I cant seem to find a tutorial on removal and replacement of a steering box for a W123.
Anyone have any pointers or can point in the right direction?

Thanks

There was a DIY somewhere, its pretty straight forward. Removed everything that is connected and then the three bolts that attach it to the firewall. BE CAREFUL, the box weighs ~50LB and will break your face.

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

Independent support from above is crucial. Both so it doesn't fall on you and also so the bolts don't bind up as you remove them.

Engine lift or block and tackle are the best if you have them. If not a 4x4, padded and laid across the fenders, and a rope will suffice. Tie the steering box to the 4x4, then with the help of a friend on each side lift the 4x4.

The procedure is in the FSM. Pay attention to the requirements for replacing the fasteners, some are single use items.

And while you have the ps fluid drained, change the filter in the pump.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

See post 5 in this thread for most of it

What a feeling it will be! A properly adjusted W123 / W116 / W126 power steering box

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

this is great. Ill be reading over this soon. Im waiting for the box to come in the mail.

I just removed a box off a 280E in the yards. with the 280 6 cylinder eng, there just isn`t any/much room to get in there to remove the box. luckly the bolt for the steerring coupling was pointed down, and barely able to get to the hyd lines. removed the 3 15mm bolts that holds it to the body, and it released and dropped down. didn`t seem any the worse for wear and tear.

When you are in the yards, ya gotta do, what ya gotta do. you mean there was a correct way?

Army, that is a fantastic write up you did on the steering box. I remember reading it before, just forgot about it.


Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Working on a car in a scrap yard is a little bit like driving a hire car - get it done as fast as you can and bugger the consequences!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I pulled the steering box from my TD a while back and replaced the upper (input?) shaft seal and the only little hang up was pulling the pitman arm off, took some major torquing on the puller. Soaking with PB Blaster a couple days ahead of time helped. I also changed the leaking oil filter housing gasket while the steering box was out of the way.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Always a good idea to do the block to housing gasket and housing rear plate gasket while the box is out.



.

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

One thing I noticed is that the steering boxes for my 83 SD and 85 SD look identical except the bolt holes. The internal parts are interchangeable (at least it seems to be okay so far), but you can't swap an entire box from a different chassis. I learned after two days of exhausting work. I was so sore from lifting and holding the box in place.

I found that it was easiest to slide the box onto the steering shaft, which held it in place for the most part (so it didn't fall). From there I could wiggle it a bit until the side bolts went thru.

Great. Thanks all for your input. I did it. It is fairly straight forward. Getting it back in I found was the harder part if you dont have someone helping you or a way to both get the box in place and lined up and at the same tome put the bolts in to secure it.

What happened with me is with the fiddling around with trying to get the boxs' input shaft to insert into the shaft coupler, it moved the shaft and steering wheel. My friend was struggling under the car for some time holding the box up while I tried to line up the bolts and shaft.

So now the steering wheel is crooked by about 25 deg. It runs great now. no more power steering problems, but just the annoyance of having a crooked steering wheel. I feel its going to be a big hassle to have to try and remove the box again to line up the box shaft and coupler and steering wheel.

Is there any way to remove the steering wheel and simply re-orient it like that without having to mess with the box?

You should be able to slide the coupler up and down without having to remove the box no?

__________________
http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

You can also tackle the other end of the steering column - if you remove the steering wheel you will see that there is a fine toothed cog on which the steering wheel fits. To centre the steering box you need to remove the little screw in the steering box (the one that can be used to drain all of the fluid out of the system - see the link I posted before) and place in a special tool bolt (which can be self made) so that the steering box is centred correctly.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I like the sounds of that. It seems easiest, But looks like your not sure... Anyone else know if its that easy?

Yes.

I have a writeup in the works because I've done this job several times. I just haven't been bothered enough to combine the writeup with the pics.

I could have it up by Wednesday to remove any doubt.

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Onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat

I recondition w123/w126/w124/w140/r107/r129/ steering boxes!


1984 300D "Elsa" odo reset 6/2011 147k
1983 300TD "Mitzi" ~268k OM603 powered
1995 E300 "Adelheid" 262k [Sold]