400K W123 300D Front end rebuild--what should I do?
 

I happen to have my front end apart on my 85 300D. New shocks, and inner and outer tie rods. While I am at it. is there anything else I should replace? Everything else seems tight, and I dont want to gold plate the car. Also how comfortable could it be? However, I may not be coming underneath this area again for a while.........

Any Idea when it was last rebuilt?

Me I'm the sort of guy that whould completely rebuilt the front end....all at the same time. Just so I would not have to do anything in that area again...I did that with my W116 and have recently bought all my parts to do my W123..:D at really good prices.

Word to the wise..avoid ebay...you don't know where it came from and the prices are rarely all that good factoring in shipping.

I sell parts on the side and I know what the wholesale is....most of these people on Ebay have pretty good markups BEFORE they charge you excessive shipping and handling prices. So before you buy on ebay shop around. Lot of cheaper places to by stuff out there if you take the time to look around.

Boneheaddoctor, are you sure you are not related to me. We seem sometimes to take simular approaches to things. As for the originator of this thread. You might want to drop one end of your steering damper shock and see if it's still really alive. Besides general metal to metal tightness also look at and pry any rubber bushings. The problem with older cars and no records is we sometimes have no ideal when a wear part was changed out earlier if at all.

I hate doing the same job twice.....If I was getting rid of a car I might replace one tie rod end.....if I plan on keeping it I do everything..becasue if one went bad the others are likely not that far behind. so in effect doing the front end one part at a time racks up extra alignment charges or tire wear if you cheap out and do not do that.

Also...ever pay notice to what Primers pumps sell for on ebay? Like 20-25 dollars...PLUS shipping?

Anyone know you can go down to you local NAPA parts store and get one cheaper and have no shipping charges.

or that there are online places that have them for HALF that price?

I am not anti ebay but just trying to keep people from thinking thats the cheapest place to get stuff.

What happened to the compulsion to over repair :D

When I purchased rag doll, I replaced the upper control arms/ball joints, the sway bar end rubber, Idler kit, Steering stabilizer, tie rod assemblies, and all I have left to do is the lower ball joints and control arm bushings, which is what I'm probably going to pay someone to do!

Unless you are young and spry, do as much as you can all at once. Suspension work will make you feel every bit your age.:o

........rear suspension and drive axle work.........:mad:

Everything!
 

everything was saggy, loose and dead when i inspected it today.

Then its clear what you have to do....a full front end rebuild.

If I was going to keep the car very long why not just replace everything that can wear and start out with a nice and tight car.

I concur, at that mileage... the rubber is trash. All three of my W126s need some work to an extent or the other up front. It's really swaying me to purchase that $$$ MB ball joint tool. I already priced out a spring compressor and they're not too bad.

After I took out the spring...
 

everything came out pretty quick. My indy friend showed me the trick where you can do it quickly without the spring compressor tool.
When the spring is not there, you can take the individual pieces off rapidly with a Pittman puller. Thats when I found out how loose and torn some of the key parts were. Now I know why my pass side was chewing up bearings every two years...lower control arm guide rod bushings practically nonexistent
I'll post some pix in a few days. I cant believe I had that car on tight mountain roads and curving highways..scary!!

What is this secret? :) :D

Did he mention anything about the ball joints? There are some shops very near me that may able to press in the OEM ones for me if I yank the LCA... but since I have three cars that can use that press, it may be wise to invest. Decisions, decisions.

Secret
 

I started the procedure but it takes hours to write.

1. Car is raised by jack.
2. A jackstand is placed under each of the control arms near the outermost edge.
3. Jack removed.
   
4. Take off your brake rotor and caliper.
5. Unbolt the 2 bolts on the arm that connects to the Long Tall Arm that has the bearing spindle on it with the tie rods. Now that this stuff and the Brake rotor and caliper are out of the way, you can work safely.
   
6. The shock is taken off. Jackstand prevents sudden spring "expansion"
7. The car is raised by jack again, slowly so that control arm can swing downwards as far as the spring pushes it. Springs expand to near maximum size with minimal force left in them. The lower control arms must clear the jackstands.
8. Jackstands placed under each of the control arms near the outermost edge are removed. They are now placed under the Frame supports and the car is lowered and supported at the Frame points.
9. Jack is now placed under the cup on the control arm that supports the spring. The jack is placed such that the spring is not tensioned at all, but used as a safety stop.
10. For safety, ordinary McPherson spring compressors are placed on spring now because it will expand about 1 inch in next step. Don't need special tool.
11. Unbolt the upper control arm ball joint from the Long Tall Arm that has the bearing spindle on it.
12. Use a Pitman arm puller to break the joint.
13. Spring will release safely after this joint is separated and the jack lowered.

Rich

I hope your pal knows of a safe way to get the springs back in SAFELY...