My engine is running really well. I just got back from an approximately 2000 mile drive to central Washington and then the Washington coast. I was getting clunking for the second half of the trip. Gotta be bad motor mounts, you can see some of the rubber degraded in them. It runs really smooth when it’s at speed, the clunking is at startup. I drove home, I hope I don’t end up regretting that.

This is a turbo, I mention that because I’m guessing I’m going to have to take off the turbo plumbing and the air cleaner to be able to access the unit on the passenger side.

The item that has me flummoxed at the moment is removing the engine shock absorbers. I bought the mounts from Kent and he includes his PDF tutorial. It’s better than nothing, but it goes into no detail about removing the shocks.

On a search I found information that the lower part of the shock absorber shaft just on the other side of the flange from the 10 mm nut below is supposed to have a 7 mm flat spot to hold the shaft while you are loosening the nut. On both sides of my car the shaft is completely round and smooth.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to replace the shocks, I thought I would go through the test procedure Kent outlines on one of his videos. Now I’m thinking I’m going to need to use a vicegrip around the shafts, grabbing the upper part of shaft in order to loosen the nut. I don’t think putting marks in the shaft would be a good idea unless I’m going to replace it.

A pair of them only costs about $75 from Pelican. My car is closing in on 150k, and is, of course 40 years old. I’m thinking I’ll replace the shocks while I’m at. It only makes sense. I should’ve ordered them by now.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Go ahead and replace shock. When you get the new one look closely and you will see the "flats" where you put the 7mm. Are you using a bright light to look at them from under the car when looking for the flat sections on the shaft. As stated, use vice grips if you are replacing them and you don't find the flat part.

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Jim

I am not just trying to find them visually. I turned the nut with a 10 mm wrench, it turns easily, while I do so I can touch the other side of the shaft, leading from the housing up to the body of the shock, and as I turn it, I feel nothing but perfectly round shaft. I’m certain I would feel a flat part if it was there. I’m thinking I might try an old trick, putting a couple of little squares of thick leather onto the jaw tips of vice grips with hot glue. You can grip the hell out of a bolt without damaging the threads.

I suppose there is a chance new ones were put in backwards, but it seems really unlikely. The first owner was a career VW mechanic.

This will be a hard job. I replaced the motor mounts on my ‘81 300SD way back when, this one looks harder. Somehow, I will survive.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Concerning the end of the shock with the 7mm flat. The shaft is screwed to the inside piston. If you don't put a wrench on the 7mm flat, it is possible to unscrew the shaft form the inside position and when it pulls out the fluid inside of the shock itself comes out and you ruined the shock absorber. I know this because it happened to me.

Allow when I bought the new engine shock the surviving old one seemed better than the new one.

Personally I would do what is needed to replace the motor mounts with Lemforder (there is I think 2 threads that shows they are the same as the Mercedes ones. They are made by phoenix in Turkey, lemforder buys them and grins off the Mercedes star and boxes them.) or Swag motor mounts.

After the mounts are replaced than drive the car and see if you need new engine shocks.

The pisser on the engine shocks is the mounts. Typically, the rubber part of them is rotted out and they were expensive.

Another issue I caused myself was I inserted the long lower bolt and tightened that down and when I did the other one the hole was not lined up and I bugged the first thread or 2 trying to get the bolt in. Fortunately, I had a tap the correct size and chased the threads.

What helps precent that is screw one bolt in but don't tighten it. Us a long-tapered punch to line up the other hole and carefully screw the bolt in. After that tighten both bolts.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Stock 84 300D Motor Mounts the same as Lemforder; pics show proof

The Motor Mounts from Mercedes are made by Phoenix in Turkey and have the Mercedes star, Mercedes part number and the Phoenix logo on them. Lemforder grinds off the Mercedes star but the rest of the info is there. There is a few threads where this is documented with pictures.

Stock 84 300D Motor Mounts the same as Lemforder; pics show proof

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Try this cmac - hold the 7mm open ended wrench up hard against the very end and turn nut. This is how I've had to do it without really saying I could "see" the flats. The flats will be right up under where the rod goes through the bracket at the nut end.

