Are nipples any good?
 

Hello Everyone
When you get replacement steering parts; do you get them with or without nipples?

Without nipples is OEM standard.
With nipples is after market.:D :D

Nipples are good...

Whunter,

I like women with nipples. So they must be aftermarket ones.

P E H

whunter, where do you get the stuff with grease zerks, especially for the old stuff like daBenz? It gets tiring holding the needle on the grease gun after a while. Thanks in advance.

check with
 

Your local parts-R-us store.
Several after market companies make them.
Have a great day.

good
 

you can grease the joint and it seems to last longer.

Bad
 

You can over grease the joint; and split the dust boot.
Road junk can break the nipple off.
The nipple can become plugged.
On my 1985 300SD, I was forced to replace two nipples that where less than three weeks old, both nipples took a road junk impact.

whunter, most of my local yahoos won't even try ("Mercedes? Mercedes diesel? When did they start that? You want me to find a part for a 35 year old car?"). NAPA doesn't have them in their books, either. This site and the good people on it keep daBenz alive. I wish the ends were bigger, so I could braze a nut on the inside of the cap to screw a zerk into. Seems too tight to me, at least for my ends.

They are lying to you
 

NAPA does have them in their books, if you know where and how to look.
Blast; I hate it when lazy parts people lie...
I will try to make contact with Moog and others, for you.
Send me a list of what parts you want.

My first MB, a 180D, had more than 30 grease fittings. I always asked how much for a grease job first. I always watched and made sure they greased all the fittings because some were behind panels that had to be taken off to get at them.

That's a long way from the way cars are made now.

P E H

whunter, you might be taking your wife out to dinner for this one. I want to check to see if there are any part numbers stamped on them, and daBenz's building is still snowed in, so I will get in touch in a month or so (got another foot of the white stuff this week).

what parts do you suspect?
 

I need a graphic parts break out or part names.
Why wait for snow melt?

I've found at times that the NAPA is the only place I can get some of my MB parts.

nipples.. Are a goodness..



Grease fittings, I've started to doubt the worth of anymore.
If the initial greasing is suffecient, and the boot stays intact(!), I've had pretty good service out of non-greasable parts.
Though on principle, I prefer to have them...


Shame nobody makes polyurathane boots for tie rods and ball joints and such for the MB's, or poly bushings for that matter.
I've been extremly pleased with themon the vette and the challenger and a few other old hunks of domestic..

whunter, my Catalog B (parts diagrams) only shows one bar connecting the kingpins and one bar connecting pitman arm to the steering shock absorber (which I don't think I have... those Monday memories!). I think it's only the ball joints and their connectors, but I'll gin up a list when I look at the real thing. I want to do this once and be done with it.

Polyurathane boots for tie rods and ball joints and such are offered by after market.

Umm
 

To answer your question:
If you have king pins, there are no ball joints.
The tie rod ends, sleeves and center link are available.
But you need a real parts man to find them.

Are they generic or specificaly for the MB? Any experience with them on MB's?

MB specific
 

I have used the generic dust boots also, they worked fine for me.
They do not fit as well; but as long as you keep grease in them, they do the job.

I prefer my nipples without any grease on them!
http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung...smiley-040.gif

In times past I too would seek out replacement front end parts with grease zerks.

After taking my 240D to over 500,000 miles with the original, non greasable joints I decided that sealed joints are preferable at least for me.

You have your choice. You can grease them frequently for the lifetime of the joint and then replace them, or you can simply run them 'til they're worn out and then replace them. After the half million mile experience I just run 'em and replace them when they're worn out. Makes my oil change time much simpler and easier.

Good luck,

My joints are the "pull the cap" type. The hard decision is to do the job or not, as it's hard to find a competent 4-wheel alignment around here. I should get the parts description out by Tuesday, whunter, and I'll even try to use the correct terminology. East Texas will be glad to know that I brought the rain home with me after three weeks down there.

there are pro's and con's to this.......either way, I like the option of greasing joints......

Where
 

I was considering replacing w/ poly inserts instead of all new rods on several areas (Control arms for example). Are these also available? Where is any of the poly parts available?

Re: Where
 

Good question, you could contact Energy Suspension as they are a big manufacturerof them.

Ummm, the jury is still out?
 

Just replaced the entire front suspension on a pickup; after replacing OEM sealed joints only 7000 miles ago.

whunter: six months between Tuesdays? Jeepers, been away too much this summer and still haven't gotten part numbers. In my feeble defense I still haven't decided whether to to a job that isn't really needed. Rear end rubber comes first in preparation for daBenz's 35th birthday/my retirement cruise next spring/summer, and mowing spots I haven't touched this summer.

Was at a big car show in Monroe, MI last month while working at the power plant there. Needed a mouth diaper just looking at that old iron.

Oh well, been busy also.
 

(Big car show in Monroe, MI last month), that little thing???
GreenfieldVillage/HenryFordMeuseum, Cranbrook, Medowbrook, Detroit Auto Show and Woodward Dream Cruise are Big, Munroe show is very small.
Whish you had called me, I would have come over to talk.

Same here, not a big fan of greasy nipples. And I do like mine on the large side. :D

Squeaky Ball Joints!!!
 

