I posted the other day regarding redoing the front end suspension on my 79 300TD wagon. After I changed the springs and basically everything else I ended up with the front end being too high. I'm trying resolve that right now, with help from suggestions on that other thread, which leads me to my next question...

What is the proper height for the front end on a W123? I'm talking from the ground up to the bottom of the front wheel well. I know some cars will differ depending on tires, condition of the suspension, etc. but can anyone tell me what the ballpark would be? Unfortunately, I didn't measure the height on my wagon before I did the suspension work but visually I think it was very close to my W123 sedan. I've included pics of my sedan which looks perfect (to me at least) and sits at 26 inches and my wagon now sits at 28 1/2 inches. I don't know, visually that 2 1/2 inch difference seems pretty huge. I'm not looking for people to tell me why the wagon is sitting so high (that's what my other thread is for) but more looking for a ballpark number of what the ideal front end height should be.

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Your sedan height looks quite normal. Mine is just 1/2 inch higher, but still within normal range. Your wagon's height looks excessive, although I don't have any factory specs to go by.

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If you have not driven it much yet I suggest you do and let everything settle in before doing any more work. Thinner spring pads are also an excellent option. If you are an inch too high a half inch lower bad will do it with the leverage of the suspension.

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..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I second that. I replaced the shocks and spring in my 240D sedan. It sat much higher after the job. You need to drive it around a bit to give it a chance to settle. A couple speed bumps did the trick for me.

Thanks for all the info. I do have a few updates and I also have few more questions.

So, when we first finished the job the front end was sitting at 29 inches and when I originally posted this post, with the above pictures, it was sitting at 28 1/2 inches. Now a few weeks after doing the job, it is sitting at 28 inches. So, obviously it has settled a bit more in the last few weeks. I just bought the correct, thinner shims that I plan to install, hopefully in the next week. I'm pretty sure the shims that I currently have are the 13mm in size and the new ones that I just bought are the 8mm shims. Although that's only a 5mm difference, from my understanding, should translate to about a 1/2 inch difference. Which would leave me at 27 1/2 inches. That's also before getting the front end alignment done which I hope will help out a bit too.

So here are my questions...

After installing the new shims, should I wait a few weeks and let it settle before getting the front end alignment done? I would assume that getting the alignment done first would be a waste if the car could possibly settle an inch or so after a few weeks. Right?

Next question, you say to drive it around a bit to help it settle. Is this really a better idea than letting it just sit for a few weeks? I have not been driving it because the alignment is still funky and I didn't want to get the alignment done until after I replaced the shims and gave the front end some time to settle. Should I be driving it instead to help it settle even though the alignment is off?

Thanks again for all the useful info!

I replaced all my front suspension and steering parts last summer. I gave it a crude alignment measured with rulers, strings, and levels and slowly got it all settled well enough for the short term. From that experience, I learned that the camber setting has a large effect on front end ride height.

If you turn the camber bolt such that the control arm pushes the knuckle further away from the car (adding negative camber), the ride height will drop down after a mile of normal bouncing / turning. It doesn't take much to make noticeable changes. Toe angle will go out too. It's a balance act on all three settings, but camber being slightly positive or zero caused the front end to ride higher. I'd vote for getting the alignment honestly. Given the fairly drastic effect the alignment settings will have on ride height, the shims might be ok as they are.

Also note, the camber bolts can go in with the washer lobes pointing generally up or down - near certain you want the lobes pointing up.

The car will definitely settle with some miles on the new parts, about a half inch.

Yeah, based on my research, camber seems to be the problem which I'm told will be adjusted during the alignment. Correct me if I'm wrong but the camber bolts are the same as the eccentric bolts that are attached to the lower control arms, right? If so, I loosened the upper and lower control arms and let the car sit for a few days to see if the ride height would go down a bit but it didn't seem to do much. Are you saying that I should actually take the camber bolts (eccentric bolts) and actually turn the bolts so that off center washer kind of thingy sits at a different angle? They way I have it right now, the off center washer thingy is sitting in a position where it looks even up and down but I think you are saying to twist it until the camber gets better. Not sure if my explanation makes sense?

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Correct, camber is adjusted with the eccentric bolts you pictured. By twisting the bolt with the nut loose, the eccentric washer lobes will push the bolt and lower control arm in toward the engine to make the camber more positive (think tractor front wheels in a "\ /"), or adjusted the other way push the lower control arms out away from the engine making the camber more negative (think Japanese 'tuner' cars, bottom part of the wheels squatted out and away from the engine centerline "/ \"). Without seeing where your eccentric lobes are positioned it's hard to say which way you'd need to adjust.

I suspect yours would be set too much like an old tractor "\ /" with the wheel tops further from the engine and the lower control arms too "drawn in". Easiest thing to do is take it to the alignment shop, they get the whole balance act between caster, camber, and toe all sorted out and very likely get your ride height back to spec in the process. I was able to copy my caster setting "good enough" from the old guide rods for short term use, so I can't speak to the complexity that setting being out of spec adds.

Stretch on this forum did a great write-up on how adjust these settings at home as well as any home alignment can be done, he warns that it's slow and takes a long time to set up and get the feel for. My partial efforts to copy his work confirm that. If you feel like toe and caster are "pretty close", you could just follow the steps for adjusting camber and see if that helps. If you're not sure, the shop is the surest bet. Adjusting the camber even a little will change the toe noticeably.

How I adjusted the toe in / out, camber and caster on my W123 300D

Yes, driving it will help it settle significantly faster. I drove mine around for two days before taking it to the alignment shop. I would do the shims as soon as you have the time, no point in getting the suspension to settle before you mess with it again. And you are correct the large bolts for the lower control arms adjust camber. When I did my suspension I forgot to mark the location of the bolt and washer, so when I reinstalled it I had lots of positive camber.

Yes indeed, mine is set like this, "\ /", AKA tractor mode. Okay, I think I get it now. Yeah, I'll have it professionally aligned after I replace the shims and give it a little while to settle. Thanks so much for the explanation.

Yes, I'll hopefully get the shims done this week and then give it a little bit to settle again and this time I'll drive a bit to help it out a little and then I'll have it professionally aligned.

I actually did a good job of marking the bolt and washer and making sure to replicate the other measurements I needed but I think that didn't work out for me because I didn't take into account that all the previous measurements/locations were based on bushings that haven't been changed since 1979 and had pretty much disintegrated. Every bushing was toasted behind belief so after putting in all the new bushings there's no way all the old settings would have worked out for me. Thanks for all the help!

****UPDATE****

I finally got around to replacing the shims on my front springs and getting the front end alignment done. I'm happy to report that it was a success and I am thrilled with the results. Here's the breakdown.

The shims come in 4 different sizes. I bought the smallest size which is 8mm thick. I thought I had the second size on my car, which is 13mm. I figured that 5mm wouldn't make much of a difference but when I removed the springs I was surprised to find that I actually had the biggest size shims on my car, 23mm. That's almost 3 times the size of the new shims. Very big difference. When I first replaced the front end suspension the front end was sitting at almost 29 inches and after sitting a few weeks it had dropped to 28.5 inches, still way too high. But after switching from the biggest size shims to the smallest size shims and after the alignment it now sits at 25.5 inches high. If anything, some might think it's a tad low but I think it's perfect, especially in relation to the back. The overall stance is perfect in my opinion. Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions and help. A bit of a pain to figure it out but very happy with the outcome.

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