Replacing 4-Spd Manual Using Harbor Freight Transmission jack
 

April of 09 I did the 4-spd transmission swap in my 85 300D. I had the usual vibrations I read about others had with their swaps. tried to raise the trans mount, lower the X mount some, even lowered the center support bearing. been up and down with this thing. tried different transmission mounts, 300D, 240D etc...

Replaced the center support bearing and U-Joint. Just finished up on the rear sub frame and trailing arm replacement. swapped out lower milage trailing arms to eliminate the bearing problem. the R/R seemed to be complaining some. and swapped out a lower milage Diff from another 85. even new axles.

The FW was matched balanced also.

Driving around town, usually in 3rd gear, so the rpm`s drop in the 2000 range +-. so really get the roughness. on the highway around here, the speed is around 50mph, so have to be in 3rd to keep the r`s up.
with the 2:88 diff being higher geared than the 3:07, might be some of the issue. overall Iam happy with the swap. milage has gone up 3mpg on the Hwy.

so as time has gone on now, I have come to the conclusion it could be in the transmission. 1st and second is smooth, even running it up to say 3200rpm`s.
the 3rd there is a roughness in the drive train almost like a U-Joint. best I can come up with. then 4th also has it until Iam over 2700 to 3000rpm`s.

Iam starting to think maybe 3&4 have an internal problem like a bearing that has enough wear, that it letting the gears drop and not mesh correctly.

so I have another JY 4-spd Iam putting back in today. I pulled everything out on Monday, and yesterday I picked up a Harbor Freight Transmission Jack. the 450lb one with the 4 casters. SKU# 39178. it is Normaly $99, now on sale for $79, and with a 20% off coupon drops another $16 for a total of $69.59.

Have any of you used this Jack? Iam hoping today it all goes back in w/o any new words invented :D. I will report back as how well it goes back in.

When I did the swap, I pulled the engine and trans as a unit. so installing the 4-spd was a snap on the ground. I have pulled a few at PNP, just not replaced one laying on the ground.


Charlie

I bet you will have no problems, especially with a light weight 4-speed at under 100 lbs.

Thats like using a flatbed to move a TV. :D

I haven't got far enough along to R&R a MB manual transmission. But I'm friends with a girl who likes to kill transmissions in her Toyota truck. I've R&R 2 transmissions in the last 6 months for her :no:
without any oil in the transmission its pretty light. I just bribed a friend with beer and had him help me with lifting it into place... I wish I had one of those transmission jacks your talking about, would make it a 1 man job with no safety issues. Let me know how it works. ;)

On the issue of lightness, heres a picture of me holding one of the old iron boxes above my head. :cool:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...a65b2f1b16.jpg

I have one of those jacks. Works well enough I guess. It is designed so you can strap the transmission to the jack but in reality that does not work. You have to have the car up pretty high on jackstands FYI.

Goodluck

A friend at work just used one to change the clutch in a 4WD Toyota pickup. He said it was well worth the money.

Charlie,
That jack will be fine. I used your standard floor jack by myself but it was a balancing act. The platform on the jack you bought should work well.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouagement.

Here is a link to the jack.
http://www.harborfreight.com/450-lb-capacity-transmission-jack-39178.html

Well it looks like the car, 1 point, and me 0 zero for today.

Bolted the casters on the jack, swaped the trans flex disc from the old trans. the new one was pretty well cracked and had strings sticking out.

Figured it was easier to add the oil while it is on the ground than under the car. so filled it up.
Cleaned off the splines, polished up the end that goes into the pilot bearing, and greased her up.
Slid on the throw out bearing and the shift fork lever thing.

Got her straped down, then realized I needed to jack the car higher. needs to be more than 21". that is to the top of the trans on the jack. so fiddled with that looking for 4x6 to get her up.

Started raising her up. got it up in the tunnel, and realized, there is no way to undo the ratchet strap. can`t swing it in the tunell, so dropped it down and removed the ratchet, and tied the strap best i could.

