Very nice, thanks Jeremy your old w124 DIY's keep coming in handy.

Not an easy job at all is it on your knees in front of the wheel, or folded in the usual contortion trying to see the backside.

The 1-1/4" nipple is a good find it fits the bushing O.D. nicely. And when ground down, passes through the hole as Elvis Presley from the ghetto mentioned. Try to get all "grade 8" steel for the bolt, nut and washers if you can. I managed to snap a 1/2 threaded rod (cheapo) as well, plus a few bent washers.

Rather than fab an "install reciever" to fit, I used my cheapo threaded rod and the 1-1/4" nipple to hammer the new bushings into place. The bushings had sat in the freezer prior to this and I heated each hole with a propane torch. It was still a bit tight but doable. Make the first few hits count.

Oh I put a washer that was almost the diameter of the hole right in front of the new bushing so the rubber boot wouldn't get burned. I didn't do this on one side and managed to not melt the boot but it's probably a good idea.

Overall not much fun but hopefully it's done for another 27 yrs.

I have the correct tool for rent...

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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!

Hmm the correct tool....interesting

Need a tool that will push out bearing out as it pushes the new one in at the same time

Unpossible. There is barely enough room for the tool+bushing. Not enough clearance for 2 bushings/bearings.

And you want to clean the bore before fitting the new bushing.

Sixto
83 300SD

Good point, Sixto.

On a related note... spend the money for Lemforder (OEM) or Genuine MB (OE) support joints/bushings. I had installed Febi joints in one of my cars a number of years ago, and just recently discovered the Febi joint had about 1mm of play in it after only ~25kmi, despite the dust boots being intact. I'm going to try and get a video of this. Years ago Febi would generally rebox OEM parts, but in the past 5+ years they just as likely to rebox junk. Unbelievable... 25kmi is ridiculous, although better than the reported failure of front ball joints in less than 5kmi, right?

I have another incident of FEBI but with front ball joints on a W140 - absolute junk after 10K miles.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)