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  #1  
Old 08-23-2002, 12:39 PM
vytas
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please help! alternator mounting bracket broken, bolt from Hell, W123, now what?

please help! alternator mounting bracket broken, bolt from Hell, W123, now what?
you gotta help me out!
while trying to remove the alternator from a 300TD, the lower mounting bolt would not come loose, like it was a reverse-threaded bolt that had been cross-threaded in there with an impact gun and a nice helping of JB Weld on the threads to boot. well, after about 40 hours of labor and tricks (torches, PB Blaster, 8 ft breaker bars, 8 broken balls, etc) now the whole bracket cracked.

a commando assault team went to the junqueyard, found a '79 TD and tried to remove a spare mounting bracket off the block. what's with these Mercs? ummm, can anyone here say "servicable"? no? you can't take these cars apart. just to get at that one last bolt, remove: radiator, crank pulleys (with Allen keys???!!!, who brought those? no-one? oh well...) so F--K it, sorry for the rant, but ...

NOW WHAT? trash the whole car, because of one bolt. how silly. or carry spare batteries all over creation, charge 'em every night. great. so, how about removing the A/C compressor, and mounting an alternator there? any comments? i don't know what else to do, SOB, SNIFF, MPPH, BLuoughyeee

oh yeah, thanks, guys, for any help, in advance, and etc.
wordy enough?
sorry.
yours truly,
Vytas

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Old 08-23-2002, 12:58 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Vienna, WV
Posts: 121
I helped my son change his out about 18 months ago so the details are a little fuzzy. I do recall that one of bolts was different. One of the bolts had what looked to be an exposed nut in plain view with the end of the bolt visible. After being unable to remove the nut I finally realized that it was either cast into or welded to the bracket. The secret was to undo the bolt that screwed into this cast nut from the rear. The nut looking thing was an integral part of the bracket and didn't come off.

Good luck.
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Vienna, WV
1984 300D Euro
1995 S320
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  #3  
Old 08-23-2002, 01:01 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: central Texas
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Where are you located? Do you have all the pieces ? Can you take pics of the unit and detail of the part that is really messed up... the JBWeld part...

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1979 300 TD parts car
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  #4  
Old 08-23-2002, 01:18 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: south carolina
Posts: 44
Hi. I think I know what you're talking about. If I'm right, the front bolt only adusts the alternator belt tension but it absolutely will not move until you loosen the nut that is attached to it behind the alternator and is kinda hard to see and get to. I imagine you have to take the nut all the way off to remove the bolt. I might have a spare you can have but not sure if it will work because mine is older (78). If you had a picture I could probably tell. Hope this helps.
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Old 08-23-2002, 01:22 PM
jcd jcd is offline
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I think the oldfrt has it right.

The front/top bolt just adjusts the tension and the bottom one, hard to get to, holds the bracket and serves as a swivel point for adjustment.

I would be suprised that it would be that tight. Mine had a habit of having the back nut fall off due to vibration.

Pics would help.

JCD
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Old 08-23-2002, 01:56 PM
vytas
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hi. nice to see some responses so soon!
i don't have a digi camera, so no chance of posting any pics.
let me try to clarify what it is i'm talking about:
at the top of the alternator, there is the tension adjusting bracket, and the adjustment bolt. there is, a little inboard, another bolt & nut that we didi manage to get loose - it holds the alternator on to the adjustment bracket. the bolt in question is located at the bottom of the alternator; it is the swivel point about which the alternator swings when adjusting tension on the belts.
this is the bolt from hell. no nut here; it seems to thread right into the cast bracket that holds the alternator in place. it is only accessible from the bottom of the car. anyway, the entire cast bracket is now cracked, and probably needs to be replaced. can someone tell me how to remove that whole caast piece? it is bolted on to the engine block, apparently with a stud/nut arrangement. some of the nuts came off, but there is at least one more that is virtually inaccessible, and may require the disassembly of all kinds of stuff.

thanks for the support!
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Old 08-23-2002, 02:17 PM
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Location: Soperton, Ga. USA
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Let the disassembly begin. I think at least one of those bolts that hold the bracket on is behind the alternator so the alternator will have to come off to get to that one. You need to start tearing stuff apart on the front right of the engine. I believe I would try to find a torch and go ahead and try to torch the old bracket off. good luck
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Old 08-23-2002, 06:37 PM
vytas
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geez.
yeah, that's the one, the 17mm bolt. it is now round, for what it's worth. i figured it didn't matter much at this point, since the idea was to get a whole new bracket and replace the broken one. who knows what would have been left to thread into in the old bracket, but anyway, now it's toast.

problem is, we had to give up on trying to dismantle the '79 at the junkyard, because we couldn't see how to get at the thing without taking off the crank pulley, and we had no allen keys.

this is an '83 300TD. it was bought for a mere $200, at 257,000 mi. a baby, really, for a MB diesel. in pretty good shape, all it seemed to need was a battery. then the alternator light was coming on at the dash, and after switching out the regulator brush pack , it kept happening (light would glow faintly, and increase in brightness with revs. charging voltage seemed weak at 13.2V max.) having a spare alt., we wanted to change it out, and it led to all this.

if the bracket is aluminum, it must be galvanic corrosion at work here. i have never seen anything like it. anyway, given the low initial price of this car means it would be a tough decision to take it to a garage for repairs. i guess welding the bracket back together makes some sense - at least it could be removed from the car at "leisure" in teh driveway. i may still try taking off the AC compressor to see if an alternator could be mounted there instead.

thanks for all the help!

Vytas

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