My mechanic left me a voicemail and said that the reverse clutches -all 4- are bad and worn down and said he's going to change them for 16 dollars each. Now my question is, is this good or bad? does this mean the tranny is going to die soon???or does it still have some life left ? any comments ? its a 722.311 transmission it was in the shop getting new front pump seals and rear seals etc. Please advice. Thank you for your responces!

Enrique

If you had fluid leaks for any period of time.Or you'r car has alot of miles on it.Then worn out clutches are no suprise.And $16 each to change them is a fair price if the mechanic is knowledgable and honest.As far as the health of you'r transmission.This is nothing more them general maintanance.Kind of like getting you'r brake pads replaced.If the job is done before any damage has been done,it's almost as good as new.But if you drive around for a long time with you'r transmission slipping and acting up.It would be like driving around with you'r brakes makeing squealing and grinding sounds for weeks before getting them fixed.If the problem is fixed early,it's an easy fix.Ignore the problem,and it only gets alot worse.If you'r not sure of the mechanics honesty.Call and ask to see the old parts after the repairs.Good clutches have grooves in them that should be at least 1/32nd inch deep.Close to that or less,and you'r mechanic is right to change them.

It's not quite like changing brake pads. Because to do it properly, the B3 clutch pack clearance should be set to 1.5 - 2.0 mm. And if he's in that far, the K2 drum is right there. If the B3 clutches are all worn down, the K2 might be too. And that's real easy to check, spec is 0.7 -1.3 mm.

__________________
'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

He went ahead and replace them, he said visually other components of the transmission look good. this shop only works on Mercs i trust the owner her is certify to work on w126's but hes the owner so he dosent get his hands dirty much but i know he will when things get thought. Also they have Udi working there (some europoean guy) he is ver knowlodgeable in these cars, in fact the MBZ dealer takes their cars to repair there since they cant fix cars! hmm i think they are a bid pricesy commin at $216 to reseal all of transmission and control module,new pan gasket,filter and some other little stuff...i took off the transmission and took it to them. They usually wouldnt accept this but since i'm a college student and need to save money as much as possible and i'm a frequent customerr they let it slide. I'm just worried that the transmission will die next on me or something since the clutches already wor out. Any idea why the reverse clutches wor down? i bought the transmission used since my 3rd grear bearing on my previous one died--i do plan to rebuilt in the future though.


Enrique

IMHO, $216 to do what you described is very fair. Most places don't know much about the internals - many just want to sell you a rebuild. I believe the reverse bands wear down when the pressure on the B3 piston due to worn seals is insufficient. Then the clutch pack slips causing rapid wear.

__________________
'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

so i did a good job getting the seals replaced ? i just hope i dont get any headaches on this transmission since i have the worst luck in the world with cars. lol and i wanna be an F1 driver...i would be worse then kimi when it comes to his car breaking down every other GP-mine would break every GP!

If the rest of the trans is still good.Then Pete Burton is right on the money saying the clutch wear was probably due to a leaking seal on the servo piston.That's an internal seal by the way.It's not the front or rear trans seal.I don't know the exact specs on you'r model trans.Or if the servo piston seal is internal or external access behind a cover.But it would be a good idea to make sure it was one of the seals replaced.An external leak and low fluid would cause wear in all of the trans parts.

i recenly performed the same repair on my 300se., it had 120k when the problem began as a long delay in reverse, i ended up replacing all discs and a thicker metal disc at the end by the retaining clip. to get the max benefit from this repair the end clearance is critical. mine has been fine now at 133.300 miles.

i asked the mechanic if it was becuase of the bad seals for the piston like you guys suggested he said no that everything looked fine their, he said the reverse clutches are really weak etc etc and it was 'normal wear'