i took my car to the shop the other day for a valve adjustment and had them look over my front end to check for anything that would cause loose steering. they said everything looks fine, no new parts needed. they checked the steering box and apparently that doesn't need any adjustment. the only thing is they said one of the tie rods is out of alignment. i can understand how that would make the car a little hard to control at higher speeds, but i don't see how that would cause a lot of play in the wheel. any ideas?

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1985 300D Turbo "Eunis"

At a certain point in the steering box's life it will be worn to the point where it has play that can't be adjusted out of it with the screw, at least thats what I read somewhere about it. Mine has some play too but drives perfectly straight in general.....and its not hard to control at high speeds....

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
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"they said one of the tie rods is out of alignment."

That does not make any sense.... call them back and write down what they said was wrong. If the tie rod was out of ' alignment ' then your car needs the toe in set ( at the very least ) and a front end alignment most probably.
But the phrase ' tie rod out of alignment' is nonsensical... it works by shortening or lengthening it... there is no alignment to it...
Unless it is bent... then the way it is fixed it either to replace the whole thing.. or put new ' tie rod ends' on it... to take out the slack in those small ball joints ( the tie rod ends are small ball joints ).

The combination of the play in your front end is WAY aggravated if your toe in is not set properly... so you will FEEL that you have more play because your car front end is not working together.... the tires are fighting each other all the way down the road...

Why did your mechanics not know that a " tie rod out of alignment" will make driving the car unpleasant at least ( and a tire eating dangerous car at worst) ?

they mentioned the toe in needing to be set. i think they used the term "tie rod out of alignment" when trying to explain the problem in lamens terms to me. still though, i'm never taking my car back to that shop again...they screwed up when they installed a used fuel tank for me (after a car audio shop drilled into my fuel tank) and did something wrong with the feeder hose coming from the bottom of the tank, so it leaked a little bit. i took it back so they could address that problem, and they "fixed it" and charged me 27.00 labor plus 16.00 parts for new feeder hose. said the hose was the problem and it wasn't their fault (yeah right). two days later when i woke up in the morning, i found a huge puddle of diesel under my car. so i took it back again and they fixed it again, no charge this time for parts/labor. then i get a message on my voicemail saying the mechanic left some of his tools under my hood, and would i please return them. too bad...i heard something metal fall out of my car and hit the road (twice) a day before i got that message. he offered my "free labor on an oil change or fuel filter change" if i returned them. lol. anyway, sorry for the rant. i'm still a little heated about the situation. if you're ever in the area, steer clear of larry's imports, that's for sure.

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1985 300D Turbo "Eunis"

Now that makes more sense... you will be much better off without that shop...
If the rest of your front end suspension and steering are in good shape then have the toe in set properly... and they must be sure the wheel bearings are properly torqued before doing that.
One wheel going straight and the other not pointed in the same direction causes a constant fight between them trying to determine who is in charge... just like a bad marriage... you will feel it in your steering wheel.... do that before you try anything else... they have already told you it needs correcting..

thanks, i will try and get to that on monday. do regular shops do that kind of thing, or do you have to take it to a specialized place? i'm not being lazy; just impatient...it's sunday and all the shops are closed

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1985 300D Turbo "Eunis"

Unfortunatly a special spreader bar is required for proper front end alignment on the 123 models. Most alignment machines reject the 123 for front end alignment without the bar. You may have to ask around your area to find someone properly equipped for your car.I have an issue with one of my cars steering as well. Going to check all my rear bushing mounts in the back end to see if car is perhaps rear steering a little. My car does not steer as well as i think it should even though everything is tight or appears so and has had an alignment. I still partially suspect the steering box.

"Unfortunatly a special spreader bar is required for proper front end alignment on the 123 models"--Barry

What is a ' spreader bar' ?
Are you talking about the measuring stick ?
I set mine on my 1981 wagon with no problem....and only a homemade measureing stick...out on the ground...
Of course I did have some experience working at a front end shop 30 years ago... and know the rules... but it was very straight forward... and I have seen no indication in the shop manual about any ' special spreader bar'....
Did you read that somewhere that you can cite ?... or did someone tell you that ?

i think that you can check the box by turning the wheel with the engine off. if there is play in the wheel it has to be the box. if you are feeling play while driving then it would have to be in the suspension ...if the box is tight.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

This load or spreader bar I have to assume pre loads the front end for alignment purposes. If you take a 1977 300d or 79 240 d to most shops and hook up the four alignment devices to your wheels and turn on the alignment machine it will come up "not able to align car without spreader bar" instead of progam. This bar creates variable feedback to computor I imagine duplicating road loading and is inserted between front wheels. The old FMC alignment machines and probably other ealier machines will do these cars without the bar but do not know how accurate the alignment is. At first went to three shops and the reject message came up. Remembered another place that had an older machine (fmc)and gave him a call. When he called back that his program came up without the requirement and he did them for thirty dollars each. What is so great is that all the axis are adjustable on these earlier cars unlike todays typical production car and they can be put right back to where they should be. This alone means they should have a proper alignment in my opinion. Tragically they have now replaced that older alignment machine with new one so if I require an alignment may have to drive a hundred miles. Once stopped at the mercedes dealer in bangor maine. They wanted 180.00 to align front end. I asked why as basically just trying to get toe set on way home as it was out quite a bit. They sugested that they had the required special equipment to do this car and that was why the cost. I declined and drove the car the remaining 200 miles home. Also the tire shop in cleveland where I purchased two tires for the trip home could not do the alignment either as there machine came up "have to use spreader bar". They suggested I should go to dealer in central cleveland but just wanted to get out of area before rush hour. Those are the places that I experienced this problem with but have no hard paper evidence spreader bar is a requirement.. Leathermag, I have not accumulated enough miles on those two cars to determine if alignment is close enough to what mercedes wants with the older fmc machine. Will watch for tire wear over time.For general toe just a faint knife mark and a measuring stick is close enough in my books as well for general purposes. Now will go to archives search to try to verify above. Another obscure thought of mine is to approach a repuatable steering box rebuilder and get a quote on doing say thirty boxes for a group of us at same time. These recircuilating boxes can be really good and make the cars drive much better when in tip top shape. I could live with the lower rebuild price as well. It's like I used to tell the women years ago I am cheap but not easy.

about 10 years ago i replaced the box on my 83 240d with about 250k miles. the new rebuilt box was stiff and the feel of the car was very negatively impacted. now i just adjust them and often live with some play... if its not too bad.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Barry, I was only talking about toe in adjustment.... with regards to the measureing stick being sufficient.... along with the dial indicator for setting the wheel bearing.
I could not find instructions for either in the Chassis manual...

Sorry Leathermag, I misunderstood.