The 280CE runs again
The 280CE finally has a new water pump and no longer leaves an embarrassing puddle where it sleeps.
After fighting with the bolts on the visco fan, it was finally able to be removed with a combination of drilling and vice grips. After that, the rest of the disassembly was not nearly as bad. In total, to get to the water pump on the M110 engine you need to:
- Remove radiator – remove top and bottom hoses, transmission oil cooler hoses and securing clips
- Remove fan shroud – Clipped to radiator
- Remove fan from viscous fan assembly – four bolts behind the fan
- Remove viscous fan from the water pump pulley. Four easily rounded bolts which took the longest. I replaced these.
- Remove drive belts (these were ultimately replaced)
- Remove water pump pulley – this just comes off once the fan is unscrewed and the belt removed.
- Remove crank pulley and large balancer – secured with allen bolts which are easier to get to with an allen socket.
- Unbolt water pump – five screws, these were a bit rusty so I replaced these
- Remove water pump – I had to hit with a hammer to free it.
The leak was coming from the water pump as suspected – the water pump was in poor condition, and had been fitted without a gasket. The first pump I purchased was the wrong one, so a replacement was purchased from MBSpares which fit (mine was a model for cars without a visco fan).
The Mercedes manual called for 9NM for the water pump bolts, but this seemed very loose, so we tightened them up until snug. Installation was pretty much the reverse of the removal, and while we were at it we installed new belts, new radiator drain plug and a few other things.
The 280CE then got two new tires to go for its blue slip tomorrow to try and get registration.
