Take the valve to a clean work area. Before you disassemble the valve, note the relative orientation of the two halves (honestly I don't think it matters, but hey better safe than sorry). My valve was marked 115- 328-0521. Also, when you separate the two halves of the valve there is a piston with two springs in it that may fly apart, so proceed cautiously.

8) Remove the two bolts holding the two halves of the valve together (figure 1.G, 8 mm allen key and 17 mm wrench). Beware of small flying parts. Note the orientation of the cam inside the valve (figure 2.A), the lobe of the cam points away from the valve lever arm (toward the hydraulic line fittings toward back of the car). Replace the 2 x 58 o-ring (figure 2.B). In figure 2 the o-ring is stuck to main valve body, it should be in the recessed channel on the other half (figure 2.C). This is probably the o-ring that was leaking, but since its out and apart you might as well replace the rest of the o-rings.



9) If it didn't come flying apart when you separated the valve, pull the cam off of the lever arm shaft. Carefully remove the piston (figure 2.D) without scratching it. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and some cotton cloth to prevent scratching the piston. The piston assembly is actually 2 pistons (outer and inner), 2 springs and a ball bearing (figure 3). There is a second larger ball bearing trapped in a passage in the valve body behind the piston. I didn't measure any of these parts so I can't help you order replacements, so don't lose them.

10) Remove the bolt holding the valve lever arm to the shaft (figure 1.H, 10 mm wrenches). Pull the valve lever arm off of the shaft. Push the shaft out through the valve body. Use the bent pick to remove and replace the two o-rings from the valve body (2 x 7) where they seal against the shaft. Re-install the shaft, lever arm and 10 mm bolt.

11) Use the bent pick to remove and replace the outer (1.6 x 10.1) and inner (1.6 x 7.1) o-rings on the outer piston. Reassemble the piston as follows (figure 3): i) drop the larger ball bearing into the passage in the valve body behind the piston letting it fall toward the center of the valve (not pictured), ii) slide the larger spring over the inner piston, iii) slide the inner piston (and spring) into the outer piston, iv) insert the smaller ball bearing into the inner piston from the bottom, v) insert the smaller spring into the inner piston from the bottom, vi) insert the piston assembly back into the valve body.



12) Rotate the valve lever arm to its correct position (away from the hydraulic line fittings). There are corresponding holes on the lever arm and the valve body that line up when it is in the correct position. Re-install the cam on the lever arm shaft with the biggest lobe pointing away from the valve lever arm and the smaller lobes pointing toward the top of the valve (figure 2.A).

13) Reassemble the two halves of the valve in the original orientation. Re-install the two bolts that hold it together (figure 1.G). Note that one of these bolts is longer than the rest as the valve body is thicker in one corner.

14) Reinstall the valve on it bracket and reconnect the hydraulic lines.

15) Check the level of fluid in the hydraulic resevoir (I only lost about 250 mL), it doesn't need to be full just so long as it won't run the pump dry. Start the car. Play with the valve lever arm again (car goes up, car goes down, car goes up, car goes down, etc.). The car should raise when you turn the lever about 10 degrees CCW from horizontal and lower at about 10 degrees CW from horizontal). If it requires large rotation of the lever to raise and lower the car, you may have installed the cam in the wrong orientation.

16) Use the lever arm to adjust the ride height where you want it *** and return the lever arm to its "normal" position (when the hole in the arm and the hole in the valve body line up). If your car rode at the proper height before, you can just reconnect the adjusting arm (and order new rear springs). The PO had adjusted mine to ride too high. The adjusting rod can be lengthened (to make it ride lower) or shortened (to make it ride higher), by loosening the 10 mm locknuts on the center shaft at the sockets and the center shaft turning the center shaft by the 10 mm fitting in the middle. Retighten the lock nuts and you're done. (The picture for figure 1 was taken with the car jacked up and the wheels hanging, that is why the lever arm is pointing down from "normal".)

* Poor ride quality in the rear is often an indicator of bad accumulators.

** I was informed by FastLane that the original MB rebuild kit for this valve is no longer available. I purchased the small o-rings from McMaster-Carr and the large o-ring from Marco Rubber. Unfortunately, you cannot buy just one o-ring, so I ended up with enough to rebuild 20 valves. It cost me just over $75. If you need to rebuild your own valve, I'd be very happy to send you 2 complete sets of o-rings for $10 (shipped). I hope this isn't viewed as solicitation, I'm just trying to help out (and maybe break even). EDIT 01-03-08: I broke even and ran out of the large o-rings. Contact Andrew at "Biodiesel300TD" for o-ring kits.

** A word about proper ride height: The unloaded curb weight of the car should be carried entirely by the springs (i.e. If the car has good springs, the unloaded car won't sag even if the SLS is disconnected). I keep repeating this because its important. The fix I describe in this thread is only part of the job (the easy part), and if you don't replace the springs (or shim them) you will likely have to repeat the job all too soon (or worse, prematurely wear out the actuators). When the SLS system is working properly you should never know its there until you put a heavy load in the rear cargo area with the engine off. This is the only time you should see the car level itself on start up.

Someone recently posted a great blue print style mechanical drawing of a w123 sedan that shows measurements for the stock ride height (though there may be differences between euro and US specs), but I can't find the thread right now.

Big thanks to whunter, who suggested that when I do the repair I document it so I could write this DIY.