123 chassis 4-speed conversion parts available
 

Hello,
I hope it is OK to post a diesel specific item for sale here, mostly because it is such a particular sale and I have seen this topic discussed in this forum.

I have a 4-speed 240d transmission from my personal wrecked 240d. The car had 170k miles and the transmission performed flawlessly when the car died. The complete kit includes tranny, bellhousing pieces, flywheel and clutch, starter, reverse sensor, clutch master and slave cylinders, brake master, pedalset, shifter and shift rods, interior trim, driveshaft, transmission crossmember, and halfshafts with $120 new boots. If I am missing anything from the 240d I will include it.

All of these parts are in used condition and were working perfectly when I stopped driving the car. If you have been planning this conversion this would set you ahead pretty well. No buying and disposing of parts cars or junkyard wrenching. I am in San Francisco and will deliver the parts in Northern CA. I am asking $800 for the kit, delivered. Call Matt anytime at 650-347-1542. Sorry if this post is misplaced here and should be in the classifieds. Thanks.

don' forget the...
 

...ring and pinion so you can toy with gearing.

I would recommend getting the engine also so that there will be no imbalance problems. The flywheel is balanced along with the crankshaft and vibration dampener as a unit. Any mismatching will result in an imbalanced engine. Mercedes only started balancing individual components with the introduction of the Baby Benzes.

Well...., that's JUST dandy! First I'd heard this. Thought they were internally balanced? If not, then I'm f**ked! Just spent the last month doing this conversion and having a nightmare of a time with everything from the pilot bearing to the driveline. Now I find that I "should" have taken my 300D flywheel down and had the 240D flywheel balanced to match? After it's almost road worthy?

My assumption was that they were an internally balanced engine and that the individual external components were balanced separately. If this is NOT the case as you say, then this mod is a NON-mod for the 300D.

A person is truly better off rebuilding their auto or swapping in a junkyard auto tranny than trying to do this kind of hack job (that will cost MUCH more than any rebuilt auto trans!)

Let's look at reality here:

Cost of removing the engine, stripping it to crank and pistons, having the new components balanced with the new flywheel, re-assy (new parts needed there of course, gaskets, seals, etc.) Then the cost of all the parts to swap (tranny, driveline shortening/balancing, clutch parts, etc.).

I can already see $5-6k racked up here and that's NOT including labor (I'm out of work right now so labor is free!).

Rebuilt auto trans for the 300D: $1,200 + install.

For all those who claimed they had done this mod and it was a "direct" swap-in, what say ye regarding this externally balanced engine claim??

Don't get your panites in a wad!
 

Plenty of auto-to-manual conversions have performed by forum members w/o balancing and no adverse effects have been reported to date.

When installing the replacement flywheel, you do need to correctly orient the flywheel in respect to the factory applied witness marks that are found on both the crank end and flywheel.

Not as crazy as it seems!
 

Contrary to the doomsayers I have spoke to many people who have done the swap from 5 cylinder auto to 5 cylinder manual with little problems. First off I don't think that comparing the cost of a replacement automatic really relates, even though the costs for the doityeselfer is similar. The point of doing this swap is to have a manual transmission, an advantage which is priceless for some drivers.

Tom J, I would really not worry about the fact that the engine was originally ballanced as a lump. Try the setup, if there is any vibration, balance the new flywheel to match the balance of the old flywheel using the witness marks as a reference. Tearing the engine apart is totally impractical and by most accounts totally unecessary. The sources who I have talked with used 240d 4cylinder flywheels on 5 cylinder engines for many years. I guess that this has been a dream of Merc Diesel owners for some time. You will probably be very happy with having a much more controllable car in the end!

Anyway, if anybody is interested in the parts gimme a call and save yourself a few headaches getting all of the parts. That way you will have patience to spare doing the conversion.

Another plus for the conversion is the BIG boost in value of your car in the end. I personally would have paid quite a premium for a 4-speed wagon.

Matt Petty
650-347-1542

Re: Don't get your panites in a wad!
 

No witness marks that I found on either the stock flywheel OR the one from the 240D. Anyone have any idea what these witness marks look like?

Witness mark-flywheel
 

Here's the one on the flywheel; it was buried under 250,000 miles worth of clutch disk dust:

I don't have a shot of the crankshaft mark...I didn't have a digital camera then. This flywheel came from a 1980 240D. Maybe they didn't want any witnesses after pulling that stunt on your donor car, since they goofed up so bad by installing that 34mm pilot bearing. LOL
Close-up:

Fair price?
 

Hello,
I have a question for people out there who have done this conversion or priced it out; is my price in the right ballpark considering that I have taken care of all of the hassle with buying a parts car? $800 is less than what a local Merc wrecker would charge and my gear is known to be good. Lemme know what you all think. Thanks.

It seems a bit high to me. I paid $300 for the same stuff but, I had to pull it myself. Only took me about 2 hrs.


my .02

If THAT'S the "witness" mark, forget it! There are dings like that all the way around the circumference of BOTH of the flywheels I have, nothing that can be noted as intentionally made either. NOTHING on the crankshaft end!

Drove it today. No vibration and spins up to 5500 like a sewing machine. Doesn't mean it won't destroy the crank bearings in time, so I'll wait till I have time to pull the tranny again to see if I can find any intelligible "witness" marks.

Crossmember still touched the trans case under accelleration (machined the side out, but not enough I guess).