Hi guys

I wanted to share a success story with everyone.

For the past year I've been restoring my 1985 190E 2.3L, I started off with a whole lot of body work and a front end rebuild. The body work was quite extensive, and included welding in new panels to patch up some holes, as well as a partial respray, the reason it was partial is because I was testing some things out, and I decided to renew the driver door which was in the worst shape of all the other body parts, no accidents, just dings, rust, and other road damage.

The suspension rebuild included just about everything new except for shocks. The reason for it was that my spring perch collapsed. I welded it back in, replaced both springs, all the bushings on the control arms, tie rods, ball joints, and any other part that was worn, the list is a long one, and I'm not sure if I remember everything anymore.

You might ask yourself why go so far with a car this old, well, I had the car since April 2002, and it served me very well with very few problems. When I bought it I knew nothing about cars, and everything I know is because of this car. While it was still on the road before all the above mentioned work, I had the engine rebuilt, and it ran beautifully, so getting rid of the car would be a shame really, this is why I continued on with my work.

About 4 months ago, when I finsihed some engine work, I noticed that my transmission was leaking really bad, out of the 7L of fluid that goes into this thing, I would say 3 were on the floor, mind you, the transmission always had a leak here and there, but this was much much bigger. Prior to that I once had a few problems on the road where the car would not shift into a higher gear in slow traffic conditions. When I summed all this up, I came to the conclusion that a rebuild would be in order, especially since I just paid for a tranny rebuild on my 98 Ford Ranger pick up since the reverse band broke.

So, off I went looking for way to get a working transmission into my benz. A rebuild at any of the places I knew would cost minimum $3000. I could not locate a fresh tranny for this car anywhere around here, and a used one is just as good as the one I had. So, I decided to try and rebulid it myself.

I gathered up some literature, studied it in detail to get an idea as to what will yield problems, and if there are any specialty tools I would need. Sure enough, I had to order a special socket for the yolke nut, and a clutch spring compressor. The rest were ordinary run of the mill tools you can pick up at your nearby hardware store.

Finding a rebuild kit was also no easy task, but thanx to Cobra Transmissions, I got more then I needed for a good price as well, these guys knew what this tranny was all about, and even though they lack a decent online order form, over the phone they knew exactly what I needed, and in about a weeks time I had a kit, a new front brake band, and a whole lot of other parts I had no idea I would ever find in a transmission.

The next step was actually getting this transmission out of the car, this was no easy task without a hoist, but, I did it. I used an atv jack to get the transmission down and out, the exhaust and driveshaft had to go before I could even get to it, but I did it.

Finally came the time to actually open this thing up. Not knowing what territory I'm moving into, I cleared a big counter top, got a lot of baggies, labels, twist ties, and boxes to store parts in as I take them out. I followed the MB 722.3/4 manual for the tear down, it didn't take long at all, soon my contertop was filled with parts, and in the process I photographed everything, a real good idea as it turned out.

I started my rebuild with the Valve body since I worked on weekends while I was at home alone studying, since at the same time I was taking some courses, and working full time, and I didn't need an extra pair of hands for the VB. Everything went perfect except when I realized my kit did not come with teflon rings for the VB pistons. I thought, that's okay, I'll get the from the dealer... no luck there either, the dealer refused to help, and I got brushed off, very heart breaking. So I used the old teflon rings, they were not damaged, but they were old, but still in good shape. I put the VB back together piece by piece and moved on to the clutches.

The clutches are real easy, but some tricks must be applied to make them seem that way, and you can't touch them without a press or a clutch spring compressor, which came in a few days prior to this. K1 and K2 looked like new until I got to the orings which were under the piston supports, those crumbled away in my hands as was expected. A kit was actually provided to fix these, but for some reason, it only had 1 oring, and I needed 2. A local seals distributor gave me one for free and I moved on. having the K1, and K2 rebuild, measured and withing spec, I moved onto K3 and the tranny pump.

K3 was completely burnt, I posted some pictures of it earlier if anyone is interested, there was half a layer of lining left out of 6 layers. Burn marks all over the place, and the steels were in terrible shape. The pump itself was not too bad until I opened her up. There is a tiny check valve in the pump which consists of a small plastic piece, and a ball bearing. The plastic crumbled away, and the ball bearing got sucked into the piston causing some minor damage to the contact surface for the seal. That little check valve stalled my work for 3 weeks as I waited for it to come in since it was on back order from the dealer... amazing really, but what can you do?
After 3 weeks, I made sure the pump is in order, repaired the damaged surface, installed the new check valve, and was ready to move on.

Around this time my exams came around, and I had to stop working again for about 2-3 weeks as I prepped for them, I didn't want to screw up my marks just cause of a transmission, so the project went on hold again.
Right after exams which was December 14th, I went back to work. My dad who is a QA guy at a machine shop that makes airplane parts provided me with some measuring tools to check B3 clerance, it sure came in handy, I had an extra set of steels for this guy, and I got it right where I wanted it, and I was ready to put the whole thing back together. Of course, it was not a flawless process, and once or twice I had to crack it open after sealing everything up since a part or two got misplaced, but, it did not bother me that much.

Finally the time came to put the transmission back into the car, taking it out was a lot easier, that's all I can say. My dad helped me out, the engine without the weight of the tranny no longer sat the same, the height and alignment was difficult to get, and again, without a hoist, this was no easy task, but once more, I managed to get the transmission back in place. I should mention that before this, I replaced the rear main seal since I hate leaks

One driveshaft, and exhaust system later, and I have to say I hate working on exhaust on this car especially since I realize I need a new one. 6L of tranny fluid went in, and I sprung a leak, a big one. I thought all my work went down the crapper, but after a few moments, I realized that my car is on ramps, and the fluid is not going to work itself into the torque converter or VB on its own, hence it's probably pouring out the vent valve, the rate at which it leaked kind of made sense too, so I corssed my fingers, put everything back together, took the car off the ramps, put in a fresh oil filter, fresh oil, checked again for leaks, and I was ready to give it a try.

Then I realize the battery is dead, and it needed charging, so I had to wait an hour more, but finally, I cranked the engine, it was a little sleepy at first since the fuel in it is over a year old, and the pump was lazy too, but it started up as if nothing ever happened.

I let the car sit for a while as it warmed up, checked for leaks again. Clouds of smoke started pouring out of the engine bay as the antiseize grease on the exhaust parts burnt up, and any other oil that ended up on the exhaust, eventually it all died out, and slowly I took the tranny through every gear with my foot on the brake.

Since I was in my garage, Reverse was first, I did not feel it engage at all, but... it did, very softly. I took my foot off the brake, and the car started to roll backwars out of my garage and onto the driveway. My driveway is inclined, so the car made it half way up before I had to give it some gas to keep it moving, and... it refused to go. After some looking over, I realize that the little metal lever that connects the fulcrum lever assembly to the throttle was disconnected, again, I fixed it in a split second, gave it some gas and it roared in gratefulness. I hoped back into the car, throw in Reverse, and up the drive way I go onto the road.... quiet as a mouse, not a peep out of the transmission or any other parts, except the brakes, but can you blame them?

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1985 190E 2.3L - a constant project.