Hey guys,

I had a few threads earlier about my tranny, to sum up:

Valeo radiator issue - coolant in tranny
Swapped to a new behr rad, full flush
Drove a few days, funny shifting, found that not all coolant was removed, did another full flush
Drove for a week or more, lost forward motion again, whirring sound (sounds like tranny pump).

It's likely that the initial contamination destroyed clutches and clogged filter, havent had a chance to drop pan. However, I think it's best to go ahead and rebuild the tranny and either have the coverter rebuilt, or buy another converter.

Any suggestions on good rebuild kits out there, or other things I should do while inside?

Also, I had thought about putting a stall converter in, but can't find much info specific to CLK's and stalls. Will this car, with all it's tranny control wizardry (herecy), respond well to a stall converter?

Thanks,
Joe

Hi Joe,

I pulled the 722.9 out of my CLK550 to replace the fluid pump. It had been whining for a while, and then started making scraping noises so I assumed it was totally gone. The scraping ended up being a cracked flywheel (courtesy of my MBZ dealer who did it when they pulled the engine for the "balance shaft" repair and improperly mated the engine and transmission). The torque converter replacement was prophylactic since I was already down there with everything apart.

To remove the fluid pump requires removing the gearset form the transmission housing. While in there, I found a cracked bearing in the front (K1) drum assembly. It was probably that just a fluke to have a defective bearing, and while in place, it was fine, but once I pulled the drum out, it came off in pieces. I could not get the bearing (back-ordered from Germany) so I came close to buying a rebuild kit, but ended up finding a guy parting out his 722.9 and bought it used.

MBZ makes their own transmissions in-house. They use special clutch plate surfaces made from a mixture of extinct purple spotted lizard spleens and unobtainium. No, seriously, they do use a proprietary material, so make sure you get good clutches. I would also get a kit that includes all the bearings. Most will include new snap rings, too. I am not sure about the 722.6 in your car, but for the 722.9, the fluid pump was revised to use a needle bearing instead of a sleeve bearing.

I would just get a rebuilt torque converter. I think I paid just over $300 for mine from TORCO (seller "torque-converter" on ebay). I was very happy with the product and didn't have to worry about a core return. You might also want to replace the conductor plate while you're in there if it's never been done.

Do you have a lift or are you going to do this on jack stands? I had to buy extra-tall jack stands as I needed over 20" of clearance to get the transmission out. I used a small rolling scissor floor jack (made for transmission work) but I rolled the trans off of it onto a tarp to pull it out from underneath. The thing is MUCH heavier than I thought it would be. Oh, and removing the nut holding the tailpiece on (required to remove the housing) required a good bit of torque. I used an 800lbft pneumatic impact wrench and let it sit and "ping" on it for about 30 seconds before it came loose.

I can't think of much else right now, but let me know if you think of any other questions.