Prior to clamping the rubber boot to the lip of the can should I fill each can half way to the seam? Fill it completely? Is the quantity specified anywhere?
I could use grease, but prefer to replace with oil as it was originally.
Thanks for your time.

Paul

Model car?

I'm sorry...1983 300D Euro 5-speed.
Naturally aspirated

There is a specific amount of Oil listed in the Mercedes Service Manual and that amount may be mentioned in some of the threads on rebooting Axles as well as what to use. There is no spec on how much grease because the Mercedes Service manual does not cover using grease.
Repair Links
Fast navigation http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diy-links-parts-category/146034-fast-navigation-do-yourself-links.html

Even the famous Axle rebuilder in Col. uses CV Grease unless you request Oil.
When I re-booted the Cardone rebuilts it had grease in it. I packed the Cans full of grease and also filled the Boot at 1/2 to 2/3rds with grease. Note that the little packet of grease that comes with the Dorman Boots is about 1/3 of what you need.

I recently changed 3 Boots on a non-mercedes and packed it with grease to a similar amount so that the Boots also had Grease in them.

One of the advantages of grease is that if your get a leak in the Boot it is more difficult to loose all of the Grease then it is to loose Oil. I mean something can come up from the road and tear or poke a new Boot.

You can see from the pics where I removed the Boot from the Cardone rebuilt Axle that Cardone did not skip on the Grease. Looks to me like they applie as much grease as possible.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thank you. I did not see any mention of how much oil to use on any of the listed threads. However in the Service Manual on page 010/3 under Filling Capacities I now see that the Rear Axle is shown as approximately 1 liter (2.1 pints). So between the two axles (four cans total) that's about one quarter liter per can. Do you read it the same way?

the rear axle 1 liter quantity is the differential itself. The fill quantities for the CV joints are roughly 200 ml gear oil. The quantity is mentioned in the the cv shaft rebuild section and is written as weight - you will then need to calculate that weight to volume by the specific gravity of the oil mentioned.

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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)

A lot of the translation in the Mercedes Service Manual is odd. Some times the same part is called by another name in another part of the service manual.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Thank you both!
I see it now...230 grams of gear oil per can for a w123. This is on page 35.1-660/1
The published 230 grams equates to 230 milliliters, which converts to about 7.8 US fluid ounces (or about half a pint). Practically speaking, this means that if I fill up the
"1 cup" measuring cup from the pantry then I'm good.