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Jim

Do you mean the other two? Just trying to navigate what you’re referring to, the one from below would be the big 8 mm allen bolt, and then the smaller ones, one on each side. That absolutely makes sense, not to tighten it down until you get them all in. I’ve had to chase the threads before, OMG, I want to avoid that.

That’s a little bit alarming about being able to twist the shaft out. I don’t think I turned them that much.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I hear what Diesel is saying about aftermarket possibly not being as high-quality as OEM. I’ve never heard anything bad about Stabilus, the brand that is now available.

Mainly, I’m thinking that with the kind of shaking these engines can do, shock absorbers are going to wear out. Only had 129k when I bought it, but it spent its entire life in Eugene, Oregon - in other words, probably a lot of local trips, not a lot of freeway driving. After nearly 40 years of use, seems like new shocks would be a good way to go.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Kent describes a method for testing the shock absorbers (engine). Need to get that nut off and then remove the large rubber bushing. Both of those are in good shape on mine, though one has a lot of oil or tranny fluid on it. I really need to put a $2000 to $3000 bill into getting all the leaks stopped. It’s beyond my capacity now, I don’t have a good enough facility for it. It has to be both oil and tranny fluid. It’s often black, and I add too much tranny fluid. The seals are probably in bad shape. Almost certainly more like it.

That’s a lot of money, but my total investment so far including purchase price is 6 to 7000. So I have to ask myself, is $10,000 for one of these cars with 200,000 left on the clock a good investment? I think it is, this car runs and looks great. I’m always getting props for it.

Also on the menu are the more common shock absorbers all around. Not certain they are bad. I’ll look into it carefully. The money would be better spent on the leaks at this point.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The one engine shock I replaced was made by Sachs. The old one had more resistance to movement than the Sachs one did.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Stabilus is a reputable brand.

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Jim

Glad to hear a vote of confidence on that brand.

As long as I’m going be working in this tight spot and have the option to put them in pretty easily, now seems like the time to do it. I’ll closely examine the ones I take out to see if I can determine whether or not they are OEM.

I don’t know the exact history of this car. The VW Mechanic who bought it new died before I bought it, not sure how many years before. The indie garage who I bought it from told me that all the titles were at the owner’s house and his wife was in the hospital. Turns out they had lost it. I had to jump through hoops to title it and get CA plates. I spoke with the old man’s granddaughter at the address on the registration in his name, she saw the car on the street, so she believed my story, she forwarded my email to her mother who had driven the car for at least 10 years after her father got too old to drive. She was of immense help in dealing with OR DMV.

Wild ass guss, he quit driving it and working on it around 80k to 90k. I don’t imagine one would need to replace motor mounts and shocks at that mileage, so my guess is OEM are in place now.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I had forgotten about this website; I just came across it in a pile of papers on my desk. If you sign up for their diy repair manuals, they have some excellent exploded drawings to help you get your car repaired.

yes, it is a few dollars to join, however I figure your time is worth something.....

https://www.alldata.com/diy-us/en

Looks promising, I’ll check it out. I used to think a website that had accumulated tips on how to remove dashboards and other trim in many different models could be useful, Might be a money maker.

One time I had to take the dashboard out in my Dodge Omni. This around the year 2000. One bone yard had a bunch of them, I went in and practiced on one of those, I figured the chances of anybody wanting to buy a dashboard out of one of those was slim. It worked out pretty well, I figured out where to pull and where not to pull.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I'll be damned, right you are. I couldn't feel it with my fingers, but the wrench damn sure grabbed it.

Now I have another small dilemma. I really need to fix this oil/tranny fluid leaking. The bushings are halfway greasy on the engine shock mounts, and I'm having trouble finding any for sale. I don't get it, they are available for numerous other Benzes. The W123 is reportedly the best selling Mercedes of all time, you would think the aftermarket would be stepping up for some of that money.

Anybody know where to get them? I have the shocks, but I'm wondering if I should just put in the mounts, continue using the old shocks and after I get the oil leaks fixed, put in the new shocks with new bushings.

My take now is that replacing the shocks later by themselves won't be that big of a deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, I would only need to undo the two single main bolts through the mounts to the engine arms and then jack up the engine an inch or two to change the shocks. It seems to me that the really hard part of this job is undoing the two smaller bolts on each side holding the mounts to the frame.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K