second vacuum pump, help! on a trip-Toronto
 

I have recently purchased an 82 240d.
I lost all vacuum a few hundred miles ago and took off the vacuum pump to find the metal disc diaphragm broken from the shaft.
The bolt that is behind it going into the timing advance was backed out so I re-torqued it and replaced the pump with one from a 300 turbo.
Cured all evils!

But on my trip today from Vt to Toronto I lost all vacuum again.
I haven't pulled the pump yet so I don't know the status of the diaphragm or the bolt but I suspect trouble.
I have heard that there is supposed to be a hole in that bolt to let oil through.
The bolt had the same writing as the one on the 300 turbo that I got the pump from so I didn't think twice.
Has anyone seen such a problem?

I am far from home and the transmission needs some vacuum!
The brakes want some also!
Does anyone know a source for Mercedes parts in Toronto?
I am supposed to go to Tobermory on Sunday!
Thanks, Conrad.g

Vacuum pump
 

If you are really stuck you could try one of the auxillary electric vacuum pumps off an early 80s Gm fullsize car, 12V and you are good to go. they look like a small compressor. The one I got was from an 81 Cadillac of some kind. Seems the brakes would fail if the engine stalled so GM put in an electric pump to assist. They run continously as I understand it. I was looking for something to work on an 86 Volvo turbodiesel when the existing pump went , talk about a car that is hard to find parts for that was it. Lots of GM wreckers around, more than Mercedes in any case. Might get you home. cheers Dan

I may be looking at the problem differently; but, even with an Electric Vacuum pump he will need to remove the defective one from his Engine before parts of it fall into the Timing Chain and causes some serious damage to his Engine.

At the very least he would have to pull the pump off and take out the parts that could fall into the Engine and put it back on or have some sort of plate made to cover the hole.

There would be 2 loss of vacuum problems. No Power Brakes and No Vacuum to soften the shifting of an Automatic transmission; also he would have to lift the Hood and apply the Manual Shutoff to shut off the Engine.

Gonna be tuff for parts or repairs on a long weekend..

Try:

Precision Auto Parts 92 Brydon Drive
Etobicoke, ON M9W 4N6, Canada
(416) 741-7011
Main intersection is Taber & Kipling a few minutes south of Albion rd just North of Rexdale blvd

also a shop in Thornhill (Glen Cameron rd. and Yonge). 416-889-1200
-just North of the 401 off Yonge

Yes, sitting on the front porch back home is my 12V vacuum pump turned air compressor hooked to an old propane tank in reverse.
It came out of my International where it served my vacuum hydraulic brakes for a trailer...
I would love to have someone with real intimate knowledge of the vacuum pump setup on a 240d pipe up.
Does anyone know if that bolt down the center of the timing stuff is supposed to have a hole in it?
Is it different from a 300 turbo?
If indeed it has backed out again, has anyone heard of such a thing?
I don't want to put another pump on just to have it fail again....
Thanks.

There's a thread on here somewhere that addresses the question of that bolt. Could be a thread about an SD)?) in Louisiana (?) that had the IP fail and the failure was related to the vacuum pump, timing device and that bolt I think. I believe there were pictures in the thread.

Here's the thread. I didn't read thru it so I'm not sure it will help.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/228906-300sd-woes-injection-pump-timing-device-4.html?highlight=timing+device+vacuum+pump

Thanks for the help, 300d85, I was able to get a replacement pump from precision. Great help! We took a rough measurement from the cam that drives the vacuum pump to the face where the pump mounts on another engine and it appears to be 23 mm and mine matches. I shimmed the pump out by using four gaskets hoping that it is an isue of the shaft traveling too far and causing the piston to fail as this time when I removed the pump, the bolt was still where it should be but the piston was indeed broken. Hope this will work. Has anyone experienced pistons breaking on vacume pumps?

Just for amusement sake you all might want to know that the vacuum pump broke again I think as there is no vacuum, but that is the least of the problems now as not long after the vacuum left again so did my fan and hence the pully on the harmonic balancer (or vice versa) but the big one is the radiator! Turns out that precision ap has the fan but not the radiator and peach parts can't ship to Canada where I am once again stranded (but this time in Tobermory) after a heck of a tow and an angery mechanic who wants $500 for a radiator! Phil has graciously turned me onto a yard in Ca and I think I may have a radiator coming but the interesting thing will be to find out just what the garage will charge for the tow and the work if as I am not too interested in a $500 part that costs $250 new and may have pissed them off enough to have it be one of those things that they never get around to even if I get them the parts...I might have to have it towed to the side of the road so that I can work on it...
Keep you posted.

