Help I broke it...
 

Hi,
I need help figuring out how to remove the aluminum support immediately under the rotor. I was trying to replace the lip seal and after removing the distributor cap and rotor. I tried pulling on the base of the rotor and the ring part with the three holes for the screws on it broke and the rest of the base is pretty stuck in place. My initial thought is to tap to the inside of what's left of this base then screw a bolt with a wide washer to which one can use a pulling tool to get it out. Any ideas, suggestions??

While on this post I would also like to ask the might as well question. While I am there does it make sense to replace the drive belt hydraulic tensioner even though it seems to work ok? Does it also make sense to replace the timing chain? The car has 177K with original parts..
All suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

YE

Oh man, I've been there, what a tough break. Those things can really seize in there. I would spray the collar with a penetrating oil, it seems traces of oil can get in there and turn into varnish, which can be softened with penetrant and maybe some taps with a hammer and small punch. Then to have something to pull on it with, use your best judgement. I've used a hole drilled into the front with an "easy-out" threaded into it, then pull on the easy out. If you soften up the varnish as I described it shouldn't take too much to get it started. Once it's drawn out 1/4 inch or sor you should be able to rotate it in the cam, which will help break up the varnish and make it easier to remove. Don't try to rotate it while fully in the cam as it is indexed to the cam. Best of luck, this can be tough, if it's getting difficult to deal with spray more penetrant on it and take a break!

Before disassembly you can check for chain stretch, there is a spec for the allowable degrees the chain can stretch. this is the only accurate way to tell if it needs replacement or not. Many will suggest doing it as a matter of course.

On the belt, is it off already? The best "easy way" to tell if the tightener is shot is to look at the threaded rod inside the adjustment nut (with the belt installed and tightened). If the threaded rod is way down at the bottom of the hollow nut, it's probably worn out. Only way to know for sure is to remove and inspect the tightener. The 2 "flats" on the inner section where the adjuster connects should line up with the tensioner pulley. If it's off by I believe 10 degrees, it's worn out.
Also on the small gas strut on the tensioner, if you can push either one of the aluminum inserts out of the mounting eye (what the bolts go through) you should replace the gas shock as well.

Gilly

Thank you very much I will follow what you said and will post. This is a huge help...

cruise control
 

Gilly,
As a MB master tech. can you tell me why the cruise cont. on my '77 459slc surges? If I set it to, say 55, it will drop quickly to about 52 and then accel. to 55. It continues this cycle as long as the control is on. Any ideas? Tks. for the help.

Kip:
You really should start your own thread, not just start off on another tangent. There are lots of other guys who may be experiencing the same problem, or may have this problem in the future and can locate an answer using the search feature. That way I can concentrate on problems for which the search feature came up empty. Have you tried the search feature?

My opinion on your problem (see, I'm abrasive BUT helpful!) would lead me to doing the test on the system. You say the system does work, just surges, so in my opinion, the test results would be inconclusive, meaning everything will probably pass just fine. In about 90% of these cases, by my own estimation, the control unit, also referred to as the cruise amplifier, will repair the problem, with the slight (10%) chance that it may be the actuator.

Gilly

Actually Kip.......
 

The more I think about it, I think your 77 has the pneumatic (vacuum operated) cruise control. I'm not all that fluent with these older ones, not the cruise anyways. i'd start a new post, I bet there's a few guys out there who know the ins and outs of this cruise control, I'm more familiar with the electronic ones.

Gilly

It is labor day night...
.... I DID IT... Here is how,
To help visualize this imagine you are trying to free one inner pipe that is stuck to an outer one with about 1/8th of an inch of the inner pipe showing. I had to spray very generously all kinds of penetrant sprays. Then I broke the skin off my my fingers four or five times on the sharp edge of the inside edge of the core support while trying to pull on one end using pliers and finally learned and knew that this was not the way. I went and got a 3/8th tap and threaded the inner part of the rotor support but not all the way to the cam. that's about 1/4 of an inch threaded. Then I got a 3/8th hardened both with a wide washer and threaded into the rotor support and inserted a brakeline wrench over the washer and slowly tapped on the wrench which in turn drives the bolt. You can see that this actually pulls the part off from the inside towards the outside. after it came out about a 1/4 inch, I unthreaded the bolt out and fully rethreaded the full length of the rotor support, just to be sure that I have enough meat to grab on to. then rebolted the bolt and washer and repeated and when the thing came out and fell under the car it was a big thrill worth a celebration.

Glad it all worked out for you.

Gilly