Good job.

But, don't get too excited.

The new shocks on the front of the SD made virtually no difference. The originals were still perfectly serviceable. The rears, however, were completely trashed.

I put front (and rears) on my "79" 240D a few years ago and wasn't it the same as with the 126, I remember the tight squeeze with the 10mm:o

Yup the bottom bolts are a pain to get at. I took a cheap 10mm wrench and ground down the outside of the box end. Made the job much easier.

When I first got my car, I had a local shop attempt to replace my UCA.
They put it up on the lift, took apart the UCA, and...

POW! The shock tore out of the LCA, and the spring almost killed the guy.

Screw failure in the LCA?

The travel downward of the spring should stop in two additional inches or so. Are you saying the spring ejected from the perch??:eek:

I've replaced the UCA in a 123. Had no such trauma. Shock not involved. Must of had lower shock bolt issues, something an experienced mechanic would have checked for, as can be dangerous. Another simple DIY. LCA completely different story.

HUGE difference upon test drive, the car doesn't nose-dive at the slightest application of brakes like it used to, cornering is awesome, it doesn't roll at all!! :D Also, The clunking noise I had on the right side for a couple months that began with hitting a big pothole, is now gone. All is firm and quiet. The old shocks were the originals!! :eek: They were so dead that I could just lean on the shaft and it'd go all the way in, then slowly came back up. My car now drives like my dad's '83, its awesome! I also have new rear shocks and springs as of 2.5 months ago, so it is ridin' nice, and at the correct height too. ;)

I also changed my air filter today, gained a little more acceleration from doing so, the old one was horribly oiled and dirty (over 2 years old). Brand new Hengst in there now. :D I also replaced my primer pump finally, I bought locking vice grips today, used them to take the old pump off, too about 20 seconds total to get it off. It took me THREE HOURS to do that on the other car as I had no vice grips. :mad: :o

Coming up soon: transmission fluid/filter replacement :)

Glad you got it done, paw.... easier that you thought, huh...

woulda been nice to see pics of the primer pump replacement... why'd ya do it anyway?

Yeah it went much better than I thought. :) My old primer pump got so leaky it didn't even pump fuel anymore, it just squirted everywhere when trying to pump. So I figured I'd better replace it. The new one works great!

Pretty straight forward, vice grips help tremendously. Swapped 'em out because they were leaking badly when pumping, except for the Bio-hazard, (240 since gotten rid of) that was leaking all the time, PO wrapped teflon tape in an effort to stop leak. I've replaced four with the black new style ones. I did not remove the nipple, didn't get in the way. The old primers are on there.