Yikes! Do you think there is a correlation between the balancer failure and the pump failures? Sometimes people have run into problems with the pins that hold the balancer in place on the crank when they fail. If the grooves are worn, some people have successfully drilled new ones. Make sure you check out the condition of the slots before spending a lot of money on getting a radiator.
You should also be aware that shipping parts from the US to Canada can sometimes be a lengthy process with the part getting hung up in customs. I ran into this with a carburator for my Atomic 4 on my sailboat when I needed it in Canada. I'd give serious consideration to buying a Canadian part rather than being stuck waiting for a customs bureaucrat to clear the part. Tobermoray is remote but there have to be junkyards with 123 radiators in Ontario.

On second thought: Catch the bus home, rent a trailer and go back to pick up the car. There's something very funky going on in the front end of your motor and I wouldn't want to be putting a lot of $$ into it before figuring out exactly what is happening. What would cause 2 vacuum pumps and a harmonic balancer to fail?

I do not know about the Harmonic Balancer; but I ask a question over a year ago what people though was the cause of their Timing Chain Breaking and they said they thought the Vacuum Pump failed and parts fell into the Timing Chain/Gears.

After that I ask People Thought caused the Vacuum Pump Failure and one of the responses was from member stevo. He believed that worn out IP Timer Bushings; caused too much play in the Timer; wich intern cause damage to the Vacuum Pump.

See post #3 for stevo's comment. Towards the end of the thread he also comments that another Member Craig lost a Vacuum Pump due to too much play in the IP Timer

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/204187-what-particular-causes-vacuum-pump-failure.html?highlight=Vacuum+Pump

Sorry to hear about your rad
 

I have shipped things into Canada for many years and have a couple of observations about the process. I have found that the premium shipping services like UPS blue or red label or Fedex are fairly quick. they will broker your parts and collect the duty from you on delivery. Parts prices are not always cheaper in the US after factoring in the exchange rate, currently around 10%. I did an online search and found
http://parts.***********.com/parts/apocanada/wizard.jsp?year=1982&make=MB&model=240-D-002&category=G&part=Radiator

238$ Cdn is not that bad. If you can locate a NAPA or other parts place nearby I suspect they could find something similarly priced. I Am not that familiar with that area but there are probably Rad shops that could send you one on the Bus pretty quick. Not sure on the vacuum pump thing other than my previous post. Good luck Dan

To the OP - where are you now?

if you are in GTA area - call 416-889-1200 Ask for Yuda. He will most likely have what you are in need of for you. Precision buys some of it's used parts off him.

I'd say the harmonic balancer failed because there was a momentary event that stopped the crankshaft and the momentum of the balancer sheared the bolts or pins. Whatever that event was, it was not good.

conrad.g
 

Here's an update.
Peach parts doesn't ship to Canada so I was stuck with the local shops $500+ radiator as time was short (rental for a week). Could have had the one in my garage sent up but would have to sleep under the car until it got there and I don't have much faith in the parts that came with the car..Anyway, new rad, used fan, saved the pully (and it wasn't the balancer, the six bolts on the pully were broken off). And I made it home, about 12 hrs at 75-80 without brakes and a transmission that needed redline and shifted like a 30-06! I suspect that the guy who built the engine wasn't good with a tourqe wrench as the first time I pulled the vacuum pump the bolt down the center of the injection timer was just sitting there, no threads engaged, and I think the pully bolts were probably loose and it got working and snapped them off hitting the fan and puncturing the rad. Boy she drives nice when there is vacuum and aside from that A/C and cruise are all that is left... but, the vacuum.. Pump piston broken again when I took it off last night. Looking in the cd I suspect two things as I try and figure out how it all goes together. One, the thrust washer is missing, but I would suspect there to be play in the injection timer and can't find any. Or two, the two bolts that hold the cam on and the injection timer to the gear aren't tight and holding it in all the way causing too much tavel, stressing the piston and breaking it. I can't find a torque for it and when I stick a straight edge against the block and measure in to the surface of the injection timer it seems the same as my son's spare parts 300td (same setup). Also, it appears that the break in the metal of the piston is a pull, not a push. So I am puzzled. By the way, the break is like someone just punched the rod through the piston leaving a bit of metal the size of the nut attatched and moving but the rest of the piston sits there. Again the metal attatched to the rod by the nut looks like it was pulled out of the piston metal although it may just break that way after being stressed. Three pumps to look at and they all broke the same way. Nothing can make it into the engine as the spring holds the "head" on the bore. and all the breaks have been clean.
Has anyone ever seen such a situation?
Does anyone know the specs for the two bolts holding the cam on? Should they be tightenned right down?
Thanks,
Conrad