W123 Guide rod & LCA repair
 

Slid into a curb and whack. Buckled RH guide rod and bent RH LCA of my W123 240D.

Right wheel tracks about 3" back and steering feels not so great, but made it 5 blocks home. Wheel does not rub.

What is relative safety in this situation?

Special tools needed to repair? I'm thinking spring compressor, or at least retainer straps.

Any other parts that usually break or should be replaced while it's apart in this situation?

Does anyone have an LCA to spare near western NY? I'll will hit up car-part.com at lunch.

Sorry for your bad luck.

I purchased my 300d with similar damage but it was more of a scraping blow in the case of my car.

I would check the tie rod and the center link as well. And I would wonder about the spindle.

You need the correct spring compressor to do the guide rod. If it buckled the guide rod that bad, you will need to make sure that you haven't buckled the tub behind the guide rod mount too. Sounds like a pretty solid impact.

Thanks.
The light of day will tell on Saturday. The bent portion is not jammed into the tub. Considered simply, in a buckling situation, the axial force should peak at the actual buckling event, otherwise it would be stable, wouldn't it?

Shouldn't be hard to pop the LBJ from the LCA, that was replaced in 2010. Junkyard LBJ may not show any love though. I'll need to get an LBJ and get the old one pressed and installed in replacement parts. I may not have time for the urban redneck theater of removing it myself.

Quebecois, oui? My high school european french was next to useless the few times i've been to Acadia.

Honestly I don't know. I just wanted to flag that as a possible outcome.

This is a w123 right? The lower ball joint is in the steering knuckle/spindle assembly. Are you calling the the knuckle the LCA?

Well if you come to Quebec, they will love you to death if they realize an American is speaking any form of French. The Quebecois pretty much love Americans (often more so than Anglo Canadians LOL).

Sorry to disappoint but I am about as French as Guiness and Haggis combined. :D

Re driving as is, you could have too much negative caster. Caster is the shopping cart effect where the wheel follows behind the pivot. The pivot is the line thru the centers of the upper and lower ball joints. If that line hits the road behind the tire patch, the wheel will want to pivot around. By moving the lower ball joint back so far, that is likely. It could be like a bad shopping cart at highway speeds. Ditto for a severely worn LCA guide rod mount.

I wonder if the LCA actually bent. I doesn't resist much fwd-aft motion. That is the guide rod's job. However, there is a little lever arm between where the wheel acts and the guide rod, so could torque it.

The LCA pivot pocket on the K-frame may be twisted a bit, but probably not a big deal. As long as you can get the LCA bolt thru the bushing, it should be OK. The rubber bushings are forgiving.

Removing the lower ball joint was fairly easy for me - framing hammer, rested top of spindle on driveway. Installing the new one was tougher. I used the Autozone rental C-clamp. Follow RollGuy's method of tighten, hammer tap, repeat, and should work easier, as will heating the spindle w/ a torch to expand the hole.

It also helps to put the BJ in the freezer overnight. Be sure to remove the boot before installing the BJ.

There is no way you damaged the LCA on the w123 and drove home. Forget about needing to source one, they are indestructible. The bushing on the other hand, it could be damaged, the guide rod may be destroyed, the swaybar end may be destroyed, the guide rod pocket may be bent in, etc. All easily fixed though. I've done it plenty of times. Get the car on stands, pull the damaged side tire, and the good side, and compare them. It'll be fairly obvious what got tweaked.

The Lower Control Arm is extremely sturdy. I think it is more likely the Sheet Metal on the Frame that the Lower Control Arm is mouted is more likely to be what bent or are also bent.