I lent the 1985 500se for about a week for him to give it some exercise. That seems to have backfired. It dumped all its transmission fluid, and he towed to to the warehouse Shop junkyard.
I knew the transmission had leaked in the past, but never like this. I thought maybe the old leaks were from sitting and might get better with use the way i think Ive seen many of these transmissions do before. Not the case here.
Later that evening:
This bro Got me back to this comment from Sellc a few days ago:
SELLC wrote:
There aren't many places that a transmission will leak on a Mercedes and usually it's in the cooler lines that they do start leaking, unless of course he screwed up the front seal when he put that SEC engine in the SEL.
i have yet to get under the car and determine if the transmission just blew a cooler liner or something. It seems to be coming from somewhere near the torque converter.
Id like to put a manual transmission in this car anyway. Of course even though Ive got the getrag 265, 350sl manual trans parts car, w126 pedals, etc, I still dont have a bell housing. It may be time for me to figure out this 5.0 m117 manual transmission thing. But if its just a cooler line, I can put that off.
In addition to it not being a very good day at work, some old lady smashed into a ton of cars on the street behind my house swerving back and forth so fast on the very wide one way street that I honestly thought she was a crazy mechanic from a local shop testing the suspension on this little hatchback car. She was having near misses on a ton of abjects driving up on the sidewalks, just grazing street signs and vehicles. It was crazy as it looked like the person actually had control of the car just missing a telephone pole by milimeters. I watched her almost hit that telephone pole with the stop sign. See way down there in the pic On the left side. I was lucky I wasnt hit myself, or the 560sel...
Then when the car jumped the curb and smashed into the yellow pole, rolling it over, I realized it wasnt a mechanic testing a cars suspension/steering. I dialed 911 and got the police on the scene in less than 3 minutes. The lady was half out the car window, and now that I think about it, I think it was some type of suicide attempt. She was alive when they got her into the ambulance, but apparently died in the ambulance. The way she was just nearly hitting so many items, but moving on to larger objects to hit faster seemed like she had too much control of the car to have any other explanation than maybe trying to drive herself to the hospital. But people apparently saw her get into her car at the other end of the street just 4 blocks away. Maybe 2 blocs.
Apparently she backed into the red car and ran up onto the curb. Then hammered the gas forward, turfing the grass in the Curbstrip. Then on the way out she hit this car...
But check out how far apart those two cars are...
Other bad things happened around here yesterday, but those were he two things that directly affect me the most. Nothing I can do about that lady, but I cant say I dont wonder if I should have done more to try and help that lady in the 180 seconds before the police arrived. Im sure it probably wouldnt have made a difference, but its obviously traumatic. Sucks. Some local kids also got into a bad accident yesterday. Bad day.
Today has been better though. Tomorrow will be better when I get a chance to look at that trans fluid leak.
Thats a pretty gruesome day... had to even let it cool a few days before I responded.
Probably would have been a good idea to check that trans more thoroughly prior to driving any further.. Was there any mention of trans leaks prior to purchase? I mean, Ive read where you knew it was leaking but just not any details on where its coming from. If its the front shaft bushing/bearing that was messed up when the used engibe was installed then Id guess the trans is pretty much toast since the front pump has to come off to fix.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Two different cars on the trans leak thing. The 1990 560sel isnt one I care about. This is my 1985 500se with AMG bits that was low on trans fluid when I bought it, pretty neglected overall. But with use, the transmission seemed to seal itself up until this. I had lent it to my friend, and asked him to keep an eye on the trans fluid, which he did. He said he noticed some very minor slipping and was driving with kid gloves the 1 mile to the gas station. He bought some $7/quart trans fluid there and poured it in. Apparently it still wasnt registering. So he bought a second quart and then watched it pour out. He borrowed my truck and dollied it down to the warehouse / Shop with the rear wheels up on the dolly to assure no additional damage was done to the transmission.
Im sure you guys all saw how the rest of the weekend was much worse for so many people. So calling my day bad turned out to be quite insensitive. Im fine. Others, not so much.
I havent found the time to get the car up in the air and try to track down the massive leak. Im still hoping for a bad trans cooler line.
Most folks hope for trans-cooler-lines to be the culprit for a leak. And often it is the problem, though you have to clean-up the mess first, only to make another one to locate the source lol !
Should it be the front-seal, & the trans has to come-out, you might as-well replace all the other seals too. A quick inspection of the pans contents first will tell you if it's even worth doing or not.
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Good call on the pan contents. My goal with this car is to put a getrag 265 in it. Of course I dont have the bell housing. I do have everything else though, well except for the BMW clutch and pressure plate. The flywheel from the 3.5 m116 manual is something weve got 3-4 of. And the w126 pedals, and the getrag 265 with various length shifters. And a spare 5.0 block to test fit stuff on.
If its just a cooler line, I will fix it and keep it on the road, but if the transmission itself is bad, I will be immediately, because the bell housing is not even close to resolved yet.
Try these guys out for your bell-housing...They make just about everything for any conversion, at least here in Oz...
It never hurts to message them & find stuff out, like possibly a more local source.
http://www.rodshop.com.au/
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"Only an alert & knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial & military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods & goals, so that security & liberty may prosper together". Dwight D.Eisenhower.
Thanks for the link Rastus! First I need to get the specs for what Im going to need. Mercmaster is tearing his w126 getrag 265 car apart right now, and I wonder if I could pay him to get a 3D scab of the bell made. The other option is to figure out on my own what needs to be made. Maybe sending the auto box and getrag 265 bells to a company along with the length needed. The professional welder I showed the bells to said his cooling equipment would not be able to cool fast enough to do such a big aluminum weld between the two parts. So Im guessing this would require someone who specializes in aluminum welding or just a fresh casting milled from some thing like a 3D scab or something. My dad used to own a machine shop, and I sure wish he still did. That work seems to have all gone to China though.
