Back in April I found a 1980 300SD in PNP that was hit in the left rear, and about shoved the bumper all the way to the rear window. tweeked the body where the Drivers door is in a bind opening/closing.'
Car looked to have been always garaged, good crack free leather seats, crack free dash, good looking wood etc....
Looking under the hood was a totally rebuilt engine and transmission. Rebuilt IP, Injectors, Vac Pump, Starter, water Pump etc, etc....WOW!!!! it`s mine.
Everything Fan to FW out the door was $468.
The 80 SD used a 617.950 engine, (110HP) and first yr for the EGR, I noticed it has the pre EGR Manifolds, so looked at the eng number on the side of the block, and they up graded to a 617.951 as used in the 81 - 85 300SD, ( 123HP)
Looking at the Air Filter they wrote in a date and mileage, and comparing it to the speedometer, they went 1187miles before the accident.
OK now lets fast forward to today.
Installing the Pilot Bearing, it was difficult getting it in, I mean it was a tight fit, not like the one I installed in another 617 engine which went in very easy. I had to drive it in to seat it. used a Socket to drive it in against the outer ring of the bearing.
Installed the clutch Disk and Pressure Plate, then trying to get the 4-spd box on, it will not go on. It goes on to about 2" from the adaptor plate. Just will not go on no matter how much I wiggle it, push it and talk to it.
Now Iam thinking that when this engine was gone through, maybe they got one from an 85 that has the smaller Crank hole. Up to 84 the crank hole is 35mm and the 85 is 34mm.
I notice it has an upper pan from a Federal spected engine as it has the drain tube for the Oil Separator. 85 doesn`t have this.
So when I drove the bearing in the Crank, maybe it squeezed it down to where the Input Shaft of the trans won`t slip in or it is slightly tilted. though it does seem to be seated in squarely.
Soooo, if this is the smaller Crank hole, think maybe I`ll see my Machinist friend Dan and have a Bushing made. The SD-22 Diesel engine in my Datsun PU has a bushing and has worked just fine. It just supports the end of the Input Shaft. I didn`t think of measuring the crank Hole before pounding the bearing in. whodathunk it wuda been different?
Dang, now I need to source a Pilot bearing Puller for my Slide hammer, and I had plans of dropping this back into the Engine bay maybe tomorrow.
Charlie