btw, could you link me to a how too so I don't make the mistake again:? The downloaded manual I have for the w123 is missing the entire section the the automatic transmissions.

I'm about to pull the engine and trans out, only the engine mounts are left holding it down, then I will separate them and see what I can tell. The trans fluid was totally clean, nothing spelled funny. will know more soon...

Engines and trans are out and undercover till tomorrow. Maybe... There is a call of rain moving in. Man I'm getting fast at pulling these. The actually total amount of time it took this time was about 2 hours. would have been faster with a helper.

None of the manual sets include the transmission, as far as I know. Mercedes has always made it extremely difficult to obtain their transmission manuals.

I would also like clear instructions on what to do. I may have to transplant a tranny in the spring, from my coupe into my TD, and (seeing as I already had a shop ruin a transmission doing the same thing on two of my cars, 10 years ago) I would like to do it right.

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The transmission chapters are in the German FSM, but not in the US FSM. Strange, because most of the automatic transmissions are in the US.

Anyway, removal and inspection of the oil pump goes like this:

Inspect the oil pump.
Pull the TC from the transmission. Affix some metal strips to the TC so you can handle it better.



Preferably put the transmission upright to pull the TC



Now you see the oil pump housing



Remove the bolts, but two bolts in the two unused holes and pull the oil pump housing out of the transmission

Now you can see the oil pump housing:



And the transmission:



The old gasket can be removed, that will take time.
Remove the two teflon rings in the grooves. They are not closed, but open, so you can take them off. The two white rings are the teflon rings, old ones are black.



Here is an old teflon ring.



The teflon rings can be renewed, install with a bit of grease. The two ends have to be together, bend carefully if not.

Push down the disc which holds the springs and remove the locking ring which lays in a groove. Here you can see the locking ring already from the groove:



Remove ring, disc and springs.



Remove the thing with the tabs



And remove the bolts for the oil pump. You might need the bolts to push the oil pump out of its housing and then you can see this:



Remove the plate and then you can see the gear wheels of the oil pump:



These wheels pump the oil. The ring wheel must not have play and the teeth of both wheels should not be damaged. The tabs on the inner wheel must still be there. The TC shaft engages those tabs to drive the oil pump.
When put together, the wheels must be well oiled with ATF.
Inspect the bearing of the oil pump, it must not be damaged:



You can put in a new seal:



and a new rubber ring for the oil pump:





The thing with the tabs has two rubber rings, inner and outer which can be replaced:



Getting the thing in again is a bit tricky, it must be done straight, and the rubber points forward, so you might have to use something to push the rubber in. Use ATF to lubricate.



The oil pump bolts require 20 Nm when you put it back together again:



The transmission after the removal of the old gasket.



And the new gasket for the oil pump. All the holes have to line up and there is only one correct way. Be careful not to damaged the bearing or the seal when putting back the oil pump.



Torque the bolts to 13 Nm



The TC can be installed, best with a transmission in the upright position. Turn it is bit until the tabs of the oil pump are engaged. Turning the TC must feel different (heavier). Be careful not to damaged the bearing or the seal.

Well, I now know why the transmission failed....

First off I now believe this transmission has been rebuilt at one time.

See the blue markings like someones been in there? That plus the fact that the plastic "bolt" the retains the torque converter was gone...



Now onto the issue...

Notice how there are no tabs left for the torque converter...



See how this is separated?



So, it looks like Vstech was correct on me not seating the torque converter all the way during the reinstall... I need a new Pump.

Attached Thumbnails

         

Just to clarify:

1. Proper seating is a matter of turning the torque converter while you push, or pushing down as far as you can then turning?

2. When I do my trans swap from the Coupe to the TD, I need to double check that I haven't pulled the torque a bit loose from the pump in the process?

Many thanks Govert for the excellent writeup and pics.

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

I'm not sure what you are refering to in the pic " See how this is separated? "

The splined shaft is called a stator shaft and is supposed to be seperate from the input shaft.

The surest way to tell if the converter is seated is if it still moves front and back when the trans is bolted to the engine. ( this is before the flex plate to torque converter bolts are installed )

Also, if the pilot in the rear of the crank is very rusty, the converter will be forced into the pump causing the damage you have.

1) To seat it properly, you'll need to push the torque converter in at the same time as when you turn it. It's best that you turn it clockwise and push at the same time at least a dozen times to ensure it gets seated properly.

2) Pulling the trans will probably disturb the torque converter. Once pulled, you'll need to turn it and push to make sure it is reseated. But I highly recommend that once the tranny is down, you get a new front seal. This would require removal the torque converter anyways.




.

__________________
1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

To all the ones who posted in this link ty,, I know that I will have to open my transmission some day ,and I feel better about it because of the talented information that is posted here,, thank you !!! I bought a spare to work on to practice,, it's a 722.317 the one in my car is a 722321. only the speedo thing is different, the rest of the internals may be the same ,, Cheers

Also, keep in mind I put over 6 thousand miles on the car BEFORE this happened. So it was by no means a sudden failure after putting the engine trans back in. The transmission actually shifted and worked wonderfully right up to the point it failed. I'll get a new pump from Vstech, I believe I'm going to have to flush the Torque converter, replace all the filters etc in the trans since that metal had to go someplace... There was a very fine sand of it on the converter. HAve not dropped the pan itself yet.

When it failed it failed hard. Meaning I was coming up my hill, the car seemed underpowered for a second. I let up on the gas, shifted to neutral and back to drive (I was doing maybe 5 miles an hour) the car lurched and it killed the engine. Started right back up and had nothing as far as gears at that point. No noise, no grinding nothing.

I just had a look at my 300cd with the same trans failure and was able to pull a frt trans cooler line to check for fluid pressure coming out of the line when started ,a big yes on the pump working.Now the question is could my problem be something simple ?