Steve,

I know it's been a while, but I finally replaced those strut top mounts on the weekend. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. They were not expensive (I went aftermarket at around AUD $45 each which were the same as the originals except with the MB star and the "201" in the part number ground away). They were also very easy to replace. I did not even remove the front wheels. Since I was not going under the car, I used the standard (emergency) jack to raise the front one side at a time until the front tyre was about to lift off the ground. This prevented the lower control arm dropping when the strut was un-bolted at the top. The workshop manuals suggest either supporting the lower control arm or using a spring compressor to prevent the spring pushing the control arm down. The mount was then replaced while holding the strut compressed by hand (there is enough room above the tyre to do this). The most time consuming part of the job was grinding an 8mm allen key down to 7mm to fit the strut piston rod. The allen key is required to prevent the piston rod turning and I did not have one in 7mm. Apart from this the job took no more than 15 minutes each side.

As far as driving the car with the new mounts, there is no obvious difference. The new mounts also have some movement when "bouncing" the front of the car, they just aren't cracked like the old ones. Yes, one of mine was cracked right through on one half.

Hope this is still of some assistance after all this time.

Greg

__________________
107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
107.026: 500SLC, 4-speed auto, thistle green, green velour.
124.090: 300TE, 4-speed auto, arctic white, cream-beige MBtex.
201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.