Betty’s First Operation

I finally had some time this weekend to work on one of the oil burners. My goal was to change out the motor mounts and get the vacuum pump off so I can find the correct rebuild kit for it.

Removal of the air cleaner revealed the tiny turbo, plus some sort of repair job you would expect to see done to some farm equipment. Instead of replacing the rubber mounts, someone welded up some 1″ square tubing, drilled and tapped the holes, and mounted to air cleaner housing without any vibration dampening. They didn’t bother to paint it, so it is a nice rust color. Also notice the neon tie wraps used instead of clamps.

Interesting to see that the A/C compressor has a General Motors label on it. Makes me wonder if this is a retrofit. Looks like it is still set up for R-12. Maybe those few cans I’ve been hoarding all these years will be useful.

I jacked up the engine. (Mercedes says it’s OK to use the oil pan as a jack point, as long as you use a piece of wood)

The right side came out pretty easily. Notice the difference between the old one and the new one.

The left side was a pain. One of the up-ward facing bolts was situated directly under the engine. Once I removed the shock absorber (hey, this is a Mercedes, even the engine gets a set of shocks) and jacked the engine way up, I was finally able to get the last bolt out. Notice how worn this mount was. There was metal-on-metal contact with the chassis.

The worn mount caused the metal of the chassis to tear…. If I had a welder I would have patched it back up, but I didn’t want to stop, and figured the weight of the engine would be back in a place that was strong, so maybe this would be OK to leave as is.

Next I removed the vacuum pump. This bent-over position is where I stayed for about an hour trying to get the last bolt off, my back is already killing me. The bolt on the bottom was impossible to get to, and was filled with dirt and oil… so my hex socket wouldn’t get inside it.

Here is the roller-rocker arm mechanism that the pump rides on. I see a chain in there… wonder when that is supposed to be changed?

I had to move the power steering pump out of the way to get down to the vacuum pump.

I also found the gasket inside the intake tube to be pinched. I’m sure boost air was leaking out, but I hope not too much dirty air was let it.

OK, now on to some parts searching… Hopefully I’m a little closer to having Betty running good.