Two of the bolts you won't be able to get out with that tool, too wide. I've successfully jammed with a hammer an expendable 1/4 inch 9mm socket on them to get them out. It might work for the OP.

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

There are right angle and close quarters drills that can be used in tight spaces. I have one from Harbor Freight as I seldom use it, but it's done the job when necessary. Great for installs and driving self-tapping screws under the dash as well.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap

Harbor Freight also has a set of left handed drill bits for not much money. My water pump bolt was rusted so bad that the hole would have been tapped. Fortunately only 1 bolt was wouldn't come out.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Actually, I just remembered I have a right angle drill, like this:



That should work perfectly for getting in there.

Last night I thought about using a 9mm socket and pounding it on. I'm down to 2 bolts now, the 6 and 9 o'clock bolts are all that remain. My new gasket just arrived at the local MB Dealership, so I'm heading over to pick that up at lunch time.

Once I get this resolved, all that remains is motor mounts, e-brake adjusting, steering couplers, ball joints, new shocks, exhaust hangers, cruise control amp, tie rod ends.....

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I tried every darn thing I possibly could. I tried easy outs into the bolt heads, drilling them out and using an easy out (not enough access for the drill), using the bolt extractors linked above (one size too small, the next too large), etc.

I drilled out one of the bolt heads. Now I only had one bolt left. I spent about 6 hours on this bolt. Finally, I called it quits and just pulled the vacuum pump until it snapped off the area where the final bolt remained. I grabbed the Vice Locks, clamped them down, and got the stupid bolt out.

Good thing I already have a vacuum pump ready and waiting. I'm sad and frustrated it came to this, but whats done is done.

I'll post some photos tomorrow.

I don't know why Mercedes thought grade 8.8 bolts was sufficient. My new bolts are grade 12.9 (IIRC). This should prevent similar grief in the future.

One quick question, though: Both pumps (mine and the one from the junk yard) have RTV sealant on the gasket. Is this needed? I bought a new MB Gasket from the dealer. I'm not a big fan of RTV when it can be avoided.

Good move.

That gasket is very important - it provides the correct distance from the block to the pump.

Before you fit the pump push up against the timing device (quite hard) to see if you can detect any longitudinal movement. If it moves towards the IP (or away from the IP) you really need to break out the DTI to measure that end float / play...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I have good news and bad news:

First, the good: I got the pump back on!

Now, the bad news (and there is plenty of that): The pump is still only pulling about 15". Also, when I pulled my radiator out I noticed that the transmission fluid has a very odd color. I'm sure that the radiator has failed. Now I need to go pull one from a junkyard (dealer wants $450 for a new one). I also got the transmission filter and gasket and plan to drain and replace the filter.

It's always something...

And now the Transmission gasket the Mercedes dealer gave me is the wrong one. It's for a w201, not w126!

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1982 Mercedes 300SD (325k miles)
1986 Mercedes 560SEL (212k miles)
2006 VW Jetta TDI (215k miles)

That bites!

You can use RTV for the trans pan instead of waiting on the gasket. Gray or black RTV are my preferred flavors, blue just turns to goo. Get both surfaces CLEAN, I like carb cleaner for this. Lay down a bead, put the pan in place and just tighten the bolts enough to get an even 1/8" gap between the pan and trans, filled with RTV. Let cure overnight, then torque bolts the rest of the way.

I'll just wait. I'm headed to the dealership tomorrow to pick up my new vacuum pump check valve and some e-brake hardware. I think it's in stock.

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1982 Mercedes 300SD (325k miles)
1986 Mercedes 560SEL (212k miles)
2006 VW Jetta TDI (215k miles)

Went to the dealer today and got my check valve, e-brake stuff, and gasket. Everything is looking good.

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1982 Mercedes 300SD (325k miles)
1986 Mercedes 560SEL (212k miles)
2006 VW Jetta TDI (215k miles)

It's better (significantly) but not perfect.

The vacuum pump is now pulling about 19". I did a bit more looking and discovered there's a leak in the climate control on specific settings. I'll have to dig into this and try to get it figured out.

Where's the best place to purchase vacuum connectors?

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1982 Mercedes 300SD (325k miles)
1986 Mercedes 560SEL (212k miles)
2006 VW Jetta TDI (215k miles)

where are you measuring the vacuum from? to test your pump you should remove the brake booster hardline and be testing right from the check valve on top of the VP

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1981 NA 300D 310k miles

I was checking at the end of the hard line, going from the vacuum pump to the start of the black line. Theres a disconnecter there that I am testing it at.

I've got a bit of a strange issue I wanted to confirm with everyone here.

I found my vacuum leak in the climate control (just a disconnected hose, taken care of and the engine shuts off properly now).

While I was testing this, I noticed some odd behavior on the check valve in the brake booster line.

Mine has three outlets (not including the one going to the brake booster). One up top for the lock system and two on bottom. The one on bottom toward the front of the car seems to be working correctly. I get great vacuum from it.

The one towards the rear of the car (also has a small white strip on it) seems to draw very little vacuum. It takes 30 seconds or so to get 20" pulled on it. I'm guessing that my check valve is bad and that I should see the vacuum get to 20" in a couple seconds, not 30+?

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1982 Mercedes 300SD (325k miles)
1986 Mercedes 560SEL (212k miles)
2006 VW Jetta TDI (215k miles)