After the tranny swap and the resulting significant reduction in weight, her front end didn't want to play well with her back end. The fore/aft mismatch in springing made the frontend feel like it skittered and hopped while the back had the same soft MBZ ride.

After some research in the FSM, I determined that the front springs in my 240D parts car, which had a softer spring rate, might just work to both lower the ride height and soften the ride.

So last night, I finally got around to replacing the front springs on the lovely and charming Marlene with the ones from the 240D. The results are, well, far better than I expected!

Now, when traveling over uneven surfaces at speed, the front and rear of the car seem to move together as an integrated system. On curved overpasses she doesn't feel as if she's going to leap over the side after the 4th or 5th joint in the roadway surface. Definitely worth a mashed thumb and 3 hours worth of work!

An additional benefit was that these springs also lowered the front end so that the wheel now sits at a more appropriate place in the fender opening, not 'jacked-up' like some kind of stupid looking monster truck.

See what you think:

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Randy,

Looks fantastic. My SDL looks just like the "former" picture. Got any ideas for it

Is it my imagination or did the REAR fenderwell come up a bit?

Yes it looks to me like the rear end on the first is down and front is up. My car will do this if I set it on jacks or park unevenly for a while, eventually the front comes down and rear goes back up.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

No adjustment was made to the rear but, in the 'before' pic, the engine had been shut down for 15-20 minutes and it's possible that the suspension had bled down a little. In the 'after' I had just shut the engine off so, the suspension was still completely 'pumped' up.

My primary goal was to get a softer spring rate on the front; the lowered ride height was a sidebar benefit.

I don't know much about the 126 springs but if the 420SE is lighter than the 300SD, it may be possible to procure a set of 420 springs and use them in similar fashion. An alternative of last resort would be to remove the springs and actually remove part of the coil to decrease the ride height. The spring rate would not be changed but, since you haven't removed a lot of weight from the car, this may be a non-issue for you.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

How about putting you and SWMBO in the front seats and THEN measure ?

I'm not going to tell her you said that.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

ok...not sure if this is right...but....

SWMBO = She who may be ornery?

Randy, looks great.....is that a flagpole in the yard behind it, or a basketball goal?

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1998 W202 C230 - The money pit of late.
1984 W126 300SD (356,800 miles) Gone to the wrenchapart
1984 W123 300D Gone to the wrenchapart
1972 W108 280SE 3.5 (sold but not forgotten)
1986 Buick Grand National 3.8l Turbo (86k miles)
1966 Glassic Model 'A' Replica http://www.glassicannex.org

http://banners.wunderground.com/weat...Round_Rock.gif

Close. She Who Must Be Obeyed

ex-basketball goal, now a door banger.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Gawd I hope my car doesn't have a pump for the suspension. Waiting for the vacuum locks to lock me out is bad enough....

(1980 240D)

Only 300TDs have the pump for the rear suspension, if neglected it can get really expensive to fix too.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

Nice looking wagon you got there. Looks just like mine, right down to the paint color! Except for your tinted windows. I'm going to do that on mine, too. What percentage of tint did you get there?

And by the way, does anyone know if there's a way to adjust the "standard" height for the rear suspension on the wagons? I mean, the height that the systems strives to stay at when the car is running? I would like to raise mine a smidge to give the car a little more rake.

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'81 300TD turbo <<sold 12/05 to another diesel nut

Jeff, there are sedans which have the rear leveling system..... what method do they use to power it ?

Maybe later in the years they might use air compressors but in the W123 times I don't think there were any other self leveling other than the 300TDs system, or at least none that I know of.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

Thanks for the kudos! I'm quite fond of her too. I can't answer your question about the tint; it was done almost a year ago. I think it's the max legal in Texas.

Check the forum for this answer. Search on 'self leveling suspension, hydropneumatic, adjust, etc, etc...'

FWIW —After reading the FSM sections on the SLS, it appears that both the 123 and 116 limo length chassis' and specially equipped taxi models of the 123s were available with the engine-powered (cam chain) SLS as an option. Specialty coach builders of ambulance, hearses also used the same SLS engines.

It's anyone's guess what gassers had the SLS or how many and what models of SLS equipped 123s and 116s made it to the states.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

they had the same SLS system in sedans and coupes here (Aus) i think it was optional, my old 77 240d and my 78 280ce both have it.