I'm going to do the bushings this weekend. I have them sitting in the freezer to help the install. I am curious if using a thumb wheel on a socket would work to remove the bolt for the front bushing, this is instead of bending a wrench (I do not have a torch). Plus I am going to pick up the swivel sockets from lowes (got to love the holiday tool sales)

FWIW, I used the 10mm XZN from Amazon (made by Vim I believe) with no issues whatsoever to remove the axles from my W201. Didn't want to fork over the extra money for the extended version, and the standard length driver was sufficient with an extension. For me the easiest way was to have two people, one under the differential to tap the XZN into the axle bolts, and another standing outside the wheel well with a breaker bar.

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Spencer

87 2.5L 190D Turbo 5-speed - 102k (Daily Driver)
82 300D Turbo - 145k - Light Ivory (near mint)

Gone: 85 300D Federal - mileage unknown

I bought the VIM socket as well.

So I attempted this job today and ran into a snag

I removed the flex disc bolts to the differential
unhung the exhaust at the rear
removed the plate covering the center bearing
loosened the bearing

could not slide the drive shaft forward at all. I could not get a pair of channel locks to swing with the exhaust in the way so I gave up and put it all back together.

I borrowed a tool from a member here to press the bushings in so I need to see how much longer I can borrow it for. I need to go to my benz guru, the great Pierre Hedary, and have him use his magic to fix these darn bushings.

Also heading to northern tool to pick up a 16mm wrench to bend. awesome day

Update, I'm dumb. I needed to loosen the coupling nut as per the fsm. Couldn't get it with the channel locks.

Is there a writeup for this anywhere? I have to replace mine

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1995 E300 diesel

I am late to the party on this, but I never found a reason to pull down exhaust, drop driveshaft or any of that stuff. Leave everything hooked up and just drop the hogs head down a little bit on a floor jack or if working on a lift, on a transmission jack.

The only hard part is pulling and pressing the bushings. I wore my butt out with wrenches on the tool. It was a tough pull and press with the tool, but about the only way to do it since driving them out of the sheet metal carrier with a chisel or drift would most likely destroy the sheet metal carrier.

The key is to find a puller and get ready to break sweat while using it. Make sure you line up the new bushings like the old ones. If the old ones are too screwed up to tell consult the FSM. If they are not oriented correctly, they will have a shortened life and might even clunk.

Good luck with it.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

I farmed this job out to my indi driveway mechanic at the time. And glad I did. He must have worked for 4 hours to get those bad boys out. The new bushings fixed the "clunk" I often heard when putting car into reverse.

Where is this driveway, I'd like to get mine replaced

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This car had a history, now it has a future.

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