parts ordered
 

Hi,
Thanks for the thread & pics!

Did you order and install a new idler arm? It looks brand new what your are putting up there..

Would you share a list of the parts ordered? If you have ´m with the numbers.

I am researching for the parts to tighten up the steering of my 1984 300td.
I´ll do all the other work before touching the steering house, or what it is called in english.

ta very much,


J.

I'll try. It was easy - just a rebuild kit and the tie rods and drag link.

My car was a ca car and pretty clean besides the typical oil drips. The idler is original.

I bought complete tie rods, but mine were serviceable had I just swapped the ends... It's the rubber that were bad on mine. Sometimes they are seized, mine weren't. The OE mb ones were much thicker/heavier than the replacements. I dont think it's cheaper to just swap ends, it's just that the OE part seems better.

Thanks, I have two new tie rods now.
I will order a new idler and the bearings you changed there.

J.

Possibly stupid question: If I'm only replacing the idler arm bushings, is it necessary to disconnect the tie rod and track rod from the idler arm, or can it be moved out of the way to drive the bushings out with them still connected?

If I remember correctly it is a bit awkward pulling the idler arm out of its hole. I think you'll save more skin on your knuckles by disconnecting. (Exhaust / body was in the way - there was summit like that...)

Okay, sounds like it's worth my trouble to rent the ball joint separators for this one, then. Thanks!

You might find that the bolt comes out easily - mine was a pain in the arse it was all rusted together. Unless you have a tool storage problem I'd buy the tool - probably cheaper when you factor in the hassle and fuel costs(!) to take back the one you've rented.

Not much rust under this car, thankfully -- the difference between Seattle cars and the cars I used to drive in Michigan is like night and day.

Good point about relative cost, although there's an auto parts store only a couple miles from my house that rents them.

Did this job yesterday afternoon, so I thought I'd put some notes here.

I borrowed a ball joint press but found I didn't actually need to disconnect the ball joints -- once the long bolt was out I was able to push the idler arm sufficiently out of the way. Naturally I had both front wheels off the ground, so they were able to assume different angles to allow for the different geometry.

The hardest part was getting the old bushings out. One of the manuals shows a guy pulling them out with his fingers, which I think is supposed to be dry German humor. I tried using the old bolt as a punch, but didn't get anywhere -- I think maybe the rubber had just enough give to absorb the hammer blows. What did work was steady pressure. On the bottom bushing I clamped a pair of vise grips on the outer sleeve, then heated the bore with a torch until the rubber softened up; after that I was able to twist it out. The upper presented an access problem that ruled out that approach; I ended up setting up a makeshift press with a 13/16" spark plug socket, a socket extension, and a bottle jack. Once I had some pressure on the upper bushing, I did the heating trick again and it slid right out with a few strokes of the jack. It's hot enough to come out right around the time the accumulated oil drippings catch fire. ;)

The rest was easy. The MB service manual mentions using oil on these bushings, so I put a few drops at the joint between the inner and outer sleeve on the new ones, then rotated the inner sleeve to work the oil in. I used Sil-Glyde on the rubber to make them easier to press in, and used the old bolt and nut to press them into place.

Oh sorry about that - I guess you managed to push the bolt upwards; mine was rusted onto the idler arm.

Indeed - you've just reminded me of that haunting dong dong dong of me bashing the crap out of my bushings with crossed fingers hoping that that little tube didn't shear off!

No apology necessary -- I'd rather have the tool and not need it, than need it and not have it. It didn't cost me anything but a little gas to borrow it from the parts store. I'm fortunate in that my wagon has spent most of its life in the Pacific Northwest, and has very little rust underneath, so the bolt just slid right out.

One of my concerns when pressing the upper bushing out with the jack was that I could bend the support bracket for the idler arm out of line if I applied too much pressure. It's not very strong in that direction and I could actually see it flex a bit. That's why I heated the area to loosen the bushing, instead of just using brute force from the jack.

Wow, stuck in there so bad that the bushings wouldn't hammer out? Must have really been in there hard. Sil glide was the right stuff to use, IMO.

There is a relative height limit between the idler arm and the Pitman arm - I forget what it is - I used the W126 limit 'cos that section is missing from the W123 CD; later on I got confirmation from the dealer that this was the correct limit. So if anyone is unsure about the integrity of their (bent!!!) idler arm they could check that dimension.