1987 W124 Front End rebuild.
 

I am starting to rebuild my new used 1987 Mercedes 300D Front End tonight, and I am going to do the brake rotors, ball joints and brake calipers and bushings and anything else I find, and I am a little nervous since all I have is the ALLDATA.DIY 1987 300D site. Between the Self Leveling suspension and ABS I may run into a few things that I could damage.
The front end shudders on braking, but only under certain conditions, and Im not enetirely sure its warped rotors..
Has anyone done this before and do they have any knowledge and advice on the matter.

Good luck with your rebuild. I have a question for you that's a little off-topic, but I am a new MB owner and am struggling with the lingo... what does W124 mean? I see it used often seemingly in place of a model #. thanks:cool:

It would be better to have the service CDs.

Do you have a plan for removing the springs? That is the hardest part of balljoint replacement.

Once you have the springs out, I would suggest replacing the control arm bushings and eccentric bolts for good measure.

Brakes are pretty straight forward.

W124 is body style.

300E, 260E..... all are 124 body

W124 is the chassis designation for 1986-1995 300E, 300D, 300TE, 300CE, 400E, 500E, and so forth.

W124, W123...
 

W123 is a chassis name that covers the range of models (somebody correct me..) 1977? to 1985 inwhich many parts are interchangeable, from doors, to seats, to windows. It includes the 240D normally aspirated Diesel and 300D turbo Diesel models. This is the most successful and widespread model Mercedes made.

Mercedes stopped building cars on the W123 chassis in 1985. After that they introduced the W124 chassis which goes up to the mid 1990's and which I think? includes 300E Gas and 300D Diesel models...

Can anyone add to this?

As long as you are under there doing the front end rebuild, I would suggest that you also replace the steering parts beyond the gear box. It is not that expensive (parts are like $120, drag link, steering damper, tie rods [2]) and will give you nice tight steereing and all new rubber. Just a suggestion since your car is 17 years old. It made a world of difference on my '86

Figure out how you're going to get the springs compressed SAFELY.

Note the position of the control arm bushings as they are installed into the control arm. They are NOT symmetric.

Regards,

I would suggest you get a book, ALLDATA is sometimes more accurately called 'NODATA'

ToadHall books and Books4Cars both have w124 manuals, that are *pretty* good.

The springs (SAFETY!!)---
 

You are right about that.

I have everything off right now except the springs.

At least ALLDATA did say that the springs are the Deflection stop point and to support the control arm prior to removing the strut! I know a kid down the street who loosened his top nut and was saved from serious injury only for the fact that he happened to lean his tire there...

Struts--replace?
 

Should I replace the struts at this point? the car has 200K + miles...

Most likely you'll have to have the lower ball joint pressed out and the new one pressed in by a shop. I recently did this job on my 300SE and I tried to do it myself but couldn't.

Do a search in the tech forum for ball joint or front end. This has been covered before. You're not alone.

Re: Struts--replace?
 

Can be done later without removing springs, though it is a convenient time.