FINALLY replaced the Meyle junk with Lemforder.


I had a feeling that's what it was, every time I turned the steering wheel right the car would stop shaking. The shaking was VIOLENT, entire car would convulse.

Now it's off to Bert's Alignment.

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

How long did it take u to do that job?

Lol, knowing how slow I am, it took me 1 hour 45 mins. The auto zoo tie rod puller was too big, had to smash the ends together with a sledgehammer. Then I wasted time measuring tie rod thread length after I realized Meyle and Lemforder tie rods are physically different in size.

I also replaced the center link as well, plan on doing ball joints and guide rod mounts next, I'm having a shop press those pieces in and out. I don't have the tools necessary.

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

I’ve found once the old rod assembly is off you can lay it on a board length ways and mark where the center of the back of the rods ends are , this will give you and good starting point when you install your replacement assembly . You have to be sure to keep the rods at their orig location once off .I sometimes get away with no alignment needed. Once on you can loosen the locking sleeve to fine tune the placement for alignment.

Damn it, I threw them away in the dumpster...

Don't sweat it. The only way to know for sure whether you salvaged the alignment is to get a new alignment.

Unless the joints were very worn, I doubt they accounted for the shake.

The fastest method of separating the joints is to use a pickle fork and a great big hammer. The boots get ruined, but you're replacing them anyway.

Went for a trip on the highway, no more shake at all.

Bad news is alignment is WAY off, car is nearly undrivable, I have to take it to a closer shop because it's not road worthy. There's way too much toe out.

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

I have no time to let a shop have the car for however long they need it, so I'm going to attempt to align it at home to make it safe to drive. That way I can make it to the alignment shop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aw9ZIO0JFM

Comment section has lots of good info

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1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

Setting toe is easy without real tools however it takes a bit of time. All you need is a measuring tape, some straight pieces of angle iron ( part of a scrap bed frame ) and a 12 bricks ( wood blocks would also work ).

Find a reasonably flat surface. With the _steering wheel_ straight ahead, move the car forward a few feet.

Looking at the side of the tire, place 2 bricks just ahead of where the tire contacts the ground, do the same behind the tire. Take the angle iron and places it flat side towards the tire, place a brick front and rear on top of the angle iron to prevent it from moving around. The bricks need to get the angle iron above the tire bulge but not too high to interfere with the measuring tape making it's way to the other side.

In front of the tire, hook the measuring tape over the angle and run it to the other side, write down the measurement. Do same at rear of tire. Subtract the two.

A larger measurement at the front is toe out and a larger measurement at rear is toe in. With a rear steer car ( tie rods behind the wheel ) making the tie rods longer moves things towards toe in. You do not need to tighten the adjusters after each change as long as you tighten them before driving.

After you make an adjustment, jiggle the steering wheel back and forth 1/4 turn to settle the car, reset the angle iron then check toe again.

Once you get the toe close, tighten the adjusters and drive the car, note if the steering wheel is turned when going straight.

Set up your measuring system and note the result. You will now need to make final adjustments.

If the steering wheel is turned to the right when going straight, a rear steer car will need the left tie rod need to be longer and right shorter. If there is toe in, both tie rods need to be shorter.

The left longer for steering and left shorter for toe cancel each other out, you will need to make the right tie rod shorter to adjust toe and steering wheel centering. Make an adjustment, drive, measure again and adjust if needed.

Some will make a big fuss about not taking wheel run out into consideration, if the wheels are in any decent condition, this method works just fine. Cars are way more flexible than most people would expect making getting toe down to the last 0.001 " futile.

For my more serious race car, I use string fixtures referenced from the center line of the chassis / at hub height then use a dial caliper to measure the wheel. For every other race and street car, the angle iron method is just fine.

This is the way I aligned a mazda 6, its dead on accurate too. - the mazda 6 (1st gen) has the same control arm setup like a BMW -3 arms, 3 ball joints per wheel, but on FWD. even a little off on toe and the car literally wants to drive sideways.

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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)

I had this death shake too on my old W124 - even with new MB tie rods, the fault was the ball joints - they were dead fish sloppy, to check them on a W124, raise the car and shove a small jackstand under the control arm near the joint, now take a long pry bar and try to lever the joint pinch up and down against the control arm, if you see movement - immediately replace the joint.

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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)

Not sure what fixed the violent, high speed (only above 65mph) front end shake in my 126, but found bad shimmy damper (it was the original) sent the steering box out to be rebuilt (it was leaking anyway) and a worn guide rod mount, and after an alignment, no more shake.

You really don't want to pay for an alignment until all of the parts are changed. Guide rods can be pushed out using pipe and washers or even a BFH. Even a small arbor press which can be bought cheaply can handle most of the stuff on these suspensions.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

I would like to do 97 Sl320's procedure but I'm having a hard time visualizing it.

How hard are guide rod mounts?

you dont have guide rod mounts on a W124 - thats for a W123 and W126 only.

The procedure that sl320 said - is to build a 3 brick pyramid infront and behind the tire - this way you have the tire center line to work with, and are out of the tire bulge part.

you can pull it off with a string if you are very crafty.

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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)