Tool time

Best part of having a welder is making your own "special" tools.

One of the tricky tasks on w210 series Mercedes is getting at the 8mm allen bolt for the cooling fan, which has to be removed to change the accessory belt, tensioner or spring. There's only a small space between the radiator and the fan, and it's pretty far down to reach.

I was only changing the tensioner, and I have a feeling I'll be back in there again to get at the belt and maybe even the water pump; it's getting squeaky. Knowing I'll be revisting this job made it worth the time to whip up a couple special tool to make the job easier.

First up was making a long, thin 8mm allen wrench for getting the center bolt out of the fan. I the end off an 8mm allen key, welded it to the flattened end of a 2 foot length of steel tube, and had Mercedes special tool # 103 589 01 09 00 :

But in order to loosen that 8mm allen bolt, you need to keep the water pump pulley from turning. Hack up some square tube, a couple minutes with the welder and here's Mercedes special tool #603 589 00 40 00 :

Here it is in use:

Neither one is pretty, but they only took 15 minutes to whip up and made the job a BREEZE. Now that I know they work, I'll clean up the booger welds a bit, and paint them Palmer Fleet Blue.

For the fine folks at the mercedesshop.com forum