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# <center>Well Hello There Technicians And Hivers</center>
In the last post I shared on the #hivemotors community I spoke a little (a lot actually) about a certain valve-body that I was supposed to clean up and fit back into the vehicle and in this post, well those who read it would know things went a little sideways with the job and I was forced to rebuild a completely new one from scratch.
This was a valve-body that I have never done before, so my plan was to sort all of the parts neatly on the working bench and teardown the old one to see what goes where. Believe me I think there are very few people that know these things by heart and the engineers who designed them are most likely the bigger part of that 90% number.
This will be a continuation of the previous post I made regarding this valve-body, check it out [The Clutching Conundrum ](https://peakd.com/hive-102066/@technicalside/the-clutching-conundrum)
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## <center> Lets Get Into It</center>
_"So where were we?"_
_"Oh that's right!"_
"I was given a whole bunch of parts by "Bossman" and told to have fun building as I gave a nervous whistle and watched him laughing soulfully at me while walking away."
I stood there thinking to myself.
> #### _"Well I did play with Lego's when I was younger! How hard can this be?"_
No doubt with a nervous chuckle radiating from my stomach. It didn't feel like I was thrown in the deep end of the pool, more like I was thrown into a storming sea with a ball and chain tied to my ankle!
> _Believe me I do have a lot of faith in myself, I always stress myself up over fodder._
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Starting with the biggest parts first, I washed the aluminum blocks with paraffin, let them stand for a bit and then rinsed them off with water and dried them with pressured air.
Because it's aluminum a water droplet or to staying behind is no concern, but is preferred that it should be as dry as possible. _(Except for oil)_
_(I left the bolts and small goons, springs, washers everything that could fall and be lost forever in the pan I got it! But luckily I had a whole spare valve-body to work with.)_
Sorting them seemed to take the most time, seeing that I am somewhat of an OCD freak _(Only somewhat)_ I just had to do this as neatly as possible!
The workbench is a metal platform so I decided to grab some old news papers and cover the whole platform and then add garage roll paper which we use to dry our hands with after washing and add that above the news papers. _(This allowed me to clearly and visibly see everything)_
> Being able to see all of the parts you need to work with can make the job go a lot easier and smoother, no missing out on certain parts because of the blending in with the silver platform of the table.
> It almost felt like I was playing some sort of board game stacking out my army! Laughs I had a lot of fun doing this, more than I should have!
> Thankfully the workbench is long, long enough for two people to work and in this situation two valve-bodies to be torn apart at the same time. As I mentioned earlier that I would be tearing down the original to get an idea of how and where everything should fit on the already stripped valve-body
Let's start. I had to remove those metal plates that held back the pistons. _(The pistons regulate the gears and oil pressure inside the valve-body)_
> They are held in place with a few T15-Torque bits and I had to be very careful removing the plates. Underneath the plates the pistons are pushed with oil naturally _(Basically hydraulic oil)_ but they are pushed back into place with springs, some harder and some softer but seeing that I've never done a tear down on one of these I took caution and expected all of them to be under heavy tension.
After removing the plates and pistons one by one I placed them directly over the chamber that they came out of.
> Notice the difference in the springs? The first one _(left piston, spring)_ is long but has thin spring wires, so it doesn't have a lot of tension but it will push the piston far out of the chamber, the second _(middle piston, spring)_ is basically non existing and won't push the piston as far back. The third one _(right piston, spring)_ has a thick spring wire and is also very long, this one pushes back a lot harder then the other. It will also work under more pressure.
Once I removed all of the pistons and stacked them according to how they were removed, I then proceeded to sort the pistons and springs of the valve-body I was going to rebuild or assemble for that matter.
> I didn't place them over their piston chambers, figuring out where they belonged was easy from this point on. In the following two pictures below you can see that the piston lengths and thickness differs and varies a lot from each other, some have spring at the one end while others have springs at the opposite ends.
Most technicians say that it's not always necessary to oil these pistons before fitting them because the valve-body will be dunked in oil before you start the vehicle. I do find this to be true, however I believe anything that has even a little bit of friction especially where two metal surfaces touch each other should be lubed thoroughly! Besides what if one of these pistons is tightly sealed and creates an air pocket in which case it wont get any oil and this can cause a minor defect that will eventually turn into a major defect.
