W126 The EPIC has BEGUN... Project "Sway" is Underway! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

pawoSD · #1 11-26-2005, 01:32 AM

Yes it is true, we have finally delved into our '83 on a quest to replace the mighty sway bar. After much preparation and facilities improvement (additional lighting and HEAT) project sway commensed this evening. The "facility" is a our 1.5 stall garage, you can see how limited space is...and its still pretty cold in there even with a 1500watt radiator and the little (but powerful, also 1500watt) fan-forced heater sitting on the car in the pics......I'd guess it got up to around 40-45 degs or so, but its only 16 outside so who can complain....we're rugged. Worked 5 hours straight and I was only somewhat cold...(mainly hands/feet)....cement floors are cold!!!

Currently removed items now include:

-Battery & Tray
-Washer fluid tank
-Two sections of the firewall/bulkhead
-Monovalve/Aux Pump/all hoses involved with it (HUGE PAIN to remove, gahh)
-Entire Air cleaner & tube assembly (gave a chance to check out play in the turbo spindle, there is None whatsoever, excellent

)
-Drained all Coolant
-Removed front grill off hood for ceiling clearance issues...

it now clears the light fixture by about 2cm when fully up

And some pics (took tons more of items up close along the way), but here's some for an idea of whats taking place here:

More to come as the epic continues! Next task will likely be the remaining lower central bulkhead/firewall (not looking forward to that

) and then the brake equipment......

J. R. B. · #2 11-26-2005, 07:11 AM

Looks like no dreaded rust behind the battery box. That's a plus.

dmorrison · #3 11-26-2005, 11:39 AM

Good luck. Many pictures are required for the forum.

May I suggest one of these.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/attachments/off-topic-discussion/22765d1103862205-december-23-my-shop-heater-internet-3.jpg

Prepared the sons Mustang for painting and we used this to keep the 3 car garage warm.

December 23 in my shop.

Used 1-20# Lb tank over the 3 days of woork, well worth it.

Dave

JamesDean · #4 11-26-2005, 01:02 PM

hey! same color as mine--looks good..well the hood does..almost the same year too..so thats what that bar is i never knew.

kris

coachgeo · #5 11-26-2005, 01:17 PM

ahhhh...... why?

pawoSD · #6 11-26-2005, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coachgeo

ahhhh...... why?

Why what?

And the work will continue....in a couple hours.....

WANT '71 280SEL · #7 12-22-2005, 10:29 AM

http://www.alabbasi.net/450SEL.htm
That is the member who had severe rust repair done on his car. Yours wouldn't need nearly this amount but he has pictures of the rockers and jack points being replaced. By looking at them you should be able to get a better idea of what is involved in the process.

http://www.kkmfg.com/
This is the place that sells aftermarket body panels. They do not have 126 listed in their catalog but they also do not list 123 parts and another member here called them and they just did not have them listed. So, moral of the story is, call and see if they have rockers for a SWB 126. You may be pleasantly surprised.

The jack point boxes (or even the rockers for that matter) can be bought at any MB dealer. They should not be too expensive since there is not much to them.

Thanks
David

Pete Burton · #8 12-22-2005, 10:52 AM

you should do a serious assessment of the other rust issues on this car and determine if it's worth it.

Hatterasguy · #9 12-22-2005, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete Burton

you should do a serious assessment of the other rust issues on this car and determine if it's worth it.

Pete's right, my SD is rusted like that around the jack points. Thats why its my winter car, let the salt eat her for another couple of years and off to the crusher.

pawoSD · #10 12-22-2005, 02:59 PM

That is the only jack point with rust like that, the others are fine/solid. This car is a year round driver, and when its on the road it drives awesomely because the prev owner had suspension work done on it, and the engine/tranny are absolutely perfect. Also the climate control was redone (works flawlessly, except for the failed A/C compressor) It also has an absolutely mint interior. Its worth trying to keep it on the road another 5-10 years or so. We want to see it hit and surpass 300k.....

pawoSD · #11 12-22-2005, 11:56 PM

Tonight we got back to work on the sway project (we're ignoring the jack point issue for the moment, didn't need to raise the car anyways)

We pulled the cables going across out of the way, and the brake line, and removed the brackets successfully, with tons of PB blaster. The nuts were in OK condition, the permenant bolt/threads are just fine and in great shape, thankfully. Brackets came out with no problems, then we pulled the sway bar, wasn't all that difficult at all. WAY easier to maneuver that thing than it is to do the oil cooler lines, those took me almost an hour to snake in back when I did them on my car, the bar took about 3-4 minutes to get out.

My dad then went to work for about an hour on the surface rust etc in those areas, and cleaned it up then treated it with the awesome rust converter stuff, its the purple looking stuff in the pictures, it dries to a super hard rustproof black surface. Tomorrow we'll be putting the new bar in, hooking the suspension all together and doing the brackets, then we begin the reinstallation of everything. Horray!!! Below are some pictures of the after-results of tonights work, I forgot to take pics of the sway bar itself, I'll put some in the next update, I'll get some good shots of how it failed/snapped, and also of the side that didn't, but was also in very bad shape/quite corroded.

Pics:

Our awesome heater that has given us an amazingly comfortable work environment:

ytr1903 · #12 12-22-2005, 10:53 AM

Hi,

I agree with David's assessment of your rust situation, but will take it one step further. You probably don't even need to buy the rockers. One of the points that David made is very instrumental in the completion of this repair. The rockers are located down low and are covered with the undercoating. Cosmetic detail here is minimal. (I am hoping here that the rust does not extend to the Inner rockers or structure of the round jack point) Basically, the repair goes like this: Cut away every bit of bad metal, preferably in a rectangular shape, so that the new metal is easy to fit, cut the new metal to fit, drill a hole where the jack point comes through, paint inside of rockers with some sort of rustproofing paint, weld new metal to old and weld all the way around the jackpoint, prime new section and undercoat. Good as new. I did this exact exercise on a BMW 633Csi about 10-12 years ago and the car is still being driven with no rust around the jack points. I recently did it on a 300D and a 190D. I have no doubt that these repairs will last a long time, too.

Good luck,
Tom

kmaysob · #13 12-22-2005, 11:10 AM

the upper control arm is pressed forward because of being driven without the sway bar connected. the bolt fell out of mine a while back and it was doing the same thing. it will move back when you drive forward.

pawoSD · #14 12-22-2005, 12:53 PM

Is it possible to do the sway bar with the car sitting on its wheels? It appears it would be....just more annoying. We'd like to do that and get it back to being able to be driven, then get the rocker panel taken care of. Overall we're pretty sure thats the only majore rust like that on the car, we took care of all the rest of it over the past year or so.

The next big moment is to see if the nuts come loose on the sway bar brackets without breaking or something.....

WANT '71 280SEL · #15 12-22-2005, 01:14 PM

Let the nuts soak in PB Blaster for awhile before attempting. If there is not much rust around the stud, the nuts should give way. Just go at them slowly while carefully watching the nut and stud. If there is much rust, you will see the whole base down there start to twist, ask how I know. With enough PB Blaster and time, you should not have a problem.

Thanks
David