Raised her back up. I left the slave cylinder attached to the line, so raising the trans you have to guide the line over the top and make sure it doesn`t get tweeked.

Raised and lowered the angle of the eng and trans trying to get he right angle. I could get the shaft in somewhat. but wouldn`t slide in. turned the end of the trans in gear trying to fine tune the splines.
Finally, removed the jack and man handled it. damn it was close, but no go.

Pulled it back down, to check the clutch and trans splines. felt something inside the clutch hole, wt....? I guess when i pulled the trans out, the pilot bearing came out. probably because I tiped it before it was clear. so here I was fighting this damed thing which seemed for ever. should have slid right in.

So in the morning I`ll see if a socket on an extention will fit into the hole and drive the pilot back in. Or just remove the clutch and see what`s up.

I did notice oil leaking around one of the shift levers. I think there is an "O" ring for a seal. I`ll checkin my stash of new rings, but probably some special MB specific thing. we`ll see.

Was a real nice day after 10am when the fog moved out. had to quit this afternoon about 4pm, wind came up and the fog came back in. too dang cold.

One thing I noticed with the metal plate the trans sits on, is it is slipery and the trans will move. I was thinking of bolting on a piece of plywood. the 2 ears on the bottom of the trans the exhaust hanger bolts on to, slip around on the plate, not much room on either side of them and they want to slide off.


Charlie

I just man handle the trans in and out. Are you using the 240d auto mount?

... A motorcycle jack works great for this.
it's flat, has wide surface to hold the trans on, and has rubber feet to keep the thing still.

Do like Chuck Norris and unbolt the transmission using your fingertips, then just lift the car off it with your other arm - leaving the tranny on the ground.

Easy.

no no no... Chuck norris would kick the bumper, then spin around and kick the other bumper, and the transmission would jump out, repair itself and jump back in.

the incredible hulk would unbolt it with his fingertips, and lift the car off the transmission leaving it on the ground...
or would he eat the transmssion? "puny automatic"

This is how I do it, doesnt everyone?

Yeah Iam using the 24D auto mount. I could man handle it better if I was 25 years younger :rolleyes:.

Where is this Chuck Norris when I need him? even the Govenator.

Charlie

Then I can assume that you have balanced the ds as well. Have you lowered the rear? You should check out the w124 FSM on the propeller shaft section. They cover DS related hums and fixes as well as measuring angle of inclination on the DS. It may give you some inside on your issues.

I could wrestle the trans onto the 616 without a jack, but when I tried that with the 617, she put up a fight. Left a pretty bad bruise on my left shoulder. There's not nearly enough room, I used a floor jack and a piece of wood, and I think I might want a trans jack for when I do the clutch.

my dad's little secret...
get a pair of longer bolts that thread into the block, cut off the heads, and cut a slot in it for a screwdriver to unscrew when done.
makes it a tad easier to align things when you don't have to hold up the transmission...

I have to file that one away... still have to replace my clutch this winter.

When I had the driveline shop replace the U-joint, it was balanced at that time, and hasn`t been taken apart since I installed it at that time.
with this trans swap Iam doing now, I just slid the shaft back w/o disconnecting it.

I don`t have a W124 fsm. I do have the Bently E-Class Owners Manual that I Picked up at a PNP for $5. some interesting stuff in it, but definately not a true FSM.

I lowered the rear, raised the front, lowred the whole thing etc.... with some washers to try to smooth this out. so only thing left is swap in this other trans. with the luck Iam having, probably worse than the one I pulled out.


Well today I removed the clutch to see what is up with the pilot bearing. there is was just laying there. guess it came out when the trans did. looked it over and looks like when I instaled it 20K miles ago. so put it back in the crank, buttoned the clutch up.

Raised the trans on the jack, got the shaft in the clutch hole, held onto the rear of the trans and got the jack out of the way. wiggled a little, and the trans went right in. Dang, wish i had noticed that pilot bearing early on yesterday. That is one thing I won`t forget to look at the next time.

