Wire coat hangers are made of some pretty crappy metal these days. I guess better than no spring. In the OPs case he had never seen he springs before.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Agree. My dad used to use a coathanger for welding. Wonder if they are made of the same thing today.

The coathangers with a paper tube across the bottom, (not seen any of those in a while), are/were made of thinner wire. Were made of better iron/steel. will work in a pinch for welding.

The all metal ones are like bed frame metal, the "chorizo" of steel, including snouts & arseholess!

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"I applaud your elaborate system of denial"

The wire springs won't go in. So, I ordered the good kind of springs from Pelican. They should be here Friday. I've been without my 300CD for 5 days now. The wire springs that came with my Duralast calipers don't fit in the calipers.

These are what I have ordered.

I haven't moved that car because I don't have the correct springs. Others have said that many calipers don't have springs and they do just fine. Are these springs just an optional add on? Or will they not function properly without them? I'm asking about actual function.

See the attached pictures. The last picture shows the springs orientations before the pins are inserted.


This has bendix calipers
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mercedes+W123+Brake+Pads+Rear+Replacement/21531

Attached Thumbnails

     

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Those are good pics; I could not find any. If they actually shipped you Bendix calipers that flat retainer will not work (that new retainer that you - are ordering is for ATE and it looks substantially different from the old ones - but maybe will work)

If the supplier actually sent you a Bendix caliper, go back to the springs. If he sent an ATE, use the flat. The ATE calipers used to have ATE in the casting of the caliper but I do not know if the new ones have that.

Thinking you may have been shipped a Bendix as you requested, go back and try to install the springs as shown in the pics and let us know.

It is truly a five minute job.

Those springs won't fit as shown in the pictures.

Greg is correct. If you actually have Bendix, the flat cross will not work. Go back to the springs and install as shown in the pics.

Well, I got the cross style spring from Pelican. It installed in about 4 minutes. Would have been faster if I wasn't doing it for the first time. Obviously, Autozone sent me ATE style calipers with Bendix style springs. I have requested that they refund me the cost of the springs I got from Pelican. (Yeah, right!!) That was frustrating and it caused me to go a week without my car!

Go back to your fist post. All that I posted is trying to answer that. I see from post #25 you gave the wrong information in your original post.

And for some reason I am not having any sympathy or empathy for you going without a car for weekend.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

A few people were helpful here. But, it was impossible for them or me to know that Autozone had mixed the wrong parts. Problem resolved now.

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (113k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
1993 300SD (291k)
1993 300D 2.5T (338k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (265k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K)
1985 300D (233K)

I found out what I did because I took the time to look up and learn the information. I answered your trigonal question.

Best of luck to you.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Diesel911, You didn't answer any questions. No one could have known that they supplied springs that didn't match the calipers that they sent. The pics posted by JHZR2 helped a lot though. Thanks JHZR2!!