97 w140 coupe. Put car on lift and confirmed steering box is cause of play in wheel. It has 80 k on it. Would it be wiser to purchase a new box and install it myself or take it to shop and have to old one adjusted/rebuilt. My concern is if wear has occured can adjustment really bring it back to orignal tolerances.


It looks to me that new box is about same cost as shop labor to Repair old box. How difficult a job is it to remove old box. Newbie on MB, but old timer on Jags. Rebushed and replaced a few xj40 racks.

petel,
Ugh, only 80K and the box is loose? Just did a quick search on www.car-part.com (web based search engine for salvage yards) and see that you can buy a used box for your car for as little as 150 dollars. Might be worth considering. Don't normally hear folk complaining about the steering box in the W140s, so you may simply have a bad one... ?
If one of the techs has seen this before, I'd be curious to know. My '96 S500 Coupe has about 88K miles on it... is this another area to watch?
Anyway, had to smile when I read your comment on Jags... like you, I'm new to MB (got mine in January), but suffered through my "Jag experience" with a Series II XJ12L... folks that complain about MB reliability should try a 70s/80s Jag and see what British engineering is like... especially the Lucas systems, eh? Rebuilt the V12 and it was a work of engineering art (despite the leaks!) but the rest of the car was like a helicopter... for every hour you drove it, several hours of maintenance was necessary... :-) I understand they're much better since Ford bought them, but I'll never own another.
Good luck, keep us posted.
And, congrats on your beautiful W140 Coupe... !
KenP

depite the headaches I still cant resist a jag. Still have a 99Xk8.
I purchased the s500 from a friend so I have all records. the car now has 152k on it. It looks like new box at 70k. At 150K the dealer r&r the second as it was leaking. I thought w140 used same box as other MBs. I have seen some posts that reflect box wear around 70-100k. I was hoping for a bad steering column bush, but no such luck. I never had much luck with used parts. I found it to be to much of a crap shoot. Maybe if there was a way to know how many miles where on it I got for it.

Yep, I know what you mean... Jag designers do a nice job. Even my POS XJ12 was gorgeous to look at. When it ran right (rare), it was wonderful... really like the new XKs and understand they're pretty good reliability wise.
My experience with several of the yards that list on car-part.com has been excellent. If you give them the number from the listing, they will tell you what car and how many miles are on it. They'll also guarantee the part for a limited time. I've found they generally don't answer emails so a phone call is best.
The menu they use on their web site makes it clear that your steering box is used in a number of W140s... good news. As you know, a lot of the Coupe parts aren't common. Ought to be fairly easy to tell on the bench whether or not its got a lot of play in it.
I've got the procedure/service steps for removing and replacing the steering box... if you want me to send it to you, send me an email at gearhead285@hotmail.com. Doesn't look too bad... but, have never done it myself.
There are also procedures for adjusting the friction and "play".
KenP

Yes, all 140 and 129 owners should be on the lookout for leaking steering gear boxes.
Recommend a reman (if available from MB) or a new box if no reman is available. Problem with resealing the boxes is that several special tools are required to do the job correctly, but they aren't tools that MB requires the dealers to buy, so few have them.
Seen cases where shop #1 tried to reseal, then owner brought car to shop #2 for a proper repair, which is to either buy the tools and do a proper repair, or sell the owner a different box. Owner was of course "out" on job #1.

Gilly

German Star sells rebuilt box for $595, but it is not MB Rebuilt. Have you heard of non mb boxes not holding up. Is dealer only source for MB Rebuilt. Any idea of cost? Thanks

No, I don't know anything about the non-MB rebuilt boxes. I would assume a company which is selling their own reconditioned boxes went ahead and bought the tools required to do the job properly.
They should be available from any supplier of MB parts, such as FastLane. They are sold as a regular part, although if a reman/reconditioned box is available, they will want your old box back as a core.
Usually a reman box, if available, will be between $500-1000, or if no reman is available a new one is more like $1000-2000.

Gilly

Rebuilt box on its way from Phil. I wll report how R&R went soon.