the response. How exactly do those two halves come apart?

Well when I did mine I took the flex-disks apart and when I removed it it came apart easily - I'm glad I marked it before removal or it might have separated accidentally and then I would have been in a pickle.

John

__________________
John Hughes, was in Landstuhl, Germany but currently in San Antonio, TX


1978 280CE Astral Silver now 59,xxx miles and counting "Silber-Kugel"
1986 300E Black Pearl Metallic 143,xxx miles 5-spd daily driver w/ blk leather "Schwarz-Schönheit"
1989 190E 2.6 (euro) 5-spd Desert Taupe 112,xxx kms Had to leave behind in Germany!!! "Helga"
1983 300D Pastel Beige now 312,xxx + miles SOLD

OBK#24

The large nut must be loosened so that the driveshaft can be "collapsed" so that it can be removed. (The aft end of the front shaft is essentially a collet.) Once the rear flex disc is clear (and center carrier removed from chassis) the rear shaft will pull out of the front shaft.

Make sure to match mark both ends of the shaft and reinstall accordingly. Failure in this regard can result in some very unpleasant vibrations.

Tangofox007/ Jwhughes3:

Thank you for the valuable info. I will certainly heed your advice & mark those parts for proper re-assembly. This will be my next up & coming project.

Bill