W116 rear torsion bar maintenance

[Alec300SD]

‘Desert Rose’ developed a perplexing clunk from the rear that only occurred at low speeds when making a left turn onto an inclined driveway.
I had noted that the DS overslam buffer had chunks missing when the rear brake upgrade was done last July.
Since the rear was sagging, I figured the shocks and springs were worn out, allowing the car to bottom out.
I suspected that the DS rear coil may have broken from fatigue, however the coil was intact.
Closer inspection revealed that the lower ball joint on the DS connecting rod for the rear torsion bar had failed.
The untethered arm of the torsion bar would strike the backing plate for the brake rotor when the rear coil spring compressed.
Witness marks also were present on the can of the outer CV joint.
The lower portion of the connecting rod would make contact the can of outer CV joint, causing the loud clunk I kept hearing when pulling into the parking garage at work.


The ball joint rubber boots on the connecting rods for both sides all had deteriorated and crumbled away, and both overslam buffers had cracks.
I ordered two new connecting rods (MB 115-320-15-89), and two new overslam rubber buffers (MB 115-320-03-44) from an online dealership parts department (m b oem parts. com).
Four rear torsion bar bushings (MB 116-326-08-81) were ordered from the MBUSA Classic Center
(two for ‘Desert Rose’ and two for ‘Stormcloud’).