Well I had a bad on happen last night. The lower control arm broke off at the front of the bearing bolt. Now I need a lower right control arm, inner and outer bushings, a steering knuckle, shock, upper control arm bushings , kingpin and its bearings, torsion bar bushings, and the torsion bar connecting linkage. Park Place Mercedes quoted me $6000.00 parts and labor.
I'm going to pick up the car and do the work myself. I was shocked by their price. It anyone can help me with parts let me know.
71 280 sel

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Britton McIntyre

68 280 SE coupe 'Hairball'
70 280 SL
71 280 SEL - RIP May 2010

Ouch, you did a good'n. Do a search for used parts, most MBs back then used the same front end parts, so they're not rare.

Bone yard says me, gotta be 108 somewhere in Texas bone yard. Junkies cuttin out an entire parts car suspension system in 30 minutes. Then replace the entire side instead of piece-meal parts swap. Kingpin knuckles have knack for seizing up, dont wanna wrastle with them.

Saw an excellent complete 108 in Reno NV junkyard last month, snatched window switches for my 116.

Im sorry that happened, but Id like to see how the control arm failed. Try working with Phil here on buying parts through this site, maybe he could give you a good deal.

Junk yard is best for the structural pieces, but like all the consumable, rubber goods try www.peachparts.com and buy parts.

Hope it turns out ok.

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Current Stable:
1994 S500 v140, 210k miles, white with grey.

Former Mercedes in the Stable:
1983 300CD Turbo diesel 515k mi sold (rumor has it, that it has 750k miles on it now)
1984 300CD Turbo Diesel 150 k mi sold
1982 300D Turbo Diesel 225 sold
1987 300D Turbo Diesel 255k mi sold
1988 300 CE AMG Hammer 15k mi sold
1986 "300E" Amg Hammer 88k mi sold (it was really a 200, not even an E (124.020)
1992 500E 156k mi sold
etc.

a new kingpin and kits for each end of it are something like 200$. The two inner pivot kits together should be about the same.

Yours likely died because they didn't get greased for 20+ years. Even if you greased them recently, most likely the PO didn't.

They can put up with a great deal of abuse and ware before they finally go.

Like the man said, get a used set. The basic steel parts are all the same across the W108 line, except for the spring.

Another thing to remember is that whatever you do to one side of the front suspension, you should do to the other so that the level of ware is always comparable. It helps keep you from steering into a ditch or worse.

BTW, there is a guy on ebay selling the inner pivot kits for about 50$ each. I have heard some speculation that he's not trustworthy, but I have no positive or negative experiences of my own to relate. If you use his parts, make sure you pay by credit card.

-CTH

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- cth350@gmail.com
http://www.111lakeside.com/

Had both of mine break. Neither were due to the suspension not being greased or bad kingpins.

I think the NEPA potholes had a lot to do with it (as well as our horrible stone driveway that was 1/4 mile long)

When I replaced the passenger side, the used arm I grabbed had new inner bushings. That was all I replaced, and it was fine.

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Current:
2021 Charger Scat Pack Widebody "Sinabee"
2018 Durango R/T

Previous:
1972 280SE 4.5
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited "Hefe", 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo "Jeepy", 2006 Charger R/T "Hemi"
1999 Chrysler 300M - RIP @ 221k

I started to repair and overhaul both sides of the control arms and king pins. I will be post some photos on the process. It is not too difficult just very time consuming. Every part that I pull has to be cleaned and checked for wear. I should be able to do everything for under $1000. in parts.

__________________
Britton McIntyre

68 280 SE coupe 'Hairball'
70 280 SL
71 280 SEL - RIP May 2010