88 300E Rear Suspension Rebuild

[moohampshire]

I am going to replace all the I call them Links to the rear end of my sons 88 300E. I got all the parts from Phil at Fastlane for a great price. I have all the manual instructions for the replacement of each of the links. Is there a preferred sequece of which one to replace first and so on. If not I will start from the top and work my way down.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[david s poole]

do yourself a favor and plan on replacing the 4 rear subframe bushings.

I personally will not replace parts that are not bad. If one of the dog bones is bad you will see pieces of rubber poking out of it.

Same goes for the differential mounts. You can shake the third member and tell if they are loose. These are the most common problem when feeling rear end looseness.

Check everything before you get under to do the job and have parts on hand. Replacing EVERYTHING will sometimes result in more problems than you started with.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Ron in SC]

You may find that the rear ball joint which is pressed into the wheel carrier may need replacing too. See links.
88 300E rear suspension- R&R of lower pivot bushing
Clanking noise from rear of 300TE: What's the source?