##### _(In my opinion, always add lubricant)_
> Squirting lubricant over each piston in its length so that the oil can cover most of the piston along with the springs. I also squirt lubricant down the length of the piston chambers. _(Always add a little more for luck.)_
#### <center>The Pistons with their springs.</center>
#### <center>The piston chambers where the piston are inserted, along with the springs</center>
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One by one I add the pistons and springs in their respective chambers, some fit in nicely while others do stand out a little bit because of the springs.
> The ones standing out isn't a problem it just requires technique to refit. That's also where the lubricant comes in play nicely.
> The lubricant helps the piston to go down easier, especially when pressure is applied. Because we are human pushing straight down perfectly isn't possible, more so when you need to push down two pistons simultaneously. Pushing down the metal plates holding the pistons in place and then adding a few bolts before I decide to leave it. _(Leaving it to early will give you the glorious sight of springs shooting through the air!)_
With most of my pistons safely in their chambers _(all of the pistons on this side of the block)_ I can flip it over and almost be done with this part of the build. It's starting to look like a valve-body again!
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## <center>Down To The Small Parts</center>
Now don't be fooled, they might be small parts, but their significance is definitely not of a small manner!
Quite important these fellas, especially the eight small ball bearings they help a lot with the oil regulation and blocks and opens channels. Leaving them out might leave your clutches burnt.
I was all googly eyed searching for the spots that the goons had to go into. Laughs kept over looking most of them. No doubt I found them all.
Once adding the small parts I can now continue and bolt down the two block to each other. But this has to happen in a particular order or fashion or whatever one may call it. notice in the picture above _(In the last block)_ the upper part has a big silver plate covering it and the bottom part looks all mazey. _(The eight ball bearing goons fit in the mazey one so if I flip that one over all the goons will drop out, best to flip over the one with the plating on top in order to avoid parts falling out.)_ Shown in the picture below.w\
> It has dell pins so the lining up of the two blocks will happen by it self. All I need to do now is sort the 31 bolts that keeps these two blocks joined and bolt it down. _(It has six shorter bolts that need a specific place, so sorting bolts is of utmost concern)_
> As mention earlier, I do fancy a little bit of lubrication on everything. So I add a little lubrication in the ports where the solenoids fits as well. Just to be sure it gets oil straight from the get go.
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# <center>The Solenoid Problem</center>
Well I say problem before I even know if it will turn into a problem. More than likely it will just as much as it's likely not to. _Almost like gambling._
Notice on the strainers of the solenoids their is a lot of clutch linings caught up in them. This happens when the clutches burn because of the gearbox failing in some way, the driver tends to put the foot down on the gas in hopes of the vehicle moving. This is bad, more than often people do more damage to their vehicles than the actual damage in the first place. _Does this make sense?_
On this one I'll take a gamble, well mainly because it's a very easy removal procedure from the gearbox itself and there is no real tedious work to remove the solenoids compared to others. This is also where the problem arises. They are 2k ZAR a pop _($115 US)_ and that's times 4 and it equals to roughly _($460 US)_
I'll be giving them a thoroughly cleaning with some paraffin in a bucket and a few magnets dropped in their as well. Although they should be fine because of the strainers _(I hope xD)_
Hmmmm The blue and white O-ring. Well these are precious, I mentioned this in the previous post as well. They aren't gold they are frikkin platinum!
> Added the O-ring and then I can finally add the _Transmission Control Module (TCM)_ on top of the valve-body. The o-rings seal the pressure sensor so that it can take a oil pressure reading inside the gearbox.
### <center>Transmission Control Module (TCM)</center>
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### <center>The Bluetop Solenoid</center>
> This fella always needs to go back in the respective place it was removed from, that is the closest solenoid to the _(TCM)_ powering plug where the harness joins in with the _(TCM)_ I can't vouch for this but some technicians have told me it houses some sort of thermostat inside the solenoid.
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### <center>She Be Done!</center>
Well folks I went out there on a limb that the solenoids were going to work, and they bloody did🙃. Thanks to the strainers built into them ofcourse. Well I'd assume so. Mercedes really does have quality parts.
Have a blessed rest of the week folks! And I'll most certainly see you around on HIVE!
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<center>**_To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support._**</center>
<center>**_If you found this entertaining or educational please consider a re-blog and up-vote._**</center>
<center>**_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._**</center>
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