Drive Shaft Bearing Carrier bolts

[George Des]

Have almost completed replacement of the new ZF rear cover plate on the transmission and the flex disk using the new style disk, but have run into a real snag with the two small bolts that go on the center bearing carrier mount. The two bolts bolt up to the sliding threaded plates on the top inside of the driveshaft tunnel. While one of the attaching points is readily visible and accessible, the other is a real bear to both see and get a wrench on. Are there any tricks for doing this especially the attachment that is fairly well hidden. I recall the last time I did this I tapered the tip on the bolts and rethreaded the ends so as to better get them started in the plates but having real difficulty getting it done this time. Hate working on this part of the car while rolling around on the floor ! hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

George Desiderio

[ja17]

George, I use a extension with a flex socket on the end (socket with a built in universal).  Here again, unfasten the exhaust without unfastening the front pipe/manifold connection.  and let it hang down if a bit more clearance is needed. 

[George Des]

Thx, Joe. After much cussing and rolling around under the car yesterday I was finally able to get the two bolts in. A small inspection mirror was a big help in locating the hidden attachment point and assessing the condition of the caged square nut. In the end, I ended up making up a new caged square nut by taking an SAE one close to 8mm and running a tap through it to size it to the attaching bolt. Tapering the tips of both attaching bolts and cleaning up the threads ensured a relatively easy process of starting both sides and being able to torque them down. Also while under there I installed two 10mm x 1.5 helicoils to repair two of the 12 attaching points for the bottom tranny plate. Now I just need to finish up a few more things to complete the job!

[George Des]

This job is finally complete. The new back plate for the ZF is installed along with the new ZF reverse light switch. The switch required adding a few extra seal rings to back it off a bit. Without them the actuater pin extended too far into thebody of the transmission causing the reverse lights to illuminate no matter the position of the shifter. Works fine now. The newer flex disk dessign is much easier to deal with. Wonder why MB used the older version to begin with! So far no vibration and a small ticking noise I had previously while the old disk was in is now gone leading me to believe the old disk was the source of this noise. Worse part of doing this work was dealing with the exhaust system. I know several have had luck doing this w/o detaching from the front manifolds but I could not. Thankfully I have a SS system with SS bolts so once the bolts were undone it came right apart. The real problem was getting a wrench on thise bolts with all that hardware like the intake manifold blocking access