Blair,

There is a drip tube that goes from the oil seperator in the bottom of the air filter assy to the right front of the oil pan. There is an o-ring at the bottom that will leak. You might wipe this area off to see if the leak is there.

Good luck,

How do you remove these pins? I never noticed them on the balancer before (I did notice the one that sticks out but thought that was for something else). How could these destroy the crankshaft? Any ideas on what the front seal repair should cost?

Adam

P.S. I guess the damaged front seal isn't commonplace, so perhaps I'm just lucky.

If you remove the big bolt on the front of the crankshaft, and use a harmonic balancer puller to remove the entire balancer, you will see two holes and two pins diametrically opposed on the crankshaft that pin the balancer in place.

To reinstall the balancer, you pull the balancer in place BEFORE you install the pins. If it does not line up such that the pins will go into place, you must pull it and try again.

What is not uncommon is someone puts the pins in place and pulls the balancer on with the big bolt, crushing the pins, the crankshaft and balancer, doing serious damage to the crankshaft snout if not destroying it.

Good luck,

Blair:

Don't forget that the oil pan has two parts -- a diecast aluminum upper part and the stamped sheetmetal lower part. There is no gasket on the upper part -- just some RTV sealant.

A bad front seal will look a great deal like this -- oil on the lower front with no obvious source. It will, however, be heavier on the side to which the balancer will throw it, PS pump side, I think.

To change the front seal, it is normal to remove the radiator, belts, pulley -- doesn't take long to actually replace the seal once you get to it. I'd guess three or four hours, but this is a guess, not knowledge. It would take me a lot longer....!

Front seals aren't a huge problem on these cars -- this is a good design, and they are pretty well protected. Grit is what usually does them in -- and I, alas, have sand in the drip pan of the 300D.....!

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

ATLD:

Unless you have to remove the sleeve on the crankshaft, no special tools are needed, and I am not sure a special tool is needed to remove the sleeve. The only thing you need is another sleeve to slide on the seal as I said above. Unless you take your car to a shop that does a lot of MB work, they probably won't have any special tools.
I did this job a few years ago to my '80 300SD, but I can't remember how long it took. I didn't replace the original crankshaft sleeve because it wasn't damaged. It probably takes me twice as long to do a job as a full time mechanic. If I have trouble with something, I might just let it go and try again a day or 2 later. I hate to work under pressure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PEH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~