W116 - front cross member question
 

1979 300SD - I will be pulling the engine/tranny out of it over the next week or so and got to looking around underneath the car. It has a pretty substantial cross member underneath the rear area of the engine which has to come out to remove the engine/tranny. It looks like one of the fasteners that holds it in also secures the lower control arm rear most position. Is there any problem with the front springs getting away from me when I remove this cross member?
thanks

Never done it myself, but I would certainly act as if that were the case.... are you sure you have to remove it to get the engine out?

If you are planning on putting a different engine in there or putting the engine elsewhere a good something for you to keep in mind.... The arms that bolt to the block and are what the engine mounts bolt too are angled differently on the other chassis. The PO of my white '79 300SD found this out apparantly after he lost access to the old ones.... if you don't use the old ones the tranny will sit too far forward and will interfere with the cross member. The PO's "solution" was to cut across the whole top of the bar squish it down, and weld it 'closed' again.

I found all this out when the above welded subframe broke in half.... talk about strange symptoms while it was cracked!!!

G'luck with it!

John
'79 300SD (2)

I have only worked on W123's, but find it unusual that any structural component would need to be removed in the R&R of any engine / trans combination.
On the W123, the engine mounts and the transmission mount were the only major items to be removed.
There were, of course, the usual vacuum lines, fuel lines, electrical connections and plumbing to be disconnected before the R&R commenced.
BTW, you are lifting the engine from the car, and not lifting the car off the engine / trans combination?

Lifting the engine/tranny from the car. You do have to remove the cross member on the W126 to do this procedure and I'm sure this one will have to come out too. Just not too sure about where the rear suspension section is bolted up on it. I'll try to get some shots of it later.

Just looked it up in the Chilton's I have, says it comes out. Doesn't say anything about springs, though.

Peter

Thanks Peter - I just wanted to confirm that I am not going to have to mess with the springs.

I pulled the engine and trans together from a 116 car and did not take the front cross member out. The trans cross member was removed. You need an angle type hoist to tilt the engine/trans so it will come out. The radiator has to come out but not the condenser.

Pulling the engine/trans together is the way the shop manual outlines.

Hope this helps!

It doesn't have to come out...
 

I'll second what JDblann said. I have removed the engine/tranny (1980 300SD) assembly from a 116, and only had to remove the tranny crossmember. I had the radiator and condenser out, but as he said, the condenser probably doesn't have to go. I had an "engine tilter", which is highly recommended for any engine hoisting. Forget about the chains, screwdrivers, and muscling the engine around. Spend $30 for the tilter, and pull it on out.

SteveM.

Re-read the instructions, which are NOT clear, and it's the tranny crossmember that comes off, like usual.

Probably a tight fit, watch that you don't drive the crank pulley into the condensor, as someone did on my brother's 300D! THAT was a sqeaker, had fits getting the chain off the rear of the engine from lack of room -- bout half an inch between head and firewall...

Peter

I guess the proper term of it is the tranny cross member. It is the one near the rear of the engine and is bolted in.
thanks

Jim:

The engine won't tilt far enough with the tranny support crossmember in place, the output shaft hangs in it.

Watch the steering damper -- we snagged that on the 300D too. The bell housing catches nicely!.

Peter

You guys seem a bit confused. There is a frame stiffener that runs underneath the engine in front of the tranny, but neither the tranny or the engine are hooked to it. There is a standard tranny cross member at the back of the tranny held by 4 bolts on my W116. The four bolts hook to the frame. Two more hook to the rubber tranny mount. The tranny cross member has to come out. When I pulled my engine out, I never even noticed the frame stiffener. The motor and tranny came right out over it with out hanging up on it in any way.

That all happened about 5 hours ago. I did have one advantage that you probably won't have. It was a parts car so I whacked the radiator support and jerked the condensor.

I imagine that the piece I am talking about then is the frame stiffener. I'll find out over the next couple weeks if it has to be removed to pull the engine/tranny together.

Actually, I'm not sure what it is. It connects from one side of the frame to the other and has some big rubber bushings at each end, but it doesn't connect to the engine or the transmission and didn't interfere with my engine/tranny extraction. It might be some different kind of sway bar.