ML500K

Yesterday I was driving slowly and then i hear this whining noise that goes with the engine rpm, the higher the rev, the louder the noise. Anywayz, the sound came from the transmission area and after hooking up to Star, there wasn't mush to go by. So today I took apart the transmission. What i found was that the needle bearings on the casting part.140 272 22 24 was broken, it was actually in several pieces. I couldn't find this part from EPC. From the looks of it, it would seem that I would have to replace this whole part. I couldn't find in EPC for this needle bearing as well, it looked like it was pressed in. Does this look right? the part in question is the part that holds the clutch plates. Regular 722.6 only has 3 clutch plates, ours had 4.

From the pictures i've taken you can see the horizontal needle bearing. the red arrow pointing is where the broken needle bearing suppose to be. anyone know where or whom I can get this part from? I'm gonna try the stealership tomorrow too to see if i can get a quote. Any advice and comments are more that welcome.

TIA!

ML500K

The is the broken needle bearing in question, as you can see it is a plastic part with the metal needle bearing.

Lenin

The latest needle bearing part number is A1400812010. It does not appear to be specific for any particular planetary carrier that our cars can come with. But your are right about the A1402722224 part number. I also don't see it.

ML500K

Is that part number for the inner part of the transmission? (where all the gears are) I don't have access to epc until morning and dying to know if I can replace only that part or the whole assembly. thanks in advance!

Viper98912

As a former automatic transmission engineer (for another automotive company), here's my best advice.

First off, you have some major cojones to just wake up today and decide to take apart your transmission. A transmission is the most precise and fragile item in a vehicle.

I hope there was a good way that you specifically determined that your transmission was making noise and not the engine. I'm hoping getting a new needle bearing in there will do the trick, but I'm not 100% sure.

Looking at the placement of that needle bearing, it looks like it's purposefully a flexible poly cage with a slit in it (it's the only way to get it on the shaft between to flanges). By your description that it's plastic and is broken in pieces does seem to make sense.

I've looked through all the EPC drawings that there are for the C55 trans, and it looks like the needle bearing you're looking for is A 140 981 12 10. The issue is that the shaft it seems to be riding on is not the shaft you've shown. So currently I'm not sure if this answer is right, unless you can take some more pictures for me of the your breakdown process. I was only able to piece together everything with limited visuals (since I personally have not taken this specific transmission apart).

The other thing I was going to say is that it may be very very hard to try to find this needle bearing. These parts (at least from my company) weren't available to the public. If we determined this was an issue, we'd send a full replacement transmission. You're probably going to have to go to a major manufacturer's site (SKF, ***, NSK, INA, etc) and piece together what part number you may be looking for. Then the hard part will be finding this part for consumer retail.

Good luck, and send me some more pictures if you can so I can confirm.

TemjinX2

i think it would be cheaper for you just to find a used c32 tranny.

ML500K

I just check with the dealer, the part you mentioned is for the inside of the tranny ( relatively speaking) it seems like this part is a one piece without any slits. I had my tranny taken apart by my mechanic, I was there watching the whole time. This broken bearing indeed is where my red arrow is pointing to. They quoted about 750 for the part.

ML500K

What r good places to shop for one?

Viper98912

The part number I listed is for a poly needle bearing with a slit in the side. He may be talking about a different bearing. Regardless, $750 for the bearing alone isn't right, it means that they probably can't find it. A needle bearing like that probably costs about 20 cents lol, a few dollars retail. Unless, what they've quoted you is an entire shaft assembly.

ML500K

My bad, i meant 850 for the whole assembly from the stealer and 650 from an independent parts dealer. The part number i got from the stealer was 140 270 48 28, this is for the whole thing. I would also have to wait 20 days for the part to be delivered from Germany

Today I got another source with a newer part number: 140 270 62 28

From the pics, you can see the plastic band has a different pattern like squares. the old one didn't have this. all the dimensions are similar to the old one. The guy also told me that this part he has already changed for several people already, hmmm I never knew this was a part prone for failure. I will be converting/adding an external tranny cooler as heat may also be the cause for the plastic to weaken in the first place.

Viper98912

I'm confused, what exactly are you asking about? You posted a picture of a thrust needle bearing with a metal cage (is this the "square" you're talking about)? Inside of it is a radial needle bearing, which looks like is what the housing is riding on. If this is the bearing you're needing and the other side of the shaft isn't flanged, then yes I can see where it wouldn't be a split cage bearing. I guess I'm a little surprised to hear that your mechanic has already replaced a few of these, I hadn't heard of that before. I wonder if it's something with earlier transmissions?

ML500K

It was the parts dealer that said he had a few assemblies replaced. The part I was talking about was the plastic needle bearing. You can only see it in the new picture as it is part of the manufacturing process. On my old part's picture, where i point the small red arrow, the needle bearing simply wasn't there. I meant to say on the new part, the plastic needle bearing has a square imprint on it, while the old one was smooth.

Good news though, my mechanic buttoned up her this afternoon and we took it out for a little drive. No more noise and shifts very clean. I also replaced the clutches while it was down. Tranny temp was 194F.

TemjinX2

i'm glad it worked out

ML500K

Thanks! I almost shxt in my pants when I couldn't find the part. I got a cooler on the way. When running normally the tranny oil temp is around 195F; i'm guessing when running hard, it will go up quite a bit. Goes to show the stock tranny cooler is deficient in this department. I got the b&m 11 x 7 x .75 inches
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...#ht_4112wt_888

I found out I also got a crack in the welds of the EC headers.
its off to the welders right now. Hopefully I can get her back tonight

Viper98912

Oh that's a new picture! Awesome that you got it fixed already

ML500K

I happy to report that everything is fixed. Its actually even better than before.
The famous 1.5k rpm jerk is gone, i can hardly feel the torque converter lock-up. Before it was very very noticeable, felt like a gear change. The parts that were replaced was: the clutch (4 rings) and the "plunger" within the housing assembly. I'll get the part numbers. cheers~