The aluminum rail in my engine isn't designed like the one you sent me a pic of. There is no notch I the top for the plastic guard to slide into. I may just have to live with the rail for now. Ugh! I'm willing to roll the dice.

I think it's safe to say that this chain is NOT the original. What say ye?

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On my M102 - similar age and kind of a similar design it looks like it is possible to pull that big banana guide rail up and out of the engine with the front cover off but then you need to remove the whole oil pan because the oil pump pick up tube is fixed to the first crankshaft bearing cap and you can't remove the front cover off in-situ...

...stupid design...

...it looks like the OM602 has a similarly frustrating design.

If you go back to that PDF link I posted up in the second post in this thread you can see that in chapter 05-330 it does specify 1) remove head.

Still - although I can't see the engine from sitting here in Holland (!) - it looks like it might be possible to drop the rail with the crankshaft cog off and then perhaps jiggle it up down and about with the tensioner removed => so long as you can get the bottom of the guide off of its pivot at the bottom



(Picture is screen shot of FSM chapter on startek - see post#2 for link)

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__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

The big hang up is that solid pivot pin. Have a welder? Cut/break the old rail to get it out of the way, weld a stud to the end to the end of the pivot pin, pull it out, change the rail, install a new pin from the dealer?

I think you'll sleep better at night with a new banana rail in place, I know I would.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

I've posted the part number for the pin in this thread =>

Should I Remove the Head?

I like the idea of pin removal but would be tempted to use a dremel type tool to cut away the guide rail if I really didn't want to remove the head (which I'm afraid I would do as explained in the other thread).

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I'd much rather prefer to have the new banana rail installed. I wondered about drilling a hole in the end of the pivot pin and then thread it to use my slide hammer to pull it out. What say you? I don't like the idea of welding in that area.

Was ready to strangle the parts guy at the dealership this morning. I called and ordered the cam lock washer last Thursday. The parts guy told me the price and how long it would take to arrive. I asked if I needed to come in and pay for the part first before it's ordered. He told me no. He said he'd order it and then took my number so he could call me when it came in. I hadn't heard anything from him so I called this morning. He said he never ordered the part. He claimed he was waiting on me to get back to him???????? I asked why he took my number if I was supposed to get back with him? He's a moron. He said he will have the part there tomorrow. I asked if he was sure of that? He didn't like that. LOL! I'm not so sure I wanna go through the dealer again for any parts. UGH!!!

Adding in another bit of trouble to the mix =>

It doesn't look like those tensioner rails are available at the moment - make sure you don't kill it!

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I have a new tensioning rail on the way. Shouldn't I be able to re-use the pivot pin if I drilled and tapped the inside just a few mm? I need just enough depth to install the threaded rod for my slide hammer. Even if I welded to the end of it shouldn't I be able to clean it up and reinstall? The dealer can get the pin. It's $5 BUT it won't be here until Tuesday. I need this car outta my garage at the house.

All things considered at this point, I'd cut the banana rail in half so I could remove the top section and then rotate the bottom section to get it off the pivot pin. That would allow easier access to the pin, I'd either grab it with a pair of vice grips attached to a slide hammer or I'd drill and tap it so I could pull it using a bolt or a slide hammer. Get a new pin, get the rail positioned and tap the new pin into its position.

Well I'm glad to hear you've got a new rail on the way - is it the whole assembly and not just the plastic covering or vice versa though?

I think drilling a hole in the end of the pin should work - the block is cast steel isn't it? (I've had a seriously stuck pin like that in a {alloy} head before that really wasn't going to come out)

I too favour cutting the rail but only if there's a replacement but the new pin can't be done for time constraints...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I think that the pin must come out before the new rail can go in, regardless of how the old rail comes out.

Welding: two advantages come to mind. (1) the heat may help release the pin, making extraction easier. (2) You can clean up / remove the extra material on a grinding wheel to reuse the pin, and have confidence it is not strength-compromised with a hole in it.

The block is cast iron, so heat is not a problem. Zap the stud on there, have some puller or impact puller ready to go, and yank it out.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

I drilled an appropriate sized hole and then tapped it to 6mm 1.00. I installed the same threaded rod I used to remove the upper guide pins and with the slide hammer attached it came out with about 4 good hammer strikes. Thanks for all the encouragement. I was NOT wanting to remove the head.

Now, how hard is it to remove the oil pump to make sure there's no "bits" in it from the worn cam sprocket?

...why I wanted to replace the tensioning rail.

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I don't know if getting the entire oil pump out to check it is easily doable, but I would definitely try to check the screen on its intake. There are a number of reports of OM603.97X engines dropping a bolt from their windage tray into the sump, the bolt then ends up underneath the oil pump pick up and it seems to stay there spinning until it wears a hole through the screen and eventually gets sucked up into the pump destroying it.

So I myself wouldn't worry about any ground up metal from sprockets or chains being in the pump now(I would try to make sure there was no residue in the sump) tiny stuff will pass through and get caught in the filter(providing it's changed regularly) so it wouldn't get to any bearings.

Great job on getting the pin out of there, it is great for everyone's future reference that there is a way to get this fix done with the head in place!

I will check the screen thoroughly. That pin was some of the softest steel I've ever drilled into. I thought about screwing a 6mm 1.0 bolt into the pin and then weld and grind the pin back down so it will be "solid" again. As far as contributing to this forum for future reference I hope in some way I can. Lord knows I've saved thousands working on these cars from the information I've gathered from here. Thanks to all who have been patient with me.