Well Hello There Fellow Technicians And Hivers!

I've got something very shitty in the box today, pardon my language. Well it's always fun to rebuild or clean these. But the type of vehicle this one fits into, not so much.

Okay the gearbox is already fitted back into the vehicle.

Oh what vehicle?

This is a Mercedez but one of those Mercs that looks like a toe. Literally! This specific one is the B-170 model. Believe me if I tell you it's one ugly looking car, apologies in advance if you reading this post happen to drive one!

Okay so we won't be doing anything with this gearbox other than remove the valve body and clean that baby up nicely, well that was the plan and the plans changed a little bit as I progressed down the line. However I will be writing this post as if it's happening to me now, even though I know the outcome will change.

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Starting Off With The Old Gearbox

As I said above that we already fitted the gearbox back into the vehicle, we rebuilt another gearbox and fitted it straight away. The gearbox in the picture is the actual gearbox from that vehicle and we want it's original valve-body and the original TCM (Transmission Control Module) well atleast the TCM for the programming.

Because we already prepped another gearbox for that vehicle we didn't bother to wash this one, we are going to wash what we need anyways.

The valve-body is located underneath the oil sump pan, well more than often. In this case it's obvious to me that it's the only possible place for it to be, besides that the TCM connecting wires is located just above. Not visible in this picture though

Upon opening the oil sump pan, I was more than surprised actually. It looked real good, okay I mean for a lot of people that would look insane bad and dirty. But looking at the condition of the oil it's pretty fresh and this helps, someone must have done an oil change in hopes of fixing it. That's generally the go to for a quick fix, however it never works.

If you happen to do that at one point or found yourself in a similar position, count yourself as very lucky if it did work.

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The General Condition Of The Gearbox

Okay let's focus more on whats actually in the gearbox and forget about the gunk on the magnets. (BTW the magnets really did their job in this situation.)

So the oil is super clean almost new, but that didn't fix the problem because the main-shaft on which everything runs as well as supplies everything with pressure has bushes and these bushes wear out over time and this allows for a drop in oil pressure. (Mainly in automatic gearboxes.)

With that said the oil change did some significant cleaning inside the gearbox I suppose it sort of flushed all of the clutch shavings as well as metal shavings out of the gearbox and valve-body and into the internal gearbox filter. Well atleast everything that the magnets couldn't hold onto.

It might be hard to tell if it's dirty if you don't actually know what it should look like. But that blackness through the hole is sort of the pickup for the oil pump of the gearbox, naturally it sucks through the filter so the more gunk the less oil supply to the gearbox as well.

Oh, BTW the colour of the actual filter piece inside that housing should be a dirty off set white of the sorts. The one in the gearbox is, well black. There is only one thing we do with this, chuck it in the trash bin folks. Do not try and re use that, there is a point where one should throw things away and this one is beyond that point.

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Let's Start With The Removal Process

This is a fairly easy valve-body to remove, it only has a few bolts and well you need to remove all of them. No pondering over is this the right one or not, remove all of them and you'll remove the body itself with little to no effort. Well make sure that the wiring harness connection comes with you.😌

From Top To Bottom.

The top section of the valve-body has eight bolts and all of them use a T-40 Torque bit drive.

The middle section of the valve-body is where the pump is located. There are seven bolts that use a smaller T-30 Torque bit drive. (One hole is filled with oil so it's hard to see the bolt's head.)

The bottom section of the valve-body has only two bolts and both of them use a T-40 Torque bit drive. (Apologies for the half blurry photo.😅)

All of them are removed, this is probably the one thing I like most about these valve-bodies. It really is an easy job, although it's a soft art to work with these things. You can easily break something.

I then took two screwdrivers to give it a little nudge, a very soft nudge just to get it "cracking" loose. However pulling on it with your hands is probably the better option.😜

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Remove It Like You Would Remove A Thorn.

Okay she's out folks, this is where the actual work starts. Yeah we have only just begun this one needs a tear down and a proper one at that. (This would only be shared in the next post though otherwise this post will go on forever!)

The thing is when removing these valve-bodies one doesn't always know how it looks on the other side, that's why I said it's a soft art working with these and patience is a must. It's no quick job and it can sometimes take hours to complete. If you happen to break one of those black pointy towers, you're in for a mess! The black object bolted on top of the valve-body is the (TCM) and yes they are expensive, well so is the valve-body. The pointy black towers, is what we call the speed sensors break those and your car won't drive a little bit. It'll start yeah but it won't move a damn bit, that's basically the computer that runs all of the gearbox commands!

For those curious of how it looks beneath the valve-body. @Jesustiano I know you would like this especially. This is a CVT gearbox, see no actual gears. Well apart from the differentials inside.

It has the same concept as a scooter, who would have thought of that. Not going to lie a concept that I am not very fond of.

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Starting The Teardown On The Valve-Body

The very first thing we will be removing will be the TCM (Transmission Control Module) The goal is not to damage that at all! No TCM no driving! Before we can remove that we have to remove all the clamps holding down the solenoids, there are four. Notice the blue little spot, well that is one of the solenoids next to that is a black spot that's another one. The other two are to the far left.

The four solenoids at the top of the picture, two to the left and two to the right. Exactly the way they came out, you can mix the three with the black tops but the one with the blue top has to go in where it came out. The blue top has a temperature sensor inside it. Right beneath the four solenoids is the selector arm, nothing special about it other than the fact that it has a magnet on it that also needs cleaning.

What's that blueish circular thing in the middle? Well check the next photo.

This is a little o-ring seal, don't loose that little fella. Trust me you can't buy them at your local seal shop nor can you purchase them at Mercedez. The solution you might ask? Well buy a new or second hand valve-body to replace it yeah.🤣

Mostly everything that one can easily break is now removed. Now I need to remove all of those bolts. 33 of them to be exact, 33 bolts for such a tiny thing. Not to mention the bolts that are already removed.

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This Is Where We Saw Some More Damage

As I started unbolting those pesky bolts I noticed a little crack in the casing of the valve-body. This is both good and bad in some way, because atleast a problem can be identified. However it's a casing lost, one that you can't buy separate. So this means we will always have half a valve-body left over.🤣

I suppose it is what it is

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Bossman Wont Like This At All

As I saw the crack in the casing I looked up into the wall and thought well damn, Bossman wont like this much.

I went to the other building station and said.

"Uhhhh Bossman, we have a problem over there, the one casing is cracked."

He replied with.

"Oh the TCM? Yeah that's not good."

I replied with.

"No the aluminum casing."

He casually said.

"Oh, but that's good news!"

Goodnews? Goodnews I thought to myself? When is that ever goodnews? Well he answer me by stuffing a pan in my hands, full of small odd parts which I've never seen in my life.

His reply was short and powerfull.

"There you go kiddo, build up."

All I could do was give a concerning whistle, as he laughed and walked out.

Trust me there's a lot more parts and this I will share in the second part of this post! Stay Tuned for that one. 😜

To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support.

If you found this entertaining or educational please consider a re-blog and up-vote.

Most of all please leave a input in the comments below, whether is good or bad critic I would like to know, whether its your opinion or your way of doing things in a different manner I would like.

_{Connecting the people of #HIVE across South Africa. #hive}