[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In a message dated 8/17/2005 7:18:03 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I've heard of the master link failure too. But only from people who
had the swaging tool for rent. Has anyone on this list ever
personally seen one fail? Or had personal witness to one failing?
Having installed three master link chains on 126 bodied 560's, I am
skeptical that they fail all that often.
Obviously if it fails it is catastrophic. But to fail, both clips
have to come out. If they are properly seated to start with, there
just isn't any reason they should come off.
Ken, and all,
I have never seen a link failure either, good point! I used clip on
master links on my first 3 diesel engine rebuilds, back in the 70's and
80's. Then again when I changed the chain at 150,000 on my current 79.
More recently, I had access to a crimping tool (thanks, Randy) and so
used that. I put over 100,000 miles on each of the first 4 with no
problems. Not to put down the crimping method, it was easy to get a
good, secure crimp, and I have over 20,000 miles on that rebuild, too.
Who can truly say that a clip on master caused a chain failure?
Regards,
Jim Friesen
Phoenix AZ
79 300SD, 261 K miles
98 ML 320, 137 K miles
I don't believe that the number of failed clips was especially high
(less than a few percent) over the life of the replacement chains (many
may well have been from improper installation), but Mercedes decided
that was WAY too many so they abolished the clip in the '80s. Clips
CAN'T fail if there are NO clips! The number of replacement chain
failures has decreased a lot according to a Mercedes factory field rep,
but that's the only confirmation I have. I've never seen it printed.
Marshall
--
Marshall Booth (who doesn't respond to unsigned questions)
"der Dieseling Doktor" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
'87 300TD 181Kmi,'87 190D 2.5 199Kmi, '84 190D 2.2 227Kmi, '85 190D 2.0
159Kmi, '87 190D 2.5 turbo 234kmi
Diesel Technical Advisor MBCA, member GWSection
http://www.dhc.net/~pmhack/mercedes/mbooth1.htm
