Disconnected the shifter, control rod, dipstick all fluid lines last night. I also drained the transmission since on this old style the dipstick attaches to the bottom of the pan with a banjo bolt.

So this happened today. Thanks Hanno for letting me borrow the transmission jack!

I had a minor issue getting the transmission mount off. The captive nuts on two of the bolts broke off and I had to grind the bolt heads off but otherwise no issues at all.

Hard parts over!

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Now all I need to do is order all new clutch parts. I'm hoping for a black friday/cyber monday sale at one of the fine MB parts suppliers

The old clutch looked like it had some life left but I really only want to do this once so I'm getting everything new.

Ran into a massive problem today. Two of the flex plate bolts are rounded off. No idea how to proceed. I have already tried to use a bolt out with no success. I'm nearly ready to pull the motor and use the parts car engine.

Well I dodged two bullets tonight. I found a thread from R Leo when he did his 4 speed swap and he ran into the exact same problem and he had to grind off the bolt heads to get the flex disk off.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/88699-auto-manual-transmission-conversion-has-begun.html

See post 36.

Nice that they are stretch torque, once you cut the head off the bolt loses the torque surface and comes right out by hand as you obviously discovered.

Ive had to grind off quite a few of the SOBs as well. The manual flywheel bolts with twice the tool depth will be a pleasure to install

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Aren't all bolts that way ?

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=10414

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=156207&highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

not in the way the flywheel bolts are if they were installed to their torque value. Ive broken off plenty of heads on regular bolts ive then had to drill and try and remove with an easy out cause the sucker was still plenty tight on the threads alone.

The auto flywheel bolts have that narrow distinctive stretch neck and are i think a one or two time use compared to a regular bolt. If you cut the head off, they are finger tight and the rest of the bolt can be unscrewed easily.

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Can you be a little more specific.... like the physics you claiming...?
I think the difference you are attributing the difference in removing effort of other bolts after their heads are taken off is due to intervening variables such as percent of thread contact and corrosion .....
Not a difference in the basic concept of the threads pulling against the bottom of the bolt head to produce what we think of as torque and hope that it translates to pull down on the item needing to be held.

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=10414

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=156207&highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

For others later on... sometimes you can not get a grinder to a rounded off bolt head... but sometimes you can place a drilled out nut over it....and use ' alloy rod' to weld it to the bolt head... to then give you something to use a socket on....it also helps that welding heats the bolt... let it cool before addressing it.

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1980 240d ,

chain elongation, cam marks reference:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=10414

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/305365-9-degrees-chain-stretch.html

evap fin cleaning:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=156207&highlight=evaporator

A/C thread

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/297462-c-recommendations-mb-vehicles.html

Edit: oops. I got my threads mixed up. Oh well I'll leave it.

I had two sets and was able reuse my flywheel bolts on my manual. The FSM gives specs for neck diameter. I went through my two sets and found enough that were still within tolerance. Judging that the ones that came off we're all different, someone didn't do it right.

I went through an ungodly amount of research on torque settings. I didn't want to stretch a used bolt too much. Turns out about 85 ft/lbs is equivalent to the stretch specs. No pun intended.

I've read they can match balance the auto to the flywheel. I'm no expert.

I believe the 240's and 300's are balanced differently? But I'm still learning. Is this what contributed to the lack of problems on a 240 flywheel.

I suspect the difference in results and opinions is due to the abilities of the machine shop. What I don't understand is although they are match balanced on a slow moving machine, how do they know how far out the balance is in respect to the radii.

Not exact figures as I don't want to break out a calculator. But say 5 grams taken off 2" inches from center and 7 grams off 4" from center will show the same balance.

Maybe that's where it goes wrong with a "match" balanced 28 lb flywheel?

I stopped by a Mercedes Indy shop across from the gym I go to this afternoon so I could inquire about match balancing the manual flywheel to the auto flex disk and the guy swears it isn't needed. Seeing that he had about 30 MB's ranging from the /8 up to the W210 and spoke in a very thick German accent I'm almost inclined to believe him but wanted to see what everyone else thought. He said on all of the conversions he has done he simply resurfaced the flywheel and put it on.

I wouldnt bother for a 616, just neutral balance if needed and resurfacing

617 different story

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All my parts have arrived so I am now in the re-assembly process. I found a machine shop that checked the balance on the flex plate and found it was neutral along with the flywheel which I had resurfaced. Total cost for that was $85 which I thought was reasonable. So far I have the pilot bearing in, swapped over the engine adapter and installed the pedals.