Newbie's 250C

[andersbenz]

Nice car, great color, love the column shifter.

[NewWilOrder]

Originally Posted by andersbenz

Nice car, great color, love the column shifter.

I assume you're referring to the green & not the rust...

Thanks, though!

[alabbasi]

It wouldn't be a W114 coupe without the rust.

[Pooka]

I went through several of these and then I wne to the Mercedes dealer and bought the OEM bolts. They snapped, too.

I then bought some more bolts from Mercerdes and took them to a bolt dealer in Dallas and purchased a brand of bolt called 'Unbreako' that are rated at 350,000 pounds of force. They used the OEM bolts to make sure I had the right size, length and threads.

This is a very common problem on all 114 and 115 cars. After 40 years these bolts have had a lot of stress put on them and do need to be replaced.

Pooka

[Mike D]

While we're still on the subject of gear box bolts, let me restate the "torque" part. Do not just whack at them with an impact wrench and in fact most of the problems arise from using an impact. That is a hollow frame rail box you are crushing with the rear two bolts and a flate sheet panel on the front bolt.

Look up the proper torque setting for your vehicle and tighten the bolts to the specification.

Most of the frame rail repairs consist of welding a large plate over the crushed/rusted outer frame rail. The plate distributes the stress over a large area of unstressed metal. The same way the original design worked before metal fatigue weakened the rail.