Having done the bearing bracket replacement twice (once after I did the head on my '86 300E and getting a little too enthusiastic in cleaning the parts and accidentally cleaning all the grease out of the fan bearing, and again shortly thereafter when my girlfriend rear ended somebody and munched the same part), I am happy to share a few tricks. I also have the CD and the printed manual, and unless this is the only job you ever plan to do on this motor, I highly recommend spending the $175 or so on the CD's.

To do the whole bearing bracket job, the radiator will have to come out, I think. It just clips in. I'll start by telling you how to pull the fan and clutch with the radiator still in, though, just so you can look around to see what you're in for -- in case you want to bail out there and either get the book or some help.

To pull the fan and clutch, take the plastic cover off the distributor cap, undo the cap (two hex screws), move the cap aside, move the coolant overflow hose, and then just unclip the little flat clips holding the fan shroud and push it over the fan towards the rear of the car to get it out of the way.

Now the tricky part. Just one more bolt to go, but its a tricky one. The fan clutch is held by one big 8mm hex head bolt in the middle of the fan with a lot of torque on it. With so little clearance between the front of the fan and the rear of the radiator, you'll find there's no room for a hex socket and driver, so you need to use a regular 'L' shaped hex wrench, putting the stubby end into the bolt and slipping something over the long end for leverage (this bolt is torqued to 45nm).

To turn this bolt, you need a way to keep the assembly from spinning, and MB tells you to do this with a special tool (counter holder 103 589 00 40 00) that looks like a long stiff maybe 1/8" diameter rod with the business end bent into a short 1 inch 'L' (like 80 degrees). I made one myself by just bending up a long tool holder hook off my pegboard and grinding the end a bit. I've heard of others substituting an allen wrench of the appropriate size for the business end (to get the 'L' shape), then stuffing the long end of the allen wrench into a piece of stiff rubber tubing to give the tool the reach required.

With your special-tool-of-choice, you need to turn the fan clutch assembly by hand with the 8mm wrench until the hole in the back of the fan clutch aligns with a little groove formed by two ridges cast into the bearing bracket, then you slip the end of the tool into the hole so that the ridges hold the tool in place and lock the pulley in place. Having the new bearing bracket is a huge help because you can just look and see how it works to slip the wire tool into the groove and through the hole to lock the assembly.

Once its locked, you just unscrew the 8mm center bolt and off comes the fan and clutch and you can see what you're in for.

To to the rest of the job and get that fan bearing bracket off, you'll have pull the radiator and remove the three pulleys on the front of the motor (the one where the fan was, the convex one on the power steering pump, and one other). Then you have to pull the hot water return line that is screwed to the timing cover. Then you have to move the big three legged spider shaped bracket out of the way. I think I was able to just loosen the big middle bolt, and then remove the bolts on the three ends of the legs and swivel the three legged spider out of the way. It is *crucial* on reassembly that when you put the bolt back through the hole on the longest leg of the spider (goes through the timing cover) that you dab some sealant on the front and rear of the hole in the bracket.

I think once the spider is out of the way, that you can clearly see the bolts holding the bracket in place. The only other things you might need to fiddle with to get the bracket clear are to loosen some bolts and swivel the power steering pump a bit, and I think unbolt and move the TDC sensor.

It isn't a horrible job. I think I paid $179 for my new bracket.