Good morning Caitlin ;
You have put your best foot forward by trying , as time goes along this particular job gets vastly easier .
The one tool you needed , is a 23 MM stubby partial box wrench .
The clearances in there are snug so having the right tools makes it easier . I *think* there's a photo of Mark's better than the OEM valbe adjust wrenches in the home page . maybe he's got one set left stashed away , they're cheap (IMO) .
Some jukyards sell the old tolls they find in the boot of juked cars , toolks like the Valve Adjust wrenches will be overloked by everyone else....
You could buy a $10.00 Chinese box end 23 MM wrench and have a weld shop open the ring and and cut off most of the long part to make a cheap valve collar holder ...
The linkages , different people pop off different linkages , your way is prolly fine . remember to wipe the little pivot balls clean and re lube them when re assembling them , if they're hard to pop apart , spray any old lubricant in them then work back & forth until no squeaks then gently lever the rod off as you slowly move the linakge , it'll come right apart once wet with lube .
Mercedes says to use ATF on the throttle linkage pivots , I use Motor Oil or Grease depending on my mod and what's closest to hand .
_Any_ squeaks from the throttle linkages is a seriously _BAD_ thing ~ Use Aerosol Chain Lube or other oil with the plastic snorkel to keep them juicy . WD-40 is crap and if you have any , throw it out now because it runs everything it touches .
When you turn the engine by the PS pulley , you must press in on the lower run of the V-Belt with the right hand as your left operates the open ended wrench so it doesn't slip and yes , it still only turns the engine very slowly , this is to your favor as you _MUST_NOT_ turn the engine backwards if you go past a cam lobe ! .
Like it says in The I Ching : Pereverance Furthers .
=8-) .
-Nate
Caitlin wrote:
>
> Let's just start by saying "you win some, you lose some" ;)
>
> Despite excellent help here and around the interwebz, I hit 3 "rough spots" and was not able to complete the job, and threw in the shop rag. Despite a lot of frustration, I still learned a lot during my attempt, and will be ready by the next time it needs doing ;)
>
> My first "trouble"...getting the valve cover off:
> Couldn't *quite* figure out how to minimize throttle linkage dis-assembly (or maybe that WAS minimal) so after taking apart 4 links, we unbolted the entire throttle linkage assembly from the top of the valve cover and set it aside on the top of the air filter assembly. Easy enough. However, we had the hardest time getting the cover to lift up past some of the injector hard lines (one in particular @ cyl 3). The benefit of all that wrestling is that I finally noticed something pretty obvious...that the spacers between the first 3 hard lines were all missing. The bottom of the air filter assembly seemed awfully close (and a little banged up near) to to valve cover and between that and the hard lines it was a lot of wiggling, pulling, angling and deep breathing to get the cover off...but finally...done.
>
> My 2nd "trouble"...turning the engine
> I tried via the P/S nut and I think we moved the cam lobes by 15deg or less. I had just had all the belts replaced, and opted to explore other methods before adjusting the belt tightness. The "bump it with the key" method, I just want to clear up, requires undoing the glow timer relay (this is via mercedessource and resembles a method mentioned in the manual), but I didn't get far enough to even really try that either ;)
>
> My 3rd "trouble" ... spinning springs:
> I decided to just try one of the valves as the lobe was already pointing up. The spring and collar nut kept spinning. Tried jamming a screwdriver to hold it in place (another M.S. tip) but couldn't really get that to work (I didn't have a big enough tool to do it right). I know there is some OEM tool that holds these guys in place, but I didn't have it :) My friend helping me, *really* wanted to help, and got the nuts unlocked at some point...and then we fiddled with the adjustment, definitely not finding the right "spot" (all the while dealing with intermittent spinning). And then I tried to get it locked up again, and am pretty sure that was unsuccessful.
>
> We'd been at it a couple hours by then, sun started setting (we were outside at his place), was actually getting cold, and I made the decision to put it all back together and kindly ask my mechanic to bail me out of my jam. Putting the valve cover back ON was worse than getting it OFF (new gasket kept popping), but the throttle stuff was easier than I thought...just like a puzzle.
>
> So...I gave it a shot...and I didn't want to call it a total "failure". I have some money from christmas set aside specifically for the car, and I'm glad I have that. I'm now on the lookout for PaP hard lines or at least the spacers. I don't mind picking up the "special tool" that prevents the spinning in place. And I'm hoping to find a pal with a garage ;)
>
> Anyway it was really cool to have the valve cover off and to see inside that part of the engine.
>
> Maybe next year?
> Caitlin
> Santa Fe
>
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