I'm going to go ahead and say that this is likely the cause of my front end vibration that i can lightly feel in the steering wheel when turning right...
When the car is off, pictured here, that pipe from engine is just just just barely in contact with the steering column. In fact it might not be in contact but it's hard to tell. However when running and turning right, and when the engine is at higher rpms, it must be making enough force/contact to the steering column to translate. That's my theory.
Now my concern is how absolutely absurd it is for me to drive this car until i get the engine mounted properly. Who knows how long it's been like this. I don't see any kind of damage to the pipe though. Maybe there is just enough give in the pipe to not be damaged but just cause vibration to what its touching.
YIkes.
I am ordering mounts and will get on the project this weekend. Adding shock mounts to the equation sure hits the wallet as they are 120$ each. Whew. Are we sure they are toast? How can i test? Don't they raise up beyond that rubber mount when they are broken? I've seen some pics like that where they are up around an inch from that edge.

603 motor Ok to drive till the new mount install. Some older 5 cyl motors have a belt / oil line clearance concern but you should be fine.

New Lemforders will transform your buggy...enough said

Engine Dampers: Put a new engine shock on them and that'll be the test. The old shock is no longer doing anything So initially you could just get the shocks. Mine looked ok till I replaced the shock at which time it became very clear the mount was toast.


Some say the damper shocks are not needed. I drove with mine broken for some time with no ill effects. That said, once refreshed I found that they really help keep the motor steady. The original motor mounts (Lemforder / phoenix) have a relatively soft rubber shore hardness to isolate engine vibration (more so than some other brands), yet need help controlling motor / trans twisting under torque cycles.

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1986 300SDL 440,xxx

Excellent that you for all of the input. I'll go ahead and grab some shocks and the engine mount stuff. I wonder how difficult it is to only replace the shock mounts at a later date if i need to.... or if i'll have to go through the whole disassembly process again. If that's the case i might just bite the cost and do it all at once. But maybe because they are on top they don't require undoing the engine mounts and lower shock sections to gain access to? The shocks will already be in place so maybe no tight finagling of long pieces will be necessary.

I am considering trying to place some sort of thin hard rubber between that engine pipe and the steering column, just to absorb some shock.

Different opinions on the engine dampers. Many people say their purpose is to damp just the "shutdown shake", though they certainly wouldn't hurt in attenuating normal running vibrations. Unless things changed, you will find the upper damper in post 28 costs >$100 ea. I fixed one by cleaning out the old rubber and refilling with PL1 polyurethane gutter caulk (Home Depot). One easy way to destroy them is to jack-up the engine (like changing motor mounts) and forget to unbolt the damper. Of course, the 30+ yr old rubber is just waiting to fall apart on its own.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

Then i guess one option is to be a bit stingy and ignore the damper shock system and just do the mounts. (although paying special attention to dismount the shocks during engine mount lifting work). I suppose that the engine mounts/arms on the vehicles that do have the shocks are designed the same as the engine mounts/arms that are on the vehicles that do not have the shocks, and thus it would technically be safe enough to only have the engine mounts functioning although not up the the final mercedes standard/design of this 1985 version. Smoother overall feel of engine with shocks added, and perhaps a longer life of engine mounts too since the shock is dispersed more?