I read the old thread where Gilly walked me thru this situation. From reading it I would say that the sleeve comes off with the torsion bar. Unfortunately, without the picture I don't know for sure and I don't remember. If that was the case then I put the chisel of the air hammer on the large hex sleeve and had at it. I did come right off.

I'd go with what Gilly said, I've only done the job once and I'm not a professional mechanic.

Thanks, Ron. Gilly, would you please reconfirm that I should be concentrating (pounding) strictly on the hex piece. I'll get back to it tomorrow. My SO needs the truck tonight - she doesn't drive stick...

Here is something else I found from a friend whose relative is a tech at a local MB dealer. They release the adjustment end of the torsion bar, and then one person hangs on the bar (literally!), while the other extricates the exhaust through an opening. Tech said they do that 'cause it is too much of a hassle to pull the bar out. He also said on a V8, front driveshaft may have to be dropped as well. Urgh! I hope it is only because they do not bother to take the torsion bar completely out.

I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures for posterity when I take the bar off. I also plan on writing up a DIY in all the excrutiating detail.

Thanks to all again for the help.

Yes, on the edge of the hex piece. I don't think that bar has any clearance to slide back but I could be wrong. I know I've never taken the "lever" piece at the rear of the bar off the bar itself, that stays on the bar. I do take back what I said about hammering the hex shaped tube piece all the way back until it's on the round part of the bar, you actually just hammer it back until it's back far enough to come off the hex profile piece on the rear of the control arm (just back far enough to remove the bar in other words). It shouldn't prove all that difficult to remove. When the bar is installed in the truck it's the torsional pressure that keeps the hex-tube-connector thing from going anywhere. It needs a hammer and chisel sure, and an air hammer works great, but a hammer and chisel will move it without much trouble. It MIGHT be possible to slide the bar itself back out of the hex tube, I won't argue without the truck right in front of me, look and make your own judgement, but I've always pounded the tube backwards to free it from the control arm.
Gilly

__________________
Click here to see the items I have up for auction at EBay

Click here to see a photo album of my '62 Sprite Project Moneypit (Now Sold)

It's all over. Let the crying begin...

I'll write up a DIY later (sorry, could not take pictures), but here is what transpired last night and this morning:

Jacked up the truck. Took out the adjustment bolt and bottom plate. Fussed a little (okay, a lot) with the bar itself and then focused on the hexagonal sleeve.

Wacked the rear end of it a couple of times with a hammer and a chisel (yes, you will seriously mar the sleeve, but who cares?) and the sleeve started to slide out of the coupling and towards the rear. Yes - THE SLEEVE SLIDES OVER THE TORSION BAR. A couple more wacks and sleeve slid out of the coupling enough to expose its front edge. A couple more wacks (boy, that's a lot of wacking off - sorry, could not resist, it was a loooong night) with the chisel ON the front edge and sleeve slid all the way out and the bar came crushing down.

Think of this setup as a chinese finger puzzle - hexagonal ends of the lower control arm and the torsion bar are the fingers, and the sleeve is the puzzle itself. Once you release the tension, the puzzle slides fully over the torsion bar end and viola - it's off.

Since I do not have a lift, I could not extricate the cat out and had to drop the frame crossmember holding up the center differential. 6 bolts, no probs, except for the fact that diff slipped an inch when I took the first 2 bolts out and I had to scramble for a jack to hold it up in place. So beware, if you do not want to damage that very expensive looking piece of hardware, hold it up BEFORE attempting to take the frame crossmember off. With the crossmember out of the way, cat came right out.

With buttoned down exhaust back and secure and frame crossmember bolted on, I retired for the night expecting a major battle with the torsion bar in the morning...

Wrong! I lathered up hex parts of the bar, arm and the inside of the sleeve with lithium grease and they all came together like a champ. I used a block'o'wood to hammer the sleeve as far as it would go into the coupling and reassembled the back end of the torsion bar. Put the heat shield and the wheelwell shroud back on, dropped the truck, test drove it, cleaned and put away all the tools - all in about 1 hour!

