OM616 Throttle Removal for Valve Adjustment

[JHZR2]

Ive never adjusted the valves on 616 engines before, only on my 617 vehicles.

Notionally the 616 is easier, right? But there's something with the setup that somehow makes it more difficult to get off and put off to the side.

Any ideas what Im doing wrong? I searched a few old threads and there were a couple such questions, but none hit the mark exactly.

Baseline:



Its simple enough to remove the horizontal rod that goes to the firewall, plus a few linkages.



Eventually I pulled the whole setup, out of the plastic bushing, then removed the two 13mm bolts.



And ended up like this:

I essentially had to band all the vacuum hoses and the two throttle cables backwards, and try to tuck the whole mess under the fuel line:



Its been nearly a decade since Ive adjusted valves on a 617. But I dont recall it being so stiff and so tough to get all the stuff out of the way in order to get the VC off... And the 617 has more junk on the VC to remove.

I got the VC off, no problems there... But it just seems to me that I should have removed something different.

I think on the 617, you remove the whole vacuum miniswich assembly via bolts that hold the frame that has the black box, no? On the 616, the little white plastic switch on the VC is right over top of the 13mm bolt. That makes it tougher to remove that part. Doesnt change the issue of folding over the cables and vac hoses. Maybe I just dont remember correctly?

Under the VC:











Thanks!