Go Forward

When I think of the proud German people I think of a nation looking ahead and moving forward, never backward - never backward. I wonder if some of that was engineered into the automatic transmission of my Mercedes-Benz 300E. From the day I bought it I've known that the transmission had problems and would have to be replaced sometime down the line. Well that time has come. While parking recently I flipped it into reverse..... and nothing. It shuddered, it shook, but it would not go backwards. It's like it's in neutral. On flat ground it will slowly creep backwards but apply any gas and it just revs without any acceleration. Clearly some clutch pack in there is toast and it will need a rebuild. That can't be cheap.

Crank(y)shaft Pulley Part 2: The Fix

I talked earlier about the crankshaft pulley problem that early Miata's have; the bolt holding the pulley gets loose, the key holding things steady bangs around deforming the crankshaft, the timing starts to get screwed up and the engine becomes worthless. My car was exhibiting some of the symptoms (wobbly pulley, low low-end power) but I didn't know for sure. Well in May at the start of the Miata season it was time to change the timing and accessory belts so while the front of the engine was taken apart I could have a look: bad news the key and crankshaft were badly damaged.

Here's the end of the crankshaft, the slot at the top where the key fits is about one and a half times wider than it's supposed to be from all the banging.

and here's the key that holds things in sync, notice the large extra groove that's not supposed to be there. It's been banged out too.

Looks bad. No hope. Engine is a gonner.

or is it?

I don't know who came up with this, me or my dad, but we decided to fashion a new key that would be wider at one end to fit snuggly into the wide groove on the crankshaft and line up the sprocket and pulley at the other end. Where we were doing the repair they had an assortment of keys from various vehicles, one from a Dodge Ram was wide enough to fit into the wide end of the crankshaft groove, then we had to machine it to fit the sprocket and pulley. There's me using a fine rotary grinder to thin out one end to fit into the sprocket groove.

Afterwards we banged everything together and it all fit tight. Put the car back together and it works. The timing between the crankshaft and valves matches so it has way more low end power. It's a completely different car, a real peppy sports car. You can powerslide all the time and darting through traffic is a cinch. The fix cost nothing because we got that key for free. So if you've got the same problem don't replace your engine, just machine a new key and it will be fine. Oh and the wobble: It appears the wobble is caused by the rubber damper at the back of the pulley breaking down with time. A new pulley should remedy the problem, I haven't gotten one yet (next season) and I'll let you know. So far it only wobbles when the engine bay is hot, indicating it's the rubber breaking down. I was totally stunned that this worked and saved me from getting a new engine. Next year I'll replace the bolt and pulley just to be sure and inspect to see if everything held during this season. Ingenuity eh?