PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - W123 axle R&R job--some questions?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by azitizz (Post 2845104)

Would anyone know if this is the same procedure for a 1985 300TD Wagon (W123)?

Yes, it is the same. :)

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by whunter (Post 2519475)

IMO; only total desperation could tempt me to re-use any torque to yield bolt.

In the past, I have been forced by the shop owners/vehicle owners to re-use torque to yield bolts, with catastrophic results... :mad:

Since this thread bubbled back to the top, let me emphatically agree with your advice here.
One of my other vehicles is a Ford F250 with the International/Ford IDI diesel. The head bolts on these engines are also torque-to-yield, and Ford recommends not to reuse. And thats a V8--MANY more bolts. The best replacement is ARP studs. Some have reused head bolts--sometimes its OK, but often they fail. IMO, the risk is way too high for me.

Great thread, thank you for posting it. I'm rereading it a second time as I need to get familiar, build a parts list and get this done. My newly acquired 300D all four boots are split and well heck, it's 30 years old and makes some funny noises...I'm the kind of guy who would rather go thru it all and refresh it rather than wait for something to fail.

Question is, I noticed what you did with the duct tape. Seems like a smart thing to do. Did you put grease in the boots and or spray them out with brake clean first or would you say I should just wrap what I've got till I can get the rear end rebuilt?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremy5848 (Post 1204598)

Thank you, John, I did that two Sundays ago, lying in the back parking lot of Kragen Auto Parts in Winnemucca, Nevada (so how did you spend Father's Day?).

I have attached a picture, taken from just behind where the right rear wheel would be if I hadn't taken it off. Starring in this picture are the differential and the right half-shaft, an oil drain pan, a red bottle jack, a block of wood, and a supporting cast of duct tape.

As I write this, the last of the differential oil is draining into the pan. The differential was warm when I got home and started work on the car, but with all of my fooling around trying to get the plugs out, it's now rather cool. I'll let it drip while I have a late dinner. Here's what I did:

1. Jack up car, put on jack stands, chock front wheels, remove rear wheels -- all the usual stuff for this job.

2. Since I couldn't get the drain and fill plugs out of the differential, I decided to slowly remove the cover and let the oil drain that way. (Tomorrow I'll have the correct tool so I can get fresh oil in.)

3. With a bottle jack under the differential, I unbolted and removed the "rubber bearing" at the rear of the differential.

4. I then lowered the differential a couple of inches so I could get the top two bolts out of the differential cover. Once those were out, I raised the differential back up and put the large block of wood under the diff, as a backup.

5. Then I removed all but two bolts from the diff cover, put the drain pan underneath, and loosened the last two bolts. Tapping the cover with a plastic screwdriver handle broke the seal and the oil started to drain. The shiny diagonal line in the picture is a long square-shank screwdriver that I jammed into the crack between cover and diff, so the oil would drain better.

Later this evening, when the oil is all out, I'll go back and take the last two bolts out. Then I'll drop the cover into the dirty oil, curse roundly, and go to bed.

"Tomorrow is another day."

Jeremy

I hope I'm not repeating a question that's already been asked, but here goes:

One of my axle shafts on my 1981 300TD has an obvious problem. Not only is the inner boot split but, more worryingly, the shaft can easily be moved by hand by about an inch in and out along the direction of its length. Driving forwards causes no strange noises (yet) but in reverse the shaft moves in and out as I described and makes a nasty knocking sound. The other shaft is OK - boot still intact and no movement. I suspect the movement came first and that's what caused the boot to split.

So what can be the explanation? I don't have a very good idea of what these parts look like inside, but my suspicion from reading this and other forums is that the C-clip inside the diff has broken. Is that possible or likely, or can anyone suggest any other place where it might have come loose?

I'd really like to know what to expect before I start the job so I know whether I need to replace just the boot, or the shaft, or both shafts, or pick up a used one from a wrecker. These parts are very expensive where I live (in Australia) so if I buy any new parts I'll probably be ordering them online from the US and waiting about 2 weeks for delivery. Which makes getting the order right first time all the more important.

Many thanks in advance.

If it's the C-clip in the diff it should be obvious -- look where the shaft meets the diff, and see if there's movement between the CV joint and the diff casing. If you can pry the CV joint away from the diff easily than the clip is missing or broken. I think it's more likely one of your CV joints has broken internally, or has severe wear. Possibly grit got in there after the boot split and resulted in accelerated wear.

I would either get a new/rebuilt shaft, or find a good used one and re-boot it.

The shaft replacement itself is a messy job but not too difficult of one. The hardest part for me was getting that cussed circlip back in place. I went through my whole stock of dirty words within the first ten minutes and had nothing left for the next 50. Get the car up securely in the air and make it as comfortable as possible for yourself under there, because you're going to be there a while.

If the boots have been split/damaged for some time, allowing water and dirt into the works, the axles will need a complete rebuild. Rebooting can be done by a good DIYer but I'm not sure of the rest of the job, I suspect it takes special tools. Our Scavenger friend in OZ would be fortunate if he could find an in-country axle rebuilder. Shipping something that heavy from, for example, CVJ in Denver, Colorado in the USA would be rather spendy. The other option would be to find used axles with recently-installed boots or with old (but not split) boots and re-boot them yourself.

Jeremy

OK I picked up a right hand side axle from the wrecker, installed it LHS of my car and put LHS unit from my car onto the RHS. There was nothing wrong with the C-clip, just a totally clapped out CV joint. The job was long but not as hard as I had imagined. The car is running well now - the unit from the wreckers was in much better shape than my old one, and I'm just hoping I don't soon regret not changing both sides.

One tip that worked well for me for removing the C-clip - spin it around and push it off. I figured that it couldn't go far and I'd be able to probe around inside the diff until I found it. I've done it three times now (the first one in the wrecker's yard where it didn't really matter what happened) and each time the clip landed neatly in the diff sump. Too easy!

Another tip: the brass tube that the bolt that holds the axle into the wheel runs through - different models have different lengths! It took me a while to work out why I couldn't put that bolt back through, until I figured that I was using the tube from the wrecker's yard and not the one from my car. There was a good centimetre/half-inch difference in length between the two.

Many thanks for your words of advice.