First off, I would like to thank you all at Peach Parts. You have been a great resource for my 300SD and I. Whenever I do a search, it is always peachparts in the results, and 95% of the time, it is the solution for my inquiry.


Three years ago, my father in law acquired a 300SD after he did some work on a bathroom. The car was in poor running condition. It sat in a barn in South Florida for who knows how long. The car has been work and now runs great, except for one minor problem.

When driving, there is a "limping" vibration coming from the rear driver side. It does not happen all the time, it does not happen at any particular speed. The only thing that is constant, is it happens after braking.. sometimes. It is very weird. It will not shake loose no matter how fast, and when I come to a stop, it continues to limp. The only temporary solution is to put the car in reverse, back up a few feet, and put it back in drive (while freaking out the cars behind me.)

I went to a mechanic here in Bradenton, Paul from Paul's Automotive.. great guy, great mechanic. He is pretty stumped as to why it is shaking so terribly at random. He says the rear is pretty tight and solid. His guess is that the bearings in the half-shafts could be somewhat flattened, and that by swapping, not replacing them, it could alleviate the problem.

I was wondering if anyone had any other experience or theories into why my car is limping.

Repairs:
New control arm bushings
New Sway Bar links in rear
Tires at 75% tread, balanced and aligned within the last 2 weeks.

Thanks,
Brian

rear sway bar link...
pretty simple fix. if that's it. I would think if the rear was looked at this would have been spotted though.
could also be the e-brake hardware inside the rear rotors.
and since reading your sig, I see new links, lets just cross that off the list...
the cv's will make a racket when they are failing, but I'd not swap them... CVJ rebuilds are quality recommends here...

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Thanks for the reply.

I jacked up the back of the car and moved the wheels around.. the half-shafts seemed solid on both sides, but it did seem a little more squirrely on the drivers side.

I forgot to mention that there is a horrible clanging noise coming from the same side as the limp. It happens when I go over bumps, etc. It sounds like someone is back there slamming a wrench around.

check rear sub-frame bushings and trailing arm bushings. they maybe dry and cracked or impacted. I had a car that would make weird noises from one side in the rear by turning sharp or braking hard. It was sub-frame bushing.