DIY: ABC pump rebuild (Pictures + steps)
Good news I removed the case by heavy banging and bending. But Dw it was cracked from before
I took my pump in to magma engineering to have the pulley pressed off, couldn't do it myself. The reservoir I got off using a three arm pulley puller. Picked it up from the local auto parts store for $17. Was very easy to remove with the puller. There is about a 1 mm ledge from the body of the pump and the black reservoir housing. Hope this helps!
Or take it back to the shop and see if they can press it back on. Try baking first it worked for me.
Or take it back to the shop and see if they can press it back on. Try baking first it worked for me.
Thanks again now of to mount it when I get the chance. Going to be 3rd time so it should a walk in the park.
Also one think is my rear suspension is fairly soft. Is this by design or accumulators going bad.?
Also, yes it's so hard to get the pulley off. I used a pulley extractor from Autozone and had to put a woodblock in-between the actual ABC pulley and a few washers, but it does indeed come off, it's just hard as hell to get it off. If you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer!
Good luck with a great rebuild!
Last edited by alvintran12; Jun 16, 2015 at 01:30 PM.
The Best of Mercedes & AMG
As for tips, you need to remove the ABC pump reservoir to get access to it and drain the ABC fluid. I can't remember how I drained it, but that was probably because the majority leaked and whatever was inside was left over.
Keep in mind I do not remember the types of torx wrenches I used:
1. Release the belt for the sets of pulley on the engine.
Used this video as reference to remove the belt:
https://mbworld.org/forums/cl55-amg-...tensioner.html
2. Remove the Reservoir tank (lots of liquid, so be careful)
3. There are 3 screw in total around the pump that you need to remove in order to take out the pump.
Also, at this time you should inspect to see if you need to replace any tensioner pulleys, supercharger pulleys, etc. and the belt. Do not take those for granted!
HERE YOU GO:
Last edited by alvintran12; Jun 16, 2015 at 03:20 PM.
Also, to get the banjo bolts off, the front is a 19mm and a box wrench works great, the rear is a 22mm for which I had no wrench; it's also facing down so you'll never get a socket on it. I actually unbolted the driver side engine mount and jacked up the engine about 4 inches and (shame on me) used locking pliers to take it off. It's not stupid if it works, right?
Also, I have yet to attempt to pull the pulley; do you have to take off that clip under the pulley somehow or just rip past it? I may take the advice of just going to a shop for that one as I'm now carless and while O'Reilly has a puller, they're not in walking distance.
Anyway, got it apart and it looks like the pulley-side shaft seal buggered up the shaft a little. The ridges don't have an edge to them, but I can feel a little "swing" when I run a nail over them. Not sure if a new seal will make up the difference. Despite the pump being run (presumably) dry I don't see any scoring or galling anywhere in the pump. I think I'm going to roll the dice and try the seal kit.
Thoughts?
Just how bad could this be?
Wife is not pleased (it's her car).
Michigan sells reman pumps. I would have got one, but they he'd a possible 3+ week wait. So I got a new one. Worldpac is a dealer for Maval. Just an FYI.
I make some comments which may assist anyone wanting to take on this job
1 Firstly I would have to say I consider my level of diy ability quite high. I am a lawyer but was bought up working in my fathers engineering shop. There is not too much that I find daunting in respect of vehicle repair. I have worked on my own vehicles for 35 years and mercedes vehicles in particular for probably the last 20
2 I found this job difficult.It seemed to test me every step of the way from removing the pump , to stripping it down and rebuilding it and putting it back in to priming it. In saying that I think if I had to do the job again i would probably do it in less than half the time. it is a job well worth tackling due largely to the significant amount of money you will save
3 My cl had only done 75000k(46000miles approx) I had read that was about the life of the pump and sure enough the dreaded warning came up on the dash I lifted the hood and oil was leaking from the pump being pushed out from the back edge of the black cover under pressure.
4 I purchased a recondition kit off ebay uk which consisted of about 24 seals and orings which I landed in nz for around $100nz
5 the removal of the pump is relatively well documented on the net however i make a few comments on this. Firstly while the pump itself has three bolts which hold it in(two on the front and a very difficult to get to nut on the back) there is in fact two additional bolts which have to come out to be able to remove the pump. One of these bolts is a long 10mm torx bolt which is accessed from under the car which holds the hydraulic line which is bolted to the cylindrical banjo unit on the side of the pump. this bolt travels up through the air conditioning pump and assists with also holding that in. The other bolt fixes a bracket to the engine block and supports the banjo unit/pump. Its very difficult to see and get to but i found that if you put a light under the exhaust manifold (somewhere around the engine mounts) you can actually see this bolt through the gap between the exhaust manifold outlets. Once I figured this out it became a lot easier to remove and replace.
