New to board.

[ridinsmooth]

Hello Everyone. I'm new to the board and this is my first post. I've been using the forum for some time now for repair information and have found it very helpful. I'd like to introduce myself and my car real quick. My name is Doug, I'm 19, from Houston and acquired my car almost a year ago. It is a 1984 300D w/ only 108,000 miles on it. It belonged to my grandmother who rarely drove it and got tired of the repair bills.

Anyway, recently the power antenna got stuck down, and I, with all my curiosity, took the module out and disassembled it to figure out why. It turns out, the gear reducer on the gear on the motor shaft had simply shattered and the belt would not engage properly. I finally went out and scavenged several junk yards in town until I found one with a compatible module. It was very sad seeing all those nice Mercedes sitting on top of each other. The "new" module however has a broken mast so within the next couple of days I am going to be mixing and matching parts to make a working module, hopefully the mast is the only part broken on the "new" module. My next project will be to replace the lower ball joints as they have started creaking and it sounds very bad. If anybody has any advice I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

Doug

[bill murrow]

Welcome Doug you lucky dawg.

Wish my Grandma had a car like that.

Wish I was 19 again too

you're also lucky in as much as having a junkyard close by that has so many MBs. here in S.E. Pa. there is ONE in the local junkyard and I went over and scavenged a bunch of good stuff off it before someone else found it.

Don't know about your front end work-haven't been there yet, but if ya use the search I'll bet you your Grandmas car you can find the info you're looking for.

Once again, welcome to the board.

Cheers,

bill

[ridinsmooth]

Thanks Bill. There's one street here in Houston that has junkyards up and down the street on both sides. I visited almost half of them before I found what I was looking for, then realized there's one that specializes in European cars, primarily MB, BMW, and Volvo. I already have the ball joints ordered, once they get here, I'll have to put them on, but I'll let you know how that goes.

[psfred]

Harbor Freight sells a ball joint tool that will work if you take the boot off the new joint. Requries a heavy vice, too, but I'm sure you have that, eh?

STeering knucke comes off after you remove the wheel and hub with sheel bearings. Use a press or pickle fork to separate the upper and lower ball joints after removing the nuts. Support the lower control arm, so that you don't damage the shock. Leave the shock on, else the spring can jump out a break your neck and kill you. Really.

Check the upper ball joint at the same time. If it moves up and down in the socket, replace the upper control arm, you cannot get the ball joint separately.

You can usually drive the old ball joint out with a 5 lb sledge and a drift. Have a care not to deform the steering knuckle and DO NOT HEAT IT WITH A TORCH, certainly NEVER get it red hot. The hole won't be round anymore, and the ball joint won't stay in place. You can configure the tool to press the joint out if it won't move -- set it up, apply good pressure with the screw, then use a driver of some sort onthe botton of the joint and it will eventually come out.

Antenna mast can be replaced pretty easy. Remove the retainer nut from the bezel, then turn the radio on. Mast will extend (or the remenants of it anyway). Pull it on out, the motor will run long past the end of the plastic "tail?

Note which way the teeth point on the tail. Push the new "tail" down the hole until it stops with the teeth pointing the same way as the old one (toward the drive gear), then switch the radio off and guide the new "tail" and mast into the antenna motor until it seats. Re-install the retainter nut and you are done.

If it won't feed, just turn the radio back on and try again, you will eventually get it to "bite" and it will wind right in.

Peter

[ridinsmooth]

Thanks Peter, I'm planning on doing the antenna mast within the next few days, just need a day I'm off of work. Fortunately I have a buddy who knows more about suspensions than I do, and has the right tools, who's gonna help me with the ball joints.

[Tirebiter]

Needs ball joints at 108,000 ?? Get a second opinion please. Your bushings are probably the culprit.

[ridinsmooth]

I thought about that, may have forgotten to mention it to the guy who checked it for me, but he said the left ball joint was going bad. I don't know much about suspensions anyway, so I'll take it somewhere else and let them look at it. Thanks