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#16
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So here's a picture of the 'less' bad-off trailing arm. I don't have a good image of the other one, but it is basically destroyed.
Side note: does that boot look like it absolutely must be replaced now? I was going to wait. |
#17
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Hey Indy Benz, those axles don't have to be replaced now. Axle replacement is typically a 2 hour job, (at least after you have done it once). I go along 100% with my buddy Army. Do the bushings, pass on replacing or re booting the axles for now. If they are not leaking and you are staying around, (not driving all over the country) they will go a long ways. Don't replace the differential mount, (also known as the rear sub frame mount). That is less then an hour's work anytime you want to put it in. So get your "new" trailing arms in and do all the bushings on that beast.
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Junqueyardjim Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis 1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA 2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage, Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it! |
#18
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Quote:
Why not change the trailing arm and do the boot while you are in the neighborhood? Saying that, my passenger side boot looks to be in a similar condition and has been for about a month. I do look at it weekly though; planning to do bushings soon, will do boot then.
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I choose to be happy, even when the Mercedes is being awkward, lol |
#19
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@smiffy6four: only real reason is that I've spent a ton of money on a bunch of other parts and if I really replaced everything that arguably could be replaced, I could probably just buy a different car lol! Guess I have to draw the line somewhere. Not a great reason, but a reason nevertheless.
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#20
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+1 on waiting on the boots. you have minimal cracking there. I'd wait for sure. keep an eye on everything every fill up or oil change, but not a concern.
that said, it's more often the diff side boot that fails... what's it look like?
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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! |
#21
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Working on this today and tomorrow and will try to get pics of diff side boot for your viewing pleasure.
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#22
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Tragedy?!
So I did it. At least I thought I did.
Good news is...I didn't die while doing the work nor while on the highway. Bad news is...one of the huge bolts just popped out when I was raising the car today to inspect it. It was obvious that the bolt was stripped and that it had only barely even been in the hole anyway. Not sure what could have happened but it might have been ugly. Long story short, I spent 8+ hours trying to get the God Forsaken sonofa***** mother trucking cursed damn fracking new bushings in the subframe. I took one out to see if it was indeed going 'up in there', and there was a mark where it had been that showed it was indeed touching the top of the space it occupies. But there was still a TON of the bushing sticking out. I used a bobcat to put pressure on the thing and try to get the bolt in. Tried that for 4 hours with no luck. In the end, I *thought* my father and I had finally gotten the bolts in and got them snug. I do admit I thought that one of them was stripped and the other one was snug; turns out I was wrong at least about the one I thought was snug as it's the one that popped out to reveal it was only barely in the hole. So...now what do I do? I'm assuming the whole inside of the 'assembly' is stripped out, the bolt/s is/are stripped, and the *entire* underside of the car on the driver's side appears to be rusted out from front to back. Only thing holding all together is the *^%#@(^$ undercoating!!! What are my options? Do I have any besides ditching the body and swapping parts? This was to be my $700 WVO experiment and so far it's more like a $4,000 poo factory that's requiring constant attention. I'll post images in a while. |
#23
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Here you can see how the threads are stripped and only the first several appeared to even be in the hole. Driver's side. I did not even have any holes to put the 'holding plate' back on because they just fell out when I took it off to remove the subframe. Thank God this side at least had that holding plate on there, and that this popped out while I was in my garage and not on the highway going over a big bump or something. |
#24
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Oh man, looks like a parts car now. Sorry to see this, looks like the floor is rotted out pretty good as are the inner rockers, I bet the floor got wet from holes rusted in hood hinge pockets.
Its weird how these cars rust, some rust out in places others don't. They are all hard to fix though. You may want to consider finding a solid car to build on, don't be afraid to travel for a good one, as rust is not worth it. These cars can be found cheap, and you have a good parts car. I had a 240D that was way worse then yours, but finally had to part it out as it was impossible to work on, not worth it.
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82 MB 300TD, 87 Audi 4000TQ, 05 Audi A4 avant 1.8T 6spd (Wifes), 63 356C, Samurai VW 1.6TD, 71 NSU 1200C, 71 Toyota Hilux, tractors and junk |
#25
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Thanks Markp. There is a line of rust that runs literally all the way front to back on the driver's side and that seems to be the worst bit of rust on the entire car. I can't tell you how many times I had to blow off my work area to avoid rust in my eyes while I was working.
I wish I had not spent...well... A LOT on a bunch of new parts for this car. If I can find a decent body somewhere to make the swap perhaps it would be worth it. But I'm not independently wealthy nor do I have much more time than most folks...and I gotta get to work right!? Just have to see what happens I guess. |
#26
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Is this fixable?
I'm wondering if there is a way to RR the subframe 'mount' that is actually inside the car. Can this be replaced? Or is this integral to the car and would require some kind of fabrication?
Thanks and I'll poke around to see if I can find some answers out there. |
#27
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This plus 2 new bolts *seems* to be the answer help, subframe bushings bolt stripped
Right?! I sorta need some hand-holding here. The 4 days I spent on the car last weekend in the 100 degree heat took the wind outta my sails for this car at the moment. |
#28
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Quote:
It's very difficult for any of us to tell you the hard truth about this vehicle, especially after you've put so much hard work into it in a valiant attempt to get it to a daily driver status. But, you've got to stop now. The vehicle has terminal cancer and it requires the attention of a very skilled body mechanic to weld all kinds of steel into the unibody to return the structure to something close to the original factory design. Even if this was successful, there is no assurance that the rust won't return at some point in the future at the newly welded material. The cost to accomplish the above in either time, or money, or both is prohibitive and completely wasted. The parts that you have for this vehicle can be far better utilized on a vehicle with a better body. The lessons in life are sometimes difficult. This was a vehicle for which resurrection should never have been attempted. It's unfortunate that you were unable to see it prior to purchase. Best of luck. |
#29
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Thanks Brian.
I trusted someone (Renntag) with the purchase of the car that, at one time, I considered a friend. He has been working with these cars for 3+ years and somehow he missed the telltale signs of the rust demons. Live and...learn?! Perhaps. |
#30
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wow. It would have been cheaper to just get that whole rust free car from me instead of just the subframe. When I see stuff like this I feel bad I sent the car to the scrap yard. I do know of a couple other complete cars down here, both are rust free. They are always popping up around here cheap. Course getting it up to you would almost cost as much as the car.
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