Need picture and info for power steering bracketry on 220D, and oil passageway

[New2MBZ]

In a "you help me out, I'll help you out" kind of arrangement, I am finding myself working on the power steering pump bracketry on a 1969 220D. The owner doesn't know much about it, and the person who pulled things apart just left it and was never seen again. Originally the owner mentioned a broken bolt or something. He also said that 220's didn't come with power steering and this one was from a 240. Well, he was wrong about no PS on 220's, as the online catalogs list pumps and seal kits. He also mentioned a leak.

So I took a look at this car. The car had been sitting since December so there were no fresh fluids from leaks to be found. I see some oil around but no steering fluid. I checked PS reservoir to make sure it actually had steering fluid in it and it did. The pump was hanging there by the hoses, with a big bracket still attached, but not bolted to the engine. How that bracket attached to the engine was a mystery too, as the bracket is heavy and the mounting tabs are tiny.

I wanted to hear the car run to make sure it even does that before I work on this thing, so he starts the car and it rattles a lot more than his 300D's do, but it runs ok I guess. Then I see oil in the area of the cooler so I have him shut it down. I figure the cooler is bad or maybe a hose but can't see much and there is oil all over.

At this point I was thinking I have two problems (besides being stupid enough to be working on this at all). The original steering problem and now an oil leak that I can't determine. I had already replaced missing starter bolts in a 300D and got it going, so I called it a day.

I went home and did some searching here and after reading, I figure the oil cooler is leaking. It seems they aren't that commonly found, and the parts places I look at online don't have them. So I communicate this and I'm off to the car for another look.

I unbolted the massive bracket that just about surrounds the power steering pump, and removed it from the car. I can see a tab at the top where a bolt goes through is broken off, but it looks like it's been that way a long while.

I cleaned everything up, removed the fan and shroud, and put the bolts with washers back into the water pump pulley so I can start the engine and see where the leak is from. I had him start the engine, and see the oil is coming from a bolt hole on the left side of the engine (my right side when underhood).

So I ask if there are more parts maybe that were removed by the previous person working on the car? Out comes some more parts, from the trunk.
Among them I find a copper washer, but no banjo lines or anything like that, so to move the car to the driveway to work on it, I just found a short 8mm bolt, a washer and that copper washer and sealed the hole the oil came from. But I need to know what is supposed to go there. I didn't look so closely, but I'm hoping that hole I sealed isn't also used for the power steering pump bracket mounting? That would be crazy! The oil line with banjo fittings on each end that connects the block and the head is in place
on the other side and I don't see a reason for this passageways existence.

I'm sure plenty of you know that answer, so I ask. Anyone know what, if anything connects to an oil passage on the front of the block, towards the left (U.S. drivers side) of the engine?

Also I am trying to figure out these brackets.

Right away I figure out the large U shaped bracket bolts to the front of the engine on both sides, and down in the oil pan rail area. The side of that bracket bolts to the heavy bracket that the pump sits in. The top mounting hole of the pump bracket is missing the tab where the bolt passes through. It looks like it broke off but it wasn't much, and I'm thinking I can use it anyway, with a thick washer ground to fit there.

The U shaped bracket, ( really more like this: \__/ ), has holes at the bottom that match with a another small piece that looks like it bolts to that to form a rectangular hole that I can only figure might have a rubber support that goes there. There is short, heavy bracket with a small rubber block on the end but I can't see where it fits into this whole puzzle.

I either need to find a picture of how this is all supposed to look, or go to pull your part type wrecking yards until I find a car complete enough to help me figure this out. I wondering if anyone has, or can tell me where to look to find a picture of this whole bracket arrangement?

It's taken a while just to describe this mess, so I thank you in advance for any information anyone can point me to.

[300SDog]

You can find a general pic here: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=100491&page=1 The car is labeled a 240, but it looks more like a 615/220 engine.

I believe power steering was an available option on those early 115's..... My 1973 MB glovebox parts catalogue shows the PS pump and its hoses in the section with sunroofs, seatbelts and options.

On weird vacant oil access holes on the block and cylinder head(?) you will probably also see a plugged hole for a distributor, making me think that 4 cylinder engine blocks could have gone either way, diesel or gasoline, at one point of their manufacture.

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Last edited by 300SDog; 08-11-2004 at 10:22 PM.

[New2MBZ]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'm going to have to take a trip to some wrecking yards, and hope I can find one of these that isn't too stripped, because what I need to see is the front of the engine, and the brackets up close. Unfortunately, I don't even know if the bracketry was removed to remove a bad pump, or if the wear I see from things being loose is the reason. So I could get it all back together and find the pump is bad too.

From what you are saying about the possible universal nature of the block, I guess plugging the hole as I have done is ok. I just didn't want to find out later that something was supposed to be getting oiled from that hole.

I was informed yesterday, that this undriveable car, and another one, has resulted in the owner getting notice from the city. I guess I'll have to take a run to a few wrecking yards and see what I can figure out, and get this going with whatever I can find.

[300SDog]

What.... nobody is allowed to keep project cars in the yards or on the streets at San Diego?

Just to get the 115 running again, you could unbolt the oil cooler hoses at their source (oil filter mounting?) and plug the holes with short bolts of identical thread. Otherwise regarding your junkyard search - Knowing MB, the 123 oil cooler system should bolt on as replacement with little adaptation. Have heard that Euro 240D model 123's have no oil cooler at all, so it's not exactly a critical part. Only caution is if the 115 oil cooler connects to the injector pump casing somehow which might suffer lack of lubrication if you bypass the OC system.

And if you've got a time limit on this deal and just want to get it home, bungie cording the disconnected PS pump out of the way should enable the car to still be driven... but ask a professional independent MB mechanic first in case i am wrong and internal gearbox components might get damaged, but i dont see how.

Good luck with this revival project. I've seen some amazing success stories along these lines.

[New2MBZ]

Nope. Cars can sit on streets a maximum of 72 hrs, if they are in running, driveable condition. No working on cars in the street is allowed anymore, and even having non-driveable cars sitting on one's property can be a problem, if someone reports it. Real estate agents report those kinds of things, as do landlords because of the potential drop in desirability of the area when a house looks like a car lot. Living in California is a pain these days, because of all the rules and everyone is worried about what everyone else is doing.

When I was a kid through young adult, there were guys building race cars, street cars, motorcycles all over the neighborhoods near me. I miss those days.

As for this 220D, I'm not trying to get it home. I'm just working at getting this going so he can sell it, I guess.

The oil leak I stopped by sealing the hole in the front of the block, with a hex head bolt, flat washer and a copper washer under the flat washer. I was just wondering why I was having to seal a hole.

I don't know if the power steering pump works. It could very well just be the bracketry not allowing the pump to do it's thing, but unfortunately I'm not the one who took it apart so I have to guess. Seeing that one bracket has a broken mount tab and others have been rattling around because I can see the wear on the bolts, I am working on the brackets first and seeing what that gets me. I'm going to a pull your own parts place or two, tomorrow.