I wound up making a third wrench, and made some tweaks to the other two (I didn't quite follow the 3/4" and 1 1/4" measurements, so I had to make some corrections).

one thing I realized is that the key thing about the third wrench is that you need it to be able to stay in place without keeping your hands on it. I'll explain more later with pictures.

I write a post up with some pictures later this week.

I think that is why the pictures of the official one shows the clip, I read that that is there to support the wrench when you don't have a third hand.
The measurements that I used I got from scaling a picture of the official wrenches so there was plenty of room for error but when I used them I had no problems so I'm happy with them however I will be looking forward to your future post on these, it looks like you do some good work so show us what you've got.

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1983 300SD
200000miles

Cell, can you explain more about this third wrench before I finish the 2 that I am making? I can't picture using 3 wrenches at the same time.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

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I'll post again after tweaking my third wrench.

Cell, thanks for the pics. I'm a bit thick in the head at the moment. How does that 3rd wrench work? What size is it and what does it do? Is it simply to support the other 2 wrenches?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

the third wrench is what holds the valve spring retainer in place. without that wrench, I would turn the adjusting nuts and my entire valve assembly would just spin, getting me nowhere...

its 30mm. I was able to temporarily get around the problem of it needing to "stick" in place on its own by beating it with a hammer a few times to bend the tines in a little bit, making it just slightly smaller than 30mm. that way, I had to push it to get it on the valve retainer, but then it would stay in place.

by the way, in all of these threads, no one ever actually mentions how to do the adjustment. if I recall correctly, you turn the nut clockwise to widen the valve clearance. that is, you "tighten" the nut to "loosen" the clearance. I initially starting turning mine the wrong way, and after about 10 quarter turns with no difference being made, I stepped back and thought about it for a minute, and realized that if I had kept going, eventually the valve would have fallen down into the cylinder

Question about the third wrench that you made - do the sides tend to flare out when you put pressure to hold the retainer nut in place?
When I made mine I found that Napa has a line of very inexpensive sockets so I went that way. I think I only paid $2 or $3 for the socket.

As far as how to do the adjustment I think Diesel Giant has a good write up on it although I prefer to use a remote start button instead of wrenching the engine over.
http://www.dieselgiant.com/valveadjustment.htm

__________________
1983 300SD
200000miles

Thanks for the explanation Cell. When I did the valves on the 300D last summer, I don't remember having any issues with the valve retainer spinning using just 2 regular open end wrenches (bottom wrench thinned down, inj hardlines removed). After looking at the pics of the valve adj procedure on Dieselgiant's site, I can now see what the 3rd wrench is for. Do you think I can skip making the 3rd wrench and just use channel locks on the valve spring retainer if it spins?

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I'm not sure if you could get channel locks in there but people have used a lot of methods of holding the spring retainer in place including just jambing a flat bladed screw driver in next to it so it can't turn. I found that after the first time I adjusted the valves I never really needed the third wrench. If I was buying the Hazet wrenchs I wouldn't spend the money for the third one.
By the way the Hazet people have a catalog of tools to make the best of us drool.
www.hazet.de

__________________
1983 300SD
200000miles

I finished my valve wrenches and christened them in my 240D. I hacked up a scissor jack handle (1/2 dia iron rod) for the valve wrench handles and mig welded it to the bent wrenches. Hope my crappy weld will be strong enough. The top wrench handle is a little on the short side and not as stiff as I like so I will re-weld it using a long open end wrench as a handle.
The valve adjustment on the 240D was a breeze with these bent wrenches- saved me the trouble of having to remove the inj. hard lines if I didn't have these wrenches. I did not have any trouble with the valve spring retainers even though they did spin. I think the trick is to not loosen the 2 nuts too much, and by manipualting them, it went smoothly. All the inlets valves except for cyl. closest to the firewall were 0.001 too tight, All the exhaust valves were 0.002 too tight except for the cyl closest to the fire wall which was right on at 0.012 (what cyl # is that? I could never remember)





This is the bump starter I used. It was my remote starter I rigged up when I had problems with my ignition tumbler (wouldn't turn). I've fixed the tumbler since by cleaning it but left the remote starter in place which came in handy. Not sure if you can see in the pic but I alligator clipped a momentary switch (in parallel to the push button inside the car) to the relay so I can see the cam lobes as I blipped the starter from outside the car. The blue disc is the cap from a plastic spice bottle (to keep the wiring from the elements). There are 3 connections in the engine compartment from this bump starter which are all on alligator clips (battery + / - & starter motor solenoid) so I can remove it (if I want to) in less than 30 seconds. Thanks again Phil for the valve wrench info!!


ps, I want to add that after the valve adjustment, the idle became smoother, gone is the engine shake when the high speed idle knob is on the lowest rpm (about 700 rpm per the tach). I do notice a slight decrease in peppyness.

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__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

nice job!

yeah, I did notice the tines of my third wrench wanted to flare out as I put pressure on it. I think that will be fixed when I tweak it so it will stay on the nut by itself. I got the 30mm socket as part of a harbor freight socket set which I purchased in order to get the 27mm socket for the crank pulley.

I actually did my adjustment differently than dieselgiant. he advises to have the cam lobe pointing straight up. I pointed mine instead 180 degrees away from the point of contact with the cam follower. this is about 1 o'clock, or pointing directly at that support bar which runs the length of the head. in theory it shouldn't make any difference, but I remember reading at least one post where a user discovered the position did make a small difference.

Does having the third wrench in there make it more cumbersome? I'm thinking you can just grab the valve retainer with your fingers if it does spin.
What difference does having the cam lobe point at 1 o'clock make? What does the FSM say to point it to? I had the cam lobe pointing perpendicular away from the cam follower which I think is about 1 o'clock. Maybe this made the clearance greater which may have something to with why the engine felt less peppy after the adjustment? I think I'm going to check the clearances again with the cam lobe pointing straight up and see it there is a difference.

__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I gound off the short handle from the top wrench and welded on a long handle double box wrench that's already "angled" which made it stronger as well as easier to weld. I'll re-do the valves when it stops raining here.

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__________________
85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I didn't find the third wrench that much more cumbersome and I don't think you could hold the retainer with your fingers. Also using the third wrench so that it is up against something will free up your hands for other stuff. When I adjust the valves on my car I always have the cam lobe 180 degrees opposite from the point of contact on the follower figuring that is when the clearance is max.

__________________
1983 300SD
200000miles