Got all the bolts in and tightened down. the top 2 that I have read about being a problem to get to wern`t all that hard to reach.

The Slave cylinder was a problem, because removing the trans, the line hung up on the shift levers coming down and tweeked the metal line. so being bent some wouldn`t let the slave line up to get the 2 bolts in. fought it about 30min tweeking the line some, but no go. so with fear and trembling, I removed the line to the Slave, remembering the trouble bleeding the clutch doing the original swap.
Got a good bath from the Slave cylinder. with the line removed, and pushing in on the rod that pushes on the shift fork, it gets shoved into the slave. and where do you think the brake fluid goes then? :o

Bolted down the Slave, then fiddled with the line, and finally got it to thread in. sweet talked my wife to pump the clutch, and we bled and got it working again in a few minutes.

I ended up the day with getting the shift rods mounted. dang those little spring clips are difficult to get on. not a lot of room upin the tunnel or the shifter area, and it was getting hard to see as the sun was going down and looking like it is going to rain.
When I put them on last time, It didn`t seem to be all that hard, but I`ll be damned if they want to go on today.

Tomarrow this should be all wraped up and ready for the road :cool:.

Charlie

Any chance the flex disks are backwards? Who loves ya http://w124-zone.com/downloads/MB%20CD/W124/Index/Groups/41PropellerShaft.htm

Thanks for the 124 link.

Flex Discs are directional? I don`t see a difference from one side to the other.


ARRRRGH, it rained last night, 1:30am I get woke up with rain hitting the windows. :mad: the car is on concrete, but I have my pieces of carpet spred out and tools, jacks,oil pan etc....
Didn`t last long, but drops were big. so Iam out running around putting things under the car with a flash light. sorry, no pictures :D

Charlie

The w124 fsm seems to indicate that they are.

I just went throught the 124 link and didn`t notice anything directional, doesn`t mean it is not there.

I did read something interesting that they have balancing nuts and washers for the flex disks. I don`t remember reading that in my W123 FSM.

They also list a soft rubber disc for the front and a hard rubber disk for the rear.

Charlie

I think the flex disk might have been under transmission. I found the w124 fsm to be very enlightening. Does this describe the problem : https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://w124-zone.com/downloads/MB%2520CD/W124/Index/Resources/AF41.10-U-1200BG.pdf

You don't find Chuck Norris...He finds you

I don`t get a booming or thumping noise as the site mentions. more of a rough sound like u-joint rumbling, or ?.................

When we are in Oregon, their roads are rough from all the studded tires and snow chains. so there is a rumble, roar noise in the cabin from the tires. this reminds me of the noise.

what ever it is, I`ll do some more tweeking of the cross mount with some spacers.

I got it all back together today, and went for a run for about 30 miles. seems to act the same with the different transmission. this trans is a little looser than to other one.

It`s been wet and misty rain all day off and on, so working under the car wasn`t too bad. but my carpet did get a little damp. had to put on some rain pants to stay somewhat dry.

I would have finished a lot sooner if that pilot bearing hadn`t come out, and I noticed it sooner, and I hadn`t bent the Slave cyl line a little droping the trans. that slowed me a little. next time the slave is being removed first and out of the way first.

Those little spring steel clips that hold the shift rods are a real pain to get on. must be a trick to getting them to slide on easier.

So the car is up and running for now, and next week it`s making a trip to Carson City, NV. running smooth or grinding, growling and vibrating.:rolleyes:.

Charlie

driveline dilema's
 

driveline dilema's -- I see.

Different trans same sound? GRRR! You replaced the center bearing of course?

You have them?

Yes, The center bearing was replaced the same time the U-Joint was replaced and balanced.

When this rain storm blows on by, Iam going to try lowering the trans X mount, or raise the trans rubber mount with spacers, trying to find the best sweet spot.

Charlie