So now the Trailing Arm on the driver's side has been completely removed. The next step would be to replace the wheel bearings. I've read several posts in this forum regarding this procedure and some would like you to think this is not a DIY. I however believe anything can be done if you just take your time and have the right tools. My plan is not to actually do the wheel bearings myself. Instead I'll have a local machine shop do the removal and installation of the new bearings and seals. However the removal of the flange requires a special tool called a "Pin Wrench Socket". For this vehicle it requires the SIR tool M 0027 which I purchased here:
http://shoptoolsshoptools.com/shopexd.asp?id=1051
This special tool fits the back side of the flange where the axle goes in. I have attached a picture so that you can see where this little tool goes. This nut is on pretty tight from what I understand and like everything else Mercedes, they have a special tool you can attach to the flange with a breaker bar and turning this nut will separate things. However you can also thread bolts through the flange and use a pipe to achieve the same thing or just weld a piece of pipe to an old drum and you're good to go.
My plan is not to do this work myself. Instead I plan to take the Trailing Arm along with the flange and the special socket to my local machine shop and let them take care of all this. Since this is a Mercedes we are talking about, and we all know how "special" these guys are, I'll print out the shop manual explaining all the steps required for replacing the bearings. When doing this you must replace the rear axle tension crush spacer on each wheel, and you only get one chance to pretension it (compress it) correctly, error means tearing it all back out and trying again so the manual and my instructions should help them get it right. I'm confident in the machine shop's ability to complete the job correctly and they're a great bunch of guys over there, but I'll be making sure they do it right of course.
I believe the special tool will arrive by Thursday or Friday so Friday is likely the day I'll bring this "driver's side" to the machine shop. If I'm lucky they'll have it done by Monday and I'll reassemble the driver's side. Once that is done I'll remove the passenger side and do the same thing. I should mention I'll be using synthetic grease for this step since synthetics tend to not break down like regular bearing grease might.
So some of you might be wondering why I'm not doing both sides at the same time. Well it's because I am not a machanic and I need a reference so that I can put this all back together the same way I took it off. By doing one side at a time I'll have something to look at. Note that the last time I worked on a car to this level I was about 16 years old. I'm now in my late 40's so I don't remember the difference between a control arm and a trailing arm. I'm just a guy that wants to say "hey, I did it all myself!".
I'll keep you posted on the progress as promised,
-Tony-