Will do. I expect it to be brand new. A new oil pump was part of the rebuild...

Picked up parts yesterday. That's progress, right?

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So I found an additional reference to this issue in the FSM. 05-412 “Removal and installation of intermediate sprocket shaft” indicates the hollow bolt is for double diaphragm vacuum pumps only. I believe these were found on earlier turbo engines in the 300SD, but not the 617.952 in my 1982 300CD. The next page specifically notes the single piston vacuum pump that I have does not require the hollow shaft.

I am glad to see this update.

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I have finally found some time to work on this project.

I dropped the oil pan and was pleased/not pleased to find 10 balls from the two bearings and lots of bits of shield and ball cage. Two balls were still missing. I was able to fish another out of the timing chain galley with a magnet on a telescoping rod. This after I found it with a borescope. I’m down to one ball missing.

I also found what I believe is all of the shrapnel from the ball bearing shields and cages. I’m not looking for the two inner and two outer races, they are still in the vacuum pump.

In the pic of the magnetic pan you can see the 11 balls and the bits of shield and cage. There is also some black sludge that is metal, which could be the 12th ball. I purchased a second borescope with a smaller camera head and better resolution, I’ll keep looking. Plus I need to remove and inspect the oil filter. I don’t expect to find a ball in there but the results could still be interesting.

I popped the intake screen off the bottom of my new oil pump. The good news is the balls don’t fit through the screen, so chances are it is still in the timing chain galley if it’s in the engine. There’s another chance it was still in the vacuum pump and I lost it when I removed the pump. At the time I wasn’t thinking about catching anything that could fall out.

In another pic you can see two more bearings. One is whole, and the other is separated to confirm the number of balls and size up the amount of metal.

So far the chains, sprockets and rails look great. I am going to take a closer look and verify every link and sprocket before I button things up.

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Well TIL that if the oil pan is off and THEN the oil filter is pulled out you'll get a huge puddle under the car. Wasn't ready for that. So going forward I'm going to always do the filter before draining the pan so the oil in the filter housing can get to the pan first.

I found nothing interesting in the filter- it was clean of metal. Which is good.

And I have spent probably two hours over the last week looking around the chain galley with a borescope. Bought myself a new one with a mirror attachment so I can see 90*. Still no sign of ball number 12. Chains are sprockets are fully inspected and good.

I think it's almost time to button it up. Does anyone have any suggestions of where to look? Someone mentioned the upper oil pan earlier, I have scoped each section of between the baffles and didn't see anything. Plus the oil from the filter housing washed down that way, leaving four streams.

Great work. I take it you strained your oil? It may be in your drain pan.

I’d put a magnetic oil plug in. At some point it’ll make itself known. Hopefully in a harmless way.

I’m somewhat shocked you recovered so much material. You must have been searching for a long time.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles

Thanks. I'm glad I found as much metal as I have.

I did strain the oil- thanks for reminding me. I first wiped out the catch pan so it was clean, then strained it through a funnel with a built-in fine fuel filter. It was slooow, about 10 minutes for half a quart. Alas, no metal in the strainer.

I think my next step is to use compressed air with a long thin tube to see what blows out. I'll need to rig up a way to catch whatever loosens up. Maybe tape a bag to the bottom of the upper oil pan.

Magnetic drain plug is a good idea.

So, two thoughts I had right after my last post.

Instead of taping a bag to the upper oil pan it was way easier to clean up the lower oil pan and hold it up with a couple of screws. I did that, blew air into the chain galley from the top down, and got nothing in the pan. Another half hour or so poking around with the borescope and 90* mirror and I'm done. It's clean. The chains are good, the pockets are good.

Thought two: a magnetic drain plug would be great but I don't think it would catch a ball rolling around on the bottom of the pan. The plug end is actually about 3/8 inch off the bottom of the pan when screwed in. I'll drop the pan again in a few oil changes to see what's what.

So, pan is back on, valve cover is back on, oil filter installed and I've started work on the vacuum pump rebuild.

Interestingly, the rebuild kit came with instructions. I don't recall ever seeing instructions come with a part I have bought through MB. I posted them below.

AND, to answer my original question, the pump was definitely not dry. See attached pics. It was actually really well oiled throughout.

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More pics.

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Good info. I will try to remember that.

I do remember that the double diaphragm pumps have a different drive on them and the timer.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I finished putting everything back together a few weeks ago and finally had a chance in nice weather to drive the car today. Everything went really well. Glad this is behind me (knocks on wood).

Good work!

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles