Sean,
I clearly said earlier that my experience is with the 3 speed, I have been into 3 of them, not one. Read carefully next time.

As far as bushing goes, the picture I posted is from WSM for the 4 speed, it says bearing sleeve, doesn't say anything about roller bearing. Its possible that the later 4 speeds have roller bearing instead of the bushings.

Bill did you see a roller bearing when you took out the main seal for replacement?
If there was a roller bearing, it would have been easier to detect than just a bushing.

 

Bill, I'll be leaving here about 9AM. If you wanna catch a ride let me know.

 

Oh, yes, the roller bearing was visible underneath the seal even before it was removed. Is that where both bushings are in the 3-speed?

 

Charley, I'm headed up with Jim earlier. We will be on the track starting at 10:30, I believe. Expect the first few hours of the "race" to be very slow, like parade laps, due to so many cars and the relatively narrow track at Infineon.

 

Bill,

I know how you feel. I will trade you the 85 with the bolt in the engine that is still sitting apart for your tranny problems. Let me know if I can help.

 

There is one bushing behind the main seal, on the 3 speeds, exactly like the 4-speed pump pictured in WSM (same picture I posted 3 pages ago, also posted as the last picture on this reply).

The second bushing is in the small gear, for the 3 speeds. From WSM S4 doesn't have this second bushing. So, if S4 has any bushings at all, it will be only one, and that should be behind the main seal, again like pictured in WSM, but now your saying there was a roller bearing, depicted on the actual Mercedes manual.

*The First picture below is from a 3-speed assembly, you can see the 2 bushings marked with a red arrow.

*The Second or Last picture is for a 4 speed, bushing marked with black arrow, Look at the assembly on the left, similar to yours, a 4-speed.

 

When you go through this again please post pictures of the roller bearing behind the main seal.

 

UPDATE 10/29/11:

I took the tranny out while leaving the car on the 4-post lift. Although this made some things much easier, not having to lie on cold concrete, over all it's a bad idea. Better to do it on flat ground with tall jackstands or a 2-post lift. Too much trouble to explain why it's a bad idea, but it presents a number of challenges unless you have a real tall tranny jack and more headroom than I have with my 8' ceiling. I removed the rear suspension with the tranny suspended by some tie downs hung on the swaybar and gradually lowered the tranny to about ramp level with a jack and left it suspended there with the tie downs. The I lowered the lift until the tranny rested on a 17" high motorcycle jack, pulled the tranny back with the jack so the front of TT cleared the bellhousing, then raised the lift back up high and rolled the tranny completely out. Sorry, no pics of the process - just the end result.

 

Bill,

Harbor Frieght makes a number of different transmission jacks. I use one of the lower ones for removing the transmission. Maybe some one should engineer a cross member that is split so the trans can be removed with the suspension in the car. It should not be that hard. There is a split front cross member.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1100-lb...ack-33615.html

This one looks top heavy. For what it is worth I would have done the same thing you did.

 

Seeing this thread makes me want to do my torque converter carrier bearings to cure that shrieking sound from the back of the car that echoes through the TT. I hope to have a Max Jax later on when I take this task on.

 

Dan: The problem for me with tall tranny jacks, like the one you linked from HF, is that I cannot get my lift high enough due to my low ceiling or those jacks low enough for the tranny to clear the lift ramps or the lift crossmember that spans them. The ramps are in the way for a lot of this procedure. A 2-post lift would not have any such obstructions. In theory, if you had the rear of the car on very high jackstands and rigged a floor panel spanning the ramps, you could do this as if the ramps and that floor panel were the ground and use short jacks to remove everything. My low ceiling prevents me from getting the car on very high jackstands unless it's essentially on the ground. Someone more clever than I am might come up with some more workable method with a 4-poster and limited height. I got it out, but it wasn't as easy as doing it on the ground with tall jackstands.

 

Bill,

Jack stands are always dicey at best. Let me know if you need a hand if you decide to tear the thing down.

 

Thank you, Dan.

 

Stan,
I am at this point now. I cannot seperate the pump to get to the O ring. I tried removing the snap ring and gently hitting the shaft to seperate but nothing moving. I see they talk of bolts in the WSM but I believe they are inside the pump. Do I need to use a press to remove housing to replace O ring?
Thomas

 

Thomas,

I beleive there are a couple of threaded holes that you can use to attach a slide hammer. I was able to get mine out without much trouble.