Did flex disc's and center bearing today.....
 

I've been hiding a new entry into the cheap wagon club for a while now.She's champagne,one tiny spot of rust,had a new factory engine installed in 96 with 100,000 on it right now.She's a beauty and paid a grand for her,shes a 1980 300TD wagon and got her about 4 months ago.
So I've done the engine mounts,shocks,sls,climate control,fuel leaks,etc and today the flex disc's,center bearing,shift bushings and trans filter....I'm knackered!(tired for those of you that don't speak Irish).
I put the wagon up on 4 ramps as jack stands creep me out.Use a small jack and a 2x4 to support the tranny,undo the center support 17mm,then undoo the trans mount 13mm and put it aside.I loosened as many bolts on the flex disc's as I could get at which were 5 front and rear.I marked where both shafts connect with white out.I found undoing the 3 bolts from the rear differential first make it much easier to remove everything else.Once you pry the flex disc from the rear diff and the car is in neutral it becomes easy to undo the rest of the bolts which in my car was 15mm and 17mm.
I then undid the center bearing bolts 13mm.The rear flex disc needs to be removed before the drive shaft can be lowered from the car,you should be able to slide the shaft towards the rear of the car and out.I ended up having an indy close by pull the center bearing and install the new one.The bearing was on there super snug,could not get it off!
Replace the front flex disc first,put in all bolts and tighten.Slide the driveshaft in from the rear and line up your marks(whiteout remember).Then install the rear flexdisc,if You install the rear bofore this point you wont have enough clearance to get it on the rear diff,dont ask how I know this!
Tighten the rear flexdisc....could only get 5 bolts tight,could not get the last fully tight as it was hard to get at.Marked it with whiteout so when it rotate's I will know which one it is.I decided to replace the shift bushings while I was in there....it was the hardest part of the job!Those suckers were next to impossible to get in....after an hour of fffing and blinding I got them in aaahhhhh!
Then bolt the center bearing support back in,this was though to line up and took some patience,replace the center mount and your done.4hrs on your back and one of the more uncomfortable jobs I've done on the wagon so far....sorry no pic's,cheers:)

Nice write-up. Too bad no pics. What was the reason for the repair? Vibration or seeing bad discs? I just put tires on my car, and was blaming that on a vibration. Maybe I'll be spending some time under my car too.

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1984 MB 300SD Turbo

My flex disc's looked original and cracked so it was part of getting the car in daily driver shape....changed the bearing also while I was in there.Did not have any vibration.....

When your indy put the center bearing on, did he hammer it on or disassemble everything and press it on? Does the big nut on the driveshaft ( in front of the bearing ) get tightened after entire shaft is installed?
Thanks

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1984 MB 300 SD Turbo

He pressed it on....yes the center(used a plumbing wrench) large nut needs to be tightened after everything else is put back together