Anyone do a front wheel bearing on a W126 lately?
 

I need to do my left front this weekend because it keeps getting lose. I havn't had it apart since I last did the front rotors which was four years ago. But I'm looking at the FSM and it looks quite simple. Any snags that the FSM doesn't talk about that I should know?

I'm using Mobil 1 grease, so the entire car will be M1 after I do all the bearings.:D

Anyone bother to weigh the grease? MB wants you to but I think thats more for Autobahn use.

This winter I'm going to do both of the rears since I beleive they are original, joy those look like a PITA!

On the front, they're very straight foreword. I use vavloline synth, for European vehicles. (The red stuff).

-Joey

It's been a couple of years since I replaced the bearings but checked the tolerances with a dial guage a few weeks ago. No snags really but found that adjusting the tension can be finicky just because of the slight tolerance. Once adjusted with a dial indicator, I was surprised at how this eliminated the pulling to the right.

And no, I didn't weigh the grease either but did put a good dab in the cap.

How can the lock come loose once you have tightened up that little Allen screw? Seems impossible....

I think the bearing itself is going bad.

It got loose twice I could feel it when I hit the brakes. Now that I have tightened it enough to remove the slop its just too tight. If that makes sense, the wheel is kind of tight it should spin with less resistence. I keep moving the locking nut up, now its like horizontal, before it was vertical.


Since school has ended I have only put like 150 miles on the car in the past two weeks, but the bearing seems to be failing.

On a side note I think this is the only bearing that is not original, MB used good bearings!

I did not follow the proper proceedure where you must use a dial indicator and got my front wheel bearing adjustment too tight. I ended up overheating the grease and having to pull the front wheels of; clean out all the now no good grease and start over. Adjusting it by the "feel" method that has worked on other cars did not work.

don't bother putting extra grease in the cap, extra grease goes in between the inner and outer bearings in the hub. be sure you clean out ALL the old grease from the hub and the spindle before you switch grease types.
post instructions for the dial indicator method of adjustment...
please?

I have a 123 and do not know if the specs and procedures are the same for a 126 but here is a site that someone can polk around it and find the 123 specs.
http://www.pauldrayton.com/uploadfiles/merc/Service/W123/Main.html

Here is a pic of the dial indicator setup for the wheel bearing adjustment:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/attachments/diesel-discussion/50329d1197263926-wheel-bearing-adjustment-front-wheel-bearing-play.jpg

Limits for the front wheels are .01-.02mm

Also, there is a good discussion about it here:http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/207588-wheel-bearing-adjustment.html?highlight=wheel+bearing+adjustment

Don't have that, I'll get my dad to tighten it, he has an uncanny feel for this stuff.

.........get him to do the whole job.........sit out on the boat..........:sleeping:

Who said I wasn't? I'm racing Saturday.:D

I'll expect it down the yacht club around 5 when I get back though!:D

Ohh.........man..........you'll have to tip him $20. for that privilege.

BTW, I'm sure he doesn't need any advice on how to do front wheel bearings.............he's had them off the SDL before...........:D

Yeah but I havn't, so I was going to give him some advice if he needed it.:D

Yeah..........I'm sure he'll seek your input...........:eek: