i had done this twice before in less than 15 minutes. i never found the right type of o ring and the ones i had used where kinda thin and had quickly disintegrated. this time i had found some nice fat ones in an assortment at pep boys and they assured me it was oil and heat resistant. the only thing different this time was that the engine was hot and i was working outside in the afternoon summer sun. being very careful not to burn my hands i was able to extricate the bolt. the first hint that this was not going to go as smoothly was that the shock moved and i couldn't get the hole lined up properly. got the bolt out again and lined up the holes with a screwdriver and reinserted the bolt - only to see it disappear into the dark recesses behind the pulleys. kept cool, and dropped the splash pan but no sign of the bolt. started to panic, calmly assessed the situation and decided to remove the fan shroud so i could see clearly. i had never done that before and upon discovering that it was just a couple of clips holding it in place i kicked myself for not having done it in the first place because now there was a lot of room and i would never have gotten myself into this jam. finally i took one final look around underneath and saw the bolt head peeking out behind the round plate with the timing marks - WHEW! buttoned everything up in no time flat after that.

moral of the story - just take the darned fan shroud off if you're gonna attempt this fix - specially with a hot engine . it really is a snap and it does take care of that diesel-like clatter...

__________________
joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
"Do not adjust your mind, it's reality that's malfunctioning"
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My only question though would be 'What is a shock tensioner o-ring?

the rubber bushing in the belt tensioner shock absorber shrinks with heat/age. it causes an annoying diesel-like clattering sound and is very common in the m104 engine. the "easy fix" was to use an o-ring as a shim / spacer to snug everything up again.

sorry, that was kind of cryptic wasn't it....

__________________
joE
1993 300e-2.8 - gone now <sigh>
"Do not adjust your mind, it's reality that's malfunctioning"
http://banners.wunderground.com/bann...L/Key_West.gif

I did the same exact thing on my M103 - dropped the nut down in the crankshaft pulley area and spent 1.5 hours fishing it out with a magnet and piece of wire.

As far as the O ring goes, I found a piece of clear polyethylene tubing about 1/2" in diameter and sliced a 1/8" piece of it to make my own O ring. Then I tightened up the nut and just squashed the new ring against the old one. That was 2 years ago and the shock is still quiet.