6 as documented on the net the wheel the pulley is attached to on the shaft is very difficult to get off. I started by using a heavy duty wheel puller which didnt work. I tried an even heavier duty hydraulic wheel puller that still didnt work. In the end i set it up in a 60 ton press at my fathers workshop and with a nudge from that it let go with a hell of a bang. If you dont have access to a press than I would advise to put some heat on the wheel with a gas torch. Please note it doesnt need to be heated to cherry red. I would only heat it at the most to just under cherry red. It should than come off easily with a decent wheel puller, try and keep the heat on the wheel rather than the shaft as much as possible
7 The next point I would make is that once you have taken off the circlip holding the black cover on and removed the cover you will see bolts on the face of the pump. These are not torx they are hex. You will need a minimum 3/8 drive to break these nuts. They are on tight. a 1/4 inch drive will NOT do it. The large bolts on the outer face are also in tight however a large allen key will loosen these. Point to note two of mine were loose and I suspect this was the problem with my pump.I suspect that under pressure oil was pushing out through the threads of these loose bolts,filling up the black cover and pushing through the o ring. I suspect further i could have put some blue loctite on these re tightened put it back together and she would have been right as rain. In my wisdom i proceeded to replace all the seals , o rings and springs. Some o rings in the power steering part of the pump were difficult to keep in place when bolting back together and i would suggest a smear of Vaseline to keep these in place. I would asl use either blue locktite or blue permathene on all bolts when reassembling
8 The other thing that had me worried was that i had about 4 o rings from the kit left over but for the life of me i couldnt see where they went . I was also concerned that i had not put in two back to back seals that were placed in the pump housing between the suspension part of the pump and the power steering part of the pump properly. All I can say on these matters is I suspect that the kit contains some extra o rings for different applications . My back to back seal fitment must have worked as I have not experienced any issues to date
9 After re installing the pump I was dismayed that when trying to flush the system with new oil nothing was happening. Be patient and vigilant as oil does start flowing after a while. Once it starts running clear and you have connected the hose back up to the reservoir it is important to put a couple of bar of air into the reservoir to prime it. I failed to do this at first and thought i had stuffed the pump by running it dry. I put a couple bar of air in and kept the pressure up for at least 30 seconds and it had the desired affect of priming the pump. I put the air in through the dipstick hole . The nozzle on my air dun was a conical shape which sealed the reservoir perfectly for the purpose. I think it is also well worth bleeding the system from the front and rear bleed points on the car to ensure all air is out of the system
10 Finally, and I am sure controversially for some readers of this board, i did not use pentosin to refill the system. My brother has had a cl for some years and he figured pentosin was old technology. He figured further that the world leaders in hydraulic suspension systems was citroen. He researched and found that citroen now use a full synthetic lds hydraulic oil. Just running the stuff through your fingers gives you confidence. It is the bomb . He swears by the stuff and has had no issues at all. It seems to stay very clean and clear. Thats what I have used. It is early days but the car is running well with all systems go. I will post again if any problems arise.
Hopefully some of the above adds to this informative thread and is of assistance to any one wanting to take on the job.
I have a question on something that I am having an issue with:
After I removed the pressed in pulley and the reservoir cover, I found a green oil seal attached to the shaft with the brand Stefa on it. I removed that seal with no issue but underneath that seal there is another type of seal that I cannot seem to remove. It appears to be a ceramic seal surrounded by a split metal washer. Has anyone removed this and if so can you please explain to me how you did it and what tools you used?
Also, from step 5 to 6 on this diy I could not take apart both ends of the pump. This may be due to that very seal. I took apart all the small hex screws on the face and all the larger hex screws along the outer diameter as well as the green seal and the pump would not come apart. Any ideas or suggestions?
Thank you guys for your time. I have found this thread to be extremely informative and it has encouraged me to tackle this DIY project.
Last edited by Stefnopolis; Jun 27, 2017 at 01:38 AM.
Quick question , Do I use Loctite on the seven boats that are around the pump when I put them back in. Because it seemed like there was some kind of sealer around them and I was cleaning them
I’ve gone through it several times and always find something new. Now I’m very much interested in how it works or to be more precise -
What happens when the on signal is sent to the pump, how it engages? Is there hydraulic or electromagnetic clutch in there?







