Hey ALL, I came to this point of finding a piece of dislodged washer underneath my 1986 190E 2.3, I went underneath the car and found the front flex disc rubber ripped. I tried to contact a repair shop, and was quoted a hefty $225.00, I then checked the price for the part and found that it cost around $40.00. Through months of reading in this forum, everybody, seems to be saying that it is such an easy task. I would appreciate a safe step by step procedure and would be willing to bite the bullet, learn something worthwhile to pass on to the rest of the guys, who would encounter the same fate as my baby benz, rather being ripped-off by shops who loves taking people's hard earned money and advantage over technical ignorance. Thanks, Oktake

Hi Oktake:

You came to the right place! I know someone will give you the details on how to do the job.

Generally, you have to be careful with lifting the car safely. One of my best "tool" investments has been a set of heavy steel ramps to drive the car up onto for service. While jackstands are a huge safety improvement over critically unsafe regular jacks, the ramps are even more stable when the car is correctly driven up onto them. They usually provide more clearance too.

Also, what I really wanted to quickly pass on to you is that from what your situation sounds like, you really don't want to drive the car until this problem is fixed. If the driveshaft should actually come loose and fall down, you're looking at a major problem - destruction of the driveshaft and nearby parts.

Ken300D

Thanks Ken for the "QUICK REPLY,"
I just put the car on the ramps, soon as I got the message from you. Should I get a 2 ton floor jack and jack stands? and set them in the rear too? How much clearance do I need? I have the whole week to work on it, just give me all the details and I'd be willing to work on it myself, since I have another car to use for going to work, you hit the bulls eye, when you mentioned the dangers of driving it to the shop and the possibilities of major damage that may occur, that is why, I had this car sitting on my driveway for 2 weeks.
THANKS AGAIN,
OKTAKE

I haven't done this job myself, so I'd rather let someone discuss it who has direct experience. I think if you do a search here on "flex disks" you might find some good info.

I'm pretty sure you will have enough clearance to work under the car with just the front up on ramps for the front flex disk, and the back up on ramps for the rear flex disk. If your car is like my 300-series car, its going to have two of these flex disks. You might consider replacing them both at the same time so that you have them all in new condition.

You are a lot safer with just having one end of the car off the ground.

Ken300D

Yes, do the search. You might as well change the center bearing and support if you're going to drop the driveshaft. My $.02.