I replaced the badly worn belt tensioner lever (and pulley) on the '90 300D 2.5. last Wed. (beautiful day - 65F, sunny). The bolt that holds the assembly to front of the timing case is supposed to be torqued to 100NM, about 74Lb/Ft. I don't know how far I got, but as I was tightening it, it reached a point where it felt like the pressure was constant, and the bolt was still turning. It was very similar to the felling you get from a bolt that is about to strip out the treads. Since this is screwing into the aluminum case, I stopped. The bolt does have a copious quantitiy of blue locktite (after cleaning the threads), so I'm going to watch it and see if it stays in place. I vagely remember a similar experience when I replaced the same part on the SDL.
Anyone else have this experience? Were the bearings just getting pressed into place, or are the threads really in danger of stripping? -- OK Don, KD5NRO Norman, OK '90 300D, '87 300SDL, '81 240D, '78 450SLC The FSM created the Diesel Benz http://www.venganza.org/
