Right Upper Ball joint/control arm....?

[Love my 83 300D]

Hi Guys,

I'm getting a lot of crackling on right front, lifted the car and appears to be an upper ball joint.

How long can it go before it MUST be replaced, and how would I know?

How difficult is it replace it, how do you do it, and do I need to get an allignment after it's changed?

Thanks a lot.

[tangofox007]

Not a difficult job at all. You will need to replace the entire upper control arm. You also need two outer bushings where the torsion bar goes through the UCA. Plan on an alignment, no doubt the new bushings will greatly affect the camber. Unless they are relatively new, I would replace the lower ball joints and lower control arm bushings at the same time.

[kmaysob]

squirt some wd-40 on it if it quites down its the ball-joint you wont need an alignment if u count the treads on the tie rods and guide rods. wait to have an alignment done till the whole front end is rebuilt. might as well do the wheel bearings too.

[tangofox007]

Originally Posted by kmaysob

you wont need an alignment if u count the treads on the tie rods and guide rods.

????????????????

[Scott98]

If you do a search you will find a lot of info on replacing these. It's a pretty straight forward job.

Scott

[tomm9298]

Check your idler arm also. Mine was creaking while turning and going over small bumps. The idler arm repair kit fixed it!!!

Check this link at FastLane...
http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/wizard.jsp?partner=mercedesshop&clientid=mercedesshop&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&cookieid=1EH0WGO271EH0WGSD6&year=1984&make=MB&model=300-DT-001&category=M&part=Idler+Arm+Repair+Kit