Two thoughts. One a bit late but maybe for next time. They sell an oddball socket doodad for removing wheel locks when one has lost the "key" socket. Don't know about sizes but I wonder if you could have used something like that to remove the bolt with the damaged head? It is sort of like the "grabit" things for removing screws with damaged phillips sockets etc. Put it on an impact wrench and out comes the bolt.
Second thought is whether you have considered having the flywheel resurfaced? Don't know if a machine shop can do the same for the pressure plate but probably. Most clutch kits won't be guaranteed if you don't resurface the flywheel etc. Sort of like turning brake drums or rotors to get rid of the glazing. Easier to do now than when you have to pull the engine and tranny again to get to it. Randy -----Original Message----- From: mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com]on Behalf Of OK Don Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 7:53 PM To: Mercedes Discussion List Subject: Re: [MBZ] Epic double tranny swap/conversion week We decided to pull the engine/tranny combo rather than continue to fight it in place. It took a 24oz. hammer to get the 6 point socket onto the buggered bolt. We would not have been able to do that in the car. This engine/car seems to have double the wires and vacuum tube that a 123/61x car does. The worst is the harness for the AC - it comes from the firewall forward between the oil filter canister and the fuel heater, goes down, then turns 90 degrees to run towards the from of the engine between the block and the IP, exits at the front of the IP with a 90 degree turn towards the 9cars) left fender, then splits itno three or four sections. The 3 or 4 sets of wires are in a plastic shealth, that is still flexible at the firewall, but the rest of it is now stiff and brittle. It had to be broken in at least three places to get these wires off of the engine so we could pull the engine out. The resoult however, is that we have connection labels on 25 items for re-assembly, the engine and tranny are out of the gold car and seperated. We found that the pilot bearing in the end of the crank fell apart - the inner race came out with a little finger pull, the ballsthen fell out. However, the outrace (inside the crank), was tight! Ended up buying a 3 jaw pilot bearing puller ( http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=4876) at harbor frieght, had to grind down the ends of the jaws to allow them to grab the bushing sleeve behind the bearing, then it pulled the bushing (spacer ring) and bearing outer race right out. It was a good investment of $17.00. The faces of the flywheel and pressure plate are nice and smooth. The clutch disk is worn to within approx. .010-.015" of the rivets on one side, so I'm glad we ordered a new disk, in case we needed it. The old disk has the MB star stamped on it, the new one is Saches. The car has over 175,000 miles (when the odometer and speedo stoped working). If this was the original clutch disk, I'm impressed at how long it lasted. Tomorrow we'll pull the engine/auto tranny from the blue car - hope we're faster on this one! -- OK Don _______________________________________ 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