Both of our 300's suffer from inner tire wear and too much toe-out on the front wheels. Although the "TD" is much more severe with more miles on her. I have gleaned thru all this great info on the forum and have been able to diagnose the majority of the problems to date. Many thanks to all of you for your previous efforts, you all are extremely helpful.

The lower ball joints have been done approx. 65k ago, along with idler arm bushing kit and steering damper. Upper ball joints seem to be tight, no play, with no externally visible problems w/ rubber. Upper control arm bushings are squirting out of end of control arm and lower control arm bushings are wore eccentrically with more of the rubber bushing showing on top than on the bottom.

So, I plan to replace both upper and lower control arm bushings this weekend, and thought I would order the bushings for guide rod where it attaches to lower control arm also. I'm sure the shocks are shot because there seems to be a lot of body roll during cornering, so I'll replace those also.

My question is this, I've read about guys replacing the mounts for the guide rods at the firewall at the same time. How do you check for wear or play in those? And it doesn't seem like a worn mount at that location could contribute to inner tire wear and front wheel toe-out? It also seems to me if there was play or excess wear in mounts that I would feel it in steering.

I've also read that the rear sub-frame mounts can contribute to this front end problem, and again visibly these seem fine, and I'm not sure about replacing those.

I'm not a collector, just like to do maintenance to keep up a couple of good safe daily drivers, have six kids, so money and time are a premium, but if I had to pick from the two, I can create more time to work on these MB's. I'm not into replacing every front end component if I don't need to, but at the same time I don't want to be pulling this front end apart every other weekend either.

I have read some very good info from "MarkM" and also from "tcane" in the past, thank-you all very much, I love, respect and appreciate this forum. Spend most of my lunchtimes reading on it! Thanks again.

If your "guide rod bushes" are bad, it would throw off the alignment possibly and wear your tires, but I doubt if they are bad.
The rear bushings can be checked by watching them as someone else is shaking the rear of the car side to side.

__________________
Ed
1981 300CD (Benzina)
1968 250 S (Gina) 266,000 miles!
1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (Guido)
1976 Jaguar XJS-saved a V-12 from the chevy curse, what a great engine!
1988 Cadillac Eldorado (better car than you might think!)
1988 Yamaha Venture (better than a Wing!)
1977 Suzuki GS750B
1976 Yamaha XS 650 (sold)
1991 Suzuki GSX1100G (Shafty Gixser)
1981 Yamaha VX920RH (Euro "Virago")
Solex Moped
1975 Dodge P/U camper


"Time spent in the company of a cat, a beer, and this forum, is not time wasted!"

Also a thought about shocks.

worn shocks wouldn't cause too much extra roll in the corners, but more likely the sway bar bushings might be gone, which would allow the car to lean much more than regular.
Bilstein shocks live a loooong time. You would feel the car not recovering after a dip, or parking lot bump,. Do you have these in MI?

__________________
Ed
1981 300CD (Benzina)
1968 250 S (Gina) 266,000 miles!
1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (Guido)
1976 Jaguar XJS-saved a V-12 from the chevy curse, what a great engine!
1988 Cadillac Eldorado (better car than you might think!)
1988 Yamaha Venture (better than a Wing!)
1977 Suzuki GS750B
1976 Yamaha XS 650 (sold)
1991 Suzuki GSX1100G (Shafty Gixser)
1981 Yamaha VX920RH (Euro "Virago")
Solex Moped
1975 Dodge P/U camper


"Time spent in the company of a cat, a beer, and this forum, is not time wasted!"

Are you saying to move the car from side to side to check for bad sub-frame mounts or rear control arm bushings?

Yes, most of our roads are like parking lot bumps (at least this time of year) but I have already inspected the sway bar bushings and they are fine, I have to believe that the original shocks can't be too responsive after 20 years and 274k miles?

Yeah, you'd think MB would put on some decent long wearing shocks, huh...

I spent the first 30 years in MI-Benton Harbor, then Lansing.

I try to tell people out here how lucky they are and they always get that weird "you must be from Mars.." look on their face, I don't suppose they could ever really imagine the havoc the salt plays on MI cars. I remember watching my beloved 69 Fiat 124 coupe melt away. And I remember how rust free Cutlasses were, weird. Mustang, and hey, all Fords-their doors always sagged on their hinges on the drivers side.
Am I right?

I remember using steel dog food cans to repair exhaust pipes...

Right this minute, I can go to my local St. Vincent de Paul donation yard and purchase a 83? Alfa Spyder and a 79 Fiat Spyder, no dents, no rust. one needs a top, duh. and they need paint, interior stuff, the usual. They are casually parked nose to tail.
AND, in my local PNP, there is a cherry!!! Fiat 124 Coupe for sale for $500!!!

I just don't have rooooommmm.....

I wish I could warehouse this stuff and sell it you folks even at my cost!! Very frustrating as these cars will be probably broken up.

__________________
Ed
1981 300CD (Benzina)
1968 250 S (Gina) 266,000 miles!
1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (Guido)
1976 Jaguar XJS-saved a V-12 from the chevy curse, what a great engine!
1988 Cadillac Eldorado (better car than you might think!)
1988 Yamaha Venture (better than a Wing!)
1977 Suzuki GS750B
1976 Yamaha XS 650 (sold)
1991 Suzuki GSX1100G (Shafty Gixser)
1981 Yamaha VX920RH (Euro "Virago")
Solex Moped
1975 Dodge P/U camper


"Time spent in the company of a cat, a beer, and this forum, is not time wasted!"