I am preparing to remove the lower control arms on my '87 300TD in order to take them to the Indi for ball joint replacement. The front is securely blocked and wheel chocks in place. If I am correct, my first step is to safely compress the coil springs and remove them. Next remove the upper strut nuts (already loosened one turn). From there, I could use the remaining steps. Both my electronic and paper manuals give procedures for removing components but not the order for removing the lower control arms.

Help would be greatly appreciated.
Steve

__________________
Steve
'87 300TD - 132K - Soon 4-Sale
'84 300D Turbo - 122K - Driving
'77 VW Type II - 77K - Restored
'08 250EX Ninja
English Bulldog (Brier) - My best friend. Passed away 12/02/04 while in my arms.

Why bother? If your indy is a MB Specialist, then he can easily change the ball joints without removing the control arm. I have had this done on a '90 300E and my current '92 300E. I know for a fact that the control arms were not removed. In fact, my indy kind of smiled when I asked about doing the
control arm bushings at the same time thinking that if he already had dropped the arms it would be essentially free to pop in new bushings.

By the way taking those springs out is very dangerous without the proper spring compressor.

Steve

Steve,
I understand what you are saying, however I have opted to do all but the ball joint R&R as a DIY. The shop where I am having the ball joints done sold me the news one and is charging $60 to do the R&R once the control arms are ready to take to their shop.

As to the springs, I have a three different spring compressors, one of which will handle this job safely. The others are for spring-over-struts and then the older upper/lower clamp type if you have clear access to either top or bottom. I do appreciate your warning though since everyone should heed what you stated. No Scotch before the springs are safely in the corner of the garage.

I guess what you were referring to was if I wanted to take the car to the shop and let them do the R&R on the car. That I don't want to do since I would miss out on the experience/enjoyment and pay someone else several hundred dollars to disconnect steeing/suspension parts I can do myself.

What I hate to do is to remove a component out of step/order and then have to reinstall it to remove something else. So, if you are familiar with the proper steps/procedure, I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks,
Steve

__________________
Steve
'87 300TD - 132K - Soon 4-Sale
'84 300D Turbo - 122K - Driving
'77 VW Type II - 77K - Restored
'08 250EX Ninja
English Bulldog (Brier) - My best friend. Passed away 12/02/04 while in my arms.