Bottom line - if you know what to expect, have all the right tools, and do not have any problems with fit and finish of replacement parts, the entire cat replacement procedure should take no more then 2 hours. Less if you have access to a lift and air tools.

As for the old cat - I will take pictures of it and will post it all over the web, as well as send it to CEO of MBUSA and CEO of DCC, and every other possible VP of the DCC I can locate, as well as NHTSA. By the time I got the cat out, it was open like a tomato can. The weld came right off and the top separated from the body. There is no way this type of failure can be caused by anything OTHER then TRULLY CRAPPY workmanship of Mercedes' part supplier. Mercedes knows about it, acknowledges it by issuing a recall bulletin, and yet CATEGORICALLY refused to replace mine (and others) - that is just plain wrong! I'll post a picture of the cat on this thread later today.

Phew...

as promissed...

You tell me - age or manufacturing defect?

Attached Thumbnails

   

Good job, Victor. It's pretty well known that a certain range of ML cats had bad welds. They're actually repairable by just re-tig-welding the bad joint from what I understand, so it may not have been necessary to buy a new one. I think I'm going to pay an indy shop to replace my cat if this happens to me given how much fun you had with it :-P

IM NOT SHOUTING DUDE U NEED TO CHILL OUT! NEXT TIME I WON'T GIVE MY INFO

When you do your entire posts in capital letters it is commonly referred to as "shouting". Lot's of people hate this. If you don't want to use the "shift" key to capitalize when appropriate, then just don't capitalize anything. I don't know if there is a name for doing that or not, maybe "mumbling"? Here's the difference, let me show you: THIS IS KNOWN AS SHOUTING. IT MAKES IT LOOK LIKE YOU ARE MAD OR UPSET, EVEN TOUGH I'M JUST TYPING ALONG LIKE BEFORE. But I'm not. See the difference? just leave the shift lock off and write like this instead, less angry people, there are enough already.
gilly

__________________
Click here to see the items I have up for auction at EBay

Click here to see a photo album of my '62 Sprite Project Moneypit (Now Sold)

Besides, your info was not entirely correct... So it would have been better if you indeed kept it to yourself - or at least off this thread.

It's Vitaly, Ken - Vitaly

I do indeed plan on welding the cat back and holding it for a spare - but only after I write a nastygram to Dr. Z. Other then the failed weld, piping on the old cat looks pretty good.

And Ken, after all said and done - once you know exactly what to look out for, this job is not that hard. All you need is a jackstand for the truck, another for the center diff, an assortment of metric sockets and a chisel and a hammer. Really... Look out for the DIY - I'll write one (okay, copy and paste) for the list as well.

Gilly, should I write the DIY on this thread? What's the procedure? Thanks.

I'll link this to Bill Wood and he'll contact you either on or off list.
Gilly

__________________
Click here to see the items I have up for auction at EBay

Click here to see a photo album of my '62 Sprite Project Moneypit (Now Sold)

...and here's the catalytic converter TSB from MBUSA which might help with your writeup, Vitaly. It was posted to Ken's list already a while back if I recall correctly.

http://www.whnet.com/4x4/pix/sc2005060014.pdf

__________________
W163.154, M112.942, 722.662, ZF.970.402

Thanks Wolfgang. I searched Ken's site for references while gathering info, but did not see it then - pity, as it would have saved me serious time. Looking at the pdf, however, I do remember seeing it on the list and your site... I just never read the ENTIRE bulletin - live and learn Interesting that SCB recommends removing front springs and I did not have to do that.

Oops..sorry...old age :-)

BTW, I did link to Wolfgang's PDF on my Outpost site...it's under Known Problems, then ML320 Catalytic Converter. Looking forwarding to adding a copy of your DIY to my site...I suspect others will be asking about it when theirs inevitably cracks :-P