1984 W201 with 2.5 engine and bad clutch
 

I did an engine swap on a 1984 w201. I put a 2.5 from a 1987 into it. The car came with a manual transmission.

When I had it all apart it all looked to be in great shape. I had the flywheel cleaned up at a machine shop and put it all back together.

Now it seems that the clutch pressure plate is screwed. If I put the car in gear and try to start it (with the clutch pedal pressed to the floor) - it is obvious that the clutch is not disengaging. The entire car moves.

I actually have another flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch from a 1985 manual a gas model. (and the transmission)

Can I use the pressure plate and clutch from the gas model to get replacement parts for the diesel model. I am not saying I want to reuse them - I am going to pay someone to put it all in there this time. I just need to know what parts to get. If I do a search for clutch kit for a 1984 2.2 or 1987 2.5 190D I cannot find anything. I can only find the gas clutch kits.

Stuff that it would have been good to know at the time:
Distance from the transmission mating surface to flywheel surface for new and old engines.

Whether or not it was close to the same when 2.5 was built up w/ new flywheel.

How much did the machinist take off. Was this within limits for the FW?

Seat work:
Does it start in neutral?
You should be able to feel the resistance of the clutch in the pedal and hear the slave hitting the yoke. Do you?

Book work:
Can you find documentation showing nominal relationship to the mating surface and FW for the different motors?

Is the FW the same for both?

Wrench work:
Is the clutch bled and working?
Pull the slave and see if it generates motion and force when you step on the clutch.
Shine a light in and check to see if the yoke is in the right place.
Reassemble, recheck.

Sorry I just saw your response.

I was worried about any amount being removed from the flywheel when I took it in so I just wanted a surface cleaning and told them not to remove material.

Everything I had read implied that moving the flywheel over to the other engine should not be an issue. I did not measure the spacing (granted in hind sight that would have been a good thing to do).

The car runs great in Neutral and for the first few drives did not really exhibit this issue. It seems to have gotten worse in a very short time.
At this point you can only start the car in Neutral. If you start it in Gear even with the clutch pedal floored it will lunge.


Wrench work:
Is the clutch bled and working? - it was when first put back together.
Pull the slave and see if it generates motion and force when you step on the clutch. - this is what will happen this weekend I hope.
Shine a light in and check to see if the yoke is in the right place.
Reassemble, recheck. - Part of this weekends work I hope.

As far as I can tell it should be one of these 2 clutch kits:
SACHS CLUTCH KIT|SACHS CLUTCH KITS|CLUTCH KITS UK|3000317001
SACHS CLUTCH KIT|SACHS CLUTCH KITS|CLUTCH KITS UK|3000089001

This is another one that I found but cannot get measurements on:
CLUTCH SET - OM601, 602, 615, 617, M102 MERCEDES / LUK A0042503204 , 122004511 0012504304 0032504304 0032504404 0042500104 0042500404 0042503204 0042505304 A0012504304 A0032504304 A0032504404 A0042500104 A0042500404 A0042503204 A0042505304 A004250530

A tip on the flywheel resurfacing:

There is NO issue with removing material from the clutch face of the flywheel AS LONG AS THE SAME AMOUNT IS REMOVED FROM THE PRESSURE PLATE STEP! Sorry for shouting but this is a BIG DEAL and many shops don't know this. This maintains the distance from the PP to the flywheel face, which is the space in which the friction disc works.

You can do a check on this thusly:

1) Before reinstalling the trans, measure and record the thickness of the friction disc.

2) Install the friction disc and the PP (holding the friction disc in position with the installation tool) and install the PP bolts until they JUST hold the friction disc.

3) Measure the distance from the "feet" of the PP to the flywheel. This needs to be pretty close to 1/2 the thickness of the friction disc. This measurement can be taken with a set of feeler gages.

4) If it is not, you can either shim between the flywheel and the PP if the distance is too great or if its too small you'll have to have that step on the flywheel machined by the amount necessary to get the desired measurement.

This is new knowledge for me. I thought I had an issue with mine and finally got a tech guy at McLeod who clued me in on this. From now on I'll check this on all clutch installations.

Dan

If you have a soft pedal, if you don't feel the spring of the pressure plate, I'd replace the clutch master cylinder at least, if not both. I think it's like an old brake master cylinder, where the seal wears a step at the end of normal travel. If you go past this when bleeding it, it the step cuts the seal a bit, and after a few days, you can't develop working pressure. It took a few used MC's for me to see this myself.

I'd replace the master, slave and line. It's all cheap.