I paid $70 for the used parts. One of the helpful characters there said it would be about $50 more if he had pulled it, about what Britton paid. They threw in the trunk mat for free, too. I also got familiar with the pieces.
Today I am ordering parts. Those 8 rubber grease seals for the bearing bolts are still giving me trouble. The dealerships want to sell me the "repair kits" which as you know are $400 each, so I am very glad to know Britton got just the seals for a reasonable price. I will call the MB classics center tomorrow, it was too late today because of calling dealerships in WA and deciding, finally, where and what parts to get.
The rubber insulators for the tops of the coil springs come in a half dozen different thicknesses. I was hoping to order them before I looked at my old ones. The dealerships want $70-$90 for middle range ones. But now I will see what's left of the ones on there, first, and hopefully buy them for less from the source of the rubber seals... The differences in thickness translate to how level the car sits. I've still got squeaky noises coming from our rear springs, except whan it's wet out. I wonder if they too come in different thicknesses in case I choose a wrong thickness for the front. (suggestions on this welcome!)
After looking at prices and sources, with the car itself untouched so far, and after several trips to look at various components to see what condition they appear to be in, I have been a bit surprised at what I am actually ordering:

a sub frame mount kit
some anti-rust paint ("Miracle" paint)
Chip Guard black spraypaint
motor mounts
shock absorbers (one of the old ones is bent)

I am surprised because when I started out reading Britton's post I had no inkling I would do the motor and sub frame mounts, yet, after a trip to the junkyard and a half a day hanging out with the sad remains of what used to be fine cars and trucks, I dread rust, accidents, the crusher....more than before I went! My list, so far, is mostly for preventative maintenance!

Apparently the toe-in has been out for some time: the tire inner surfaces are bald, so I will be getting tires also.

Next, I'll actually get to start working on the car. I'll be inspecting the link and king pins carefully. Luckily I get to work outside where there's plenty of fresh air! (couldn't find the heavy sarcasm icon...)

Basil

I have a 1973 280SE 4.5 that runs like a top. I've had the engine mounts and sub-frame mounts replaced along with new tires and brakes (pads and rotors). I recently had a complete suspension inspection and we found that the front nut on the lower bearing bolt looks like the end (wrench flats) has been drilled out of shaved off. It hard to describe, but my mechanic thought that a grease cap had come off. We got one from a salvage yard and it has an inner and outer thread with wrench flats. The part with the wrench flats is missing. What do you think?

I know two mechanics at different shops (they do very good work). One wants to replace the damaged nut by compressing the spring with a jack and replacing the damaged nut with the salvaged part and the other want to weld a piece of metal to retain the grease. Without the wrench flats I was wondering how the lower bearing bolt could be removed from the lower control arm. I hope this makes sense.

What should I do?

Look at the arm on the other side of your car and make repairs accordingly. I doubt welding on a grease filled part will be successful. Or get new. Don't fool around with this, it's a very important part of the suspension.

The steel cup that screws into the control arm? Is the control arm itself damaged?
Having the cup damaged either requires a badly applied wrench (human error) or something rubbed against it and ate it. Neither is good, but one requires more parts to be replaced.

-CTH

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

A photo would help or refer to one of the photos in this thread. Do you have just a threaded bolt sticking through the lower control arm? If so, then the bearing bushing has come off. This is very bad. You could get a new or used bushing. If you are lucky, there will not be any damage to the control arm and/or the bearing bolt. Make sure that bushing is the right one.

Good luck

__________________
Britton McIntyre

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

I'm finishing up the long overdue process of replacing my w111's front end rubber and inspecting the suspension pivots. My question is, how much play should there be in these hard control arm pivots? In other words the:

(per side)
2 lower inner bearing cup/threaded shaft pivots
2 upper inner bearing cup/threaded shaft pivots
lower outer threaded screw/knuckle pivot
lower outer knuckle/kingpin pivot
upper outer kingpin/threaded screw/camber eccentric pivot

This last part troubles me as well. I bent my upper control arm tangs out a little bit by screwing the frozen eccentric around before I resorted to sawzalling it off (which worked like a charm BTW). Will these tangs just bend back together when I install the new one or should I just get a new upper arm? My fear is more that my castor alignment could be off front to rear more than the arm might actually be weakened. We're talking less than a half inch between the two here. Still, I'd hate to get this all done and have rotten alignment specs due to this.

I have a brand new upper camber eccentric "kit" with the threaded screw and a new lower knuckle kit with the screw and it still seems to have a little play in it. I bought solely these parts before the whole ball of wax just so I'd have a basis to compare my other joints with. How do you know when a little is too much?

Lastly, My kingpins appear to be solid and have very little play, I'd say just the right amount. It was mostly the outer threaded bolts I mentioned above with undue play. If I disassemble my kingpins in order to clean out ancient hardened grease/etc, would it be okay to simply re-grease and re-assemeble them as-is?

TIA!

__________________
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1967 230S automatic
Boston, MA