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/112608-squeaky-ball-joints-post794885.html#post794885

Another good reason to have nipples. :D

As a side note:
My left front lower ball joint boot was mashed by a chunk of ice off the road. :mad:
I replaced the boot with a Jaguar XJ6 ball joint boot. :D

http://www.theautochannel.com/autoparts/suspensionbestjaguar/itemo7977_57410.html

Calling dabenz
 

Calling dabenz

Did you get the parts list together for your 1970 220D?

oh no, roy!
 

you're not sucking me in on this one...

or two.

tom w

I agree, i work at napa and i get "oh the napa in ##### didn't have a listing for that, and i think "idoits losing buisiness because one person is too lazy or ignorant to look in a bloody book."

Darn
 

I found the parts last month, and could not find this thread to post them. :o
Now I can't find the blasted list.. :(

I like grease fittings...
at one point some car manufacturers started making the place for greasing but putting solid plugs into the holes... the idea being that lazy people often just stuck a grease gun to the dirty nipple instead of cleaning the dirt off the end... thus forcing grit into the joint..
So you would have to take each solid plug out, put in the zerk fitting...and then take it out and replace the solid plug...
To do it correctly you do need to know to watch the boot and stop as soon as you see any swelling... to keep from blowing its seal...
At one time little caps were available to fit over the zerk fittings to keep them clean.

Roy, this would make a good sticky

If it dont have a nipple then if you are careful, you can back off the clip on the boot and fill some grease into it. It worked for me & after 800k miles the joints were not bad!
I also drilled into the back hubs & nippled so I could pump grease into the rear wheel bearings. It got rid of a bearing noise & saved a rear wheel bearing replacement.

The more nipples the better!! :)

I read all the way to post 11 before I discovered this started in 04. good thread. then no thread is too old to reread. :book2:

In post#30 I looked in the http://www.theautochannel.com/autoparts/suspensionbestjaguar/itemo7977_57410.html site to see the ball joint boots. too bad they don`t give sizes. they have them for about every vehicle.

they even have them for tie rod ends, though I don`t know if they have them for the MB. I had the car in the shop to have the ball joints replaced. they replaced the 3 I noticed that were bad but not the 4th. now it is ripped open.
the alignment shop couldn`t adjust the tie rods, said they were frozen. so the indie replaced them with new ones.

Now I notice the tie rod boots are cracked. think they would last more than 3 yrs or what ever it has been. I wonder if there is a boot for them?

Charlie

FYI:
 

Tie Rod and Ball Joint Rubber Boot Part# with links to buy.


0003300485 Tie rod and Drag link boot kit
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-parts-reference-library/248279-0003300485-tie-rod-drag-link-boot-kit.html


1165860533 upper control arm ball joint boot kit, W116, 123, 126
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-parts-reference-library/185269-1165860533-upper-control-arm-ball-joint-boot-kit-w116-123-126-a.html


0003330260 Dust boot, lower ball joint chassis W100, 107, 114, 115
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-parts-reference-library/247232-0003330260-dust-boot-lower-ball-joint-chassis-w100-107-114-115-a.html


1165860433 Repair kit...Lower control arm ball joint...W116, 123, 126
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-parts-reference-library/186247-1165860433-repair-kit-lower-control-arm-ball-joint-w116-123-126-a.html





.

Charlie,
I have learned the hard way not to use after market boots. I replaced a couple of tie-rod end boots for a road worthy a few years ago, they lasted all of a month. It looked like the grease made them crack. They looked good in the packet but you cant tell that they are made from C##P rubber.

Personally I think cold weather and cold water do wonders for nipples !!! :D:D

greasy nipples and a year later squeaky ball joints ??? :eek::eek: :D:D


A.D.D. is a good thing bring on the Ritalin !!

According to Mike at Energy Suspension ''We dont make any parts for the Mercedes platform''

Any other urathane options for MB's out there ?

Thank you for the info, I guess they all come out of the same chinese warehouse.
You would think the boot would last the life of the part, but then they wouldn`t be selling as many parts. this is all part of the planned obsolesence.

Charlie

I was surprised to find that the tie rod ends I bought at Murry's (O'Rileys) for my Focus had zerk fittings. You had to thread them in. Be careful not to overfill or you will dislodge the boot from it's seal.

Me LIKEE--But I dare not post any pics of my favorite ones--The kind like the big pencil erasers!

Rolls-Royce grease nipple.

http://i2.ebayimg.com/08/i/000/d3/a7/3d5a_1_b.JPG

Right about the time I can remember vehicles coming with sealed steering and suspension components (w/o grease fittings) my dad noted this change in manufacturing. He drilled and tapped holes and installed grease fittings on anything that moved up and down, right or left, including leaf spring hangers and u-joints. I remember him doing this on his brand spanking new 1982 Chevy S-10. Hell, my 1947 Plymouth has grease fittings on EVERYTHING, including the water pump. AND it has an oiler cap on the generator and a grease plunger on the distributor.:cool:

And yes, nipples are most awesome. The bigger, the better....hehe.

I just bought a 180D, gotta look for those fittings

Cross link
 

to related data.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/176291-whats-your-balls-upper-control-arm-joint-cut-open.html

If I don't see them, they are not looking my way...