Progress! I took a look at the nearly-frozen AC idler bearing, and removed it from the dogleg. I then cleaned it and carefully pried out the (hardened) rubber seal, exposing the dry bearing. A shot of brake cleaner loosened everything up, then I cleaned out the bearing and blew it dry with compressed air. I smeared in bearing grease, packing it down in, then I pushed the seal back into place. It won't seal too well anymore, but it'll extend the life of this considerably. (And I don't need to order anything or wait for it to get here.) It works pretty smoothly now.
I then removed the suspension pump from the engine. That takes a 17mm flare wrench to remove the high-pressure line, and a 17mm socket to remove the banjo bolt on the low. An Allen wrench removes the four long bolts from the face of the pump, liberating it. You need a 13mm socket to loosen the clamp on the high-pressure line, else you don't have enough slack to remove the pump. With the pump out you need to cork the high-pressure line else the suspension oil reservoir will empty onto the ground. I lost quite a bit of oil before I got this done. With the pump out you can remove the remaining two Allen bolts (the short ones) and pry the lid off the pump. The shaft and cam can then be pushed out from behind with your thumb. I cleaned everything with brake cleaner, it was very grimy. I took pains to keep the four pistons from getting dirty during this. The three old seals (of diverse sorts) can now be removed: scrape off the paper body seal (114 236 00 X0), chisel out the big O-ring body seal (010 997 43 45) being careful not to damage the channel or the face, and pry out the shaft seal (004 997 01 47). The big O-ring was very hard, I couldn't even tell that it had been an O-ring in the beginning, and was most likely the source of the leak. I then cleaned everything again and tapped the new shaft seal in gently with a hammer. The shaft may then be lubed and twisted back into place. (You need to gently pry the piston drive ring into place to let the cam go into it while you do this. With the shaft in place you can then pry again to slip the brass bushing between the drive collar and the cam, it doesn't really work to try to install it all in one shot.) Then I put the O-ring in the channel and bolted the cover back on with the two bolts. The trickiest part is getting the body of the pump installed back on the engine with the drive ears mating with the distributor drive while keeping the new paper seal in place. (You need to put the high-pressure line back on the pump first, though not tightened down yet.) That's not too difficult, though. I then bolted everything back down and reinstalled and tightened the hoses and their braces, then sprayed everything off again with cleaner. Done. Today's session was about 1-1/2 hours. The big O-ring keeps suspension oil from leaking out of the head of the pump. The shaft seal keeps it from leaking into the engine crankcase, and the paper seal keeps the engine oil (and any vagrant suspension oil) from leaking out behind the body of the pump. -- Jim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
