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After careful inspection of the front calipers I decided to completely rebuild them. What I did was use an old set of pads and placed it between all the wheel cylinder pistons. I created an air hose out of an old brake line and put a ball valve between it. I attached this to the inlet of the brake line and presurrized the wheel cylinder which pushed out all the pistons just to the point of making it past the inner seal. I then removed the pads and gave it one last blast of air and one piston popped out. I then had to wiggle the other three to get them free. On the other side I found one of the calipers stuck so I made sure to extract that one first. There is no rust or pits in either the pistons or the cylinders so I'm good to go. I did clean things up a bit of course. In fact I have the calipers soaking in the parts cleaner now and will reassemble them tomorrow.
While the cylinders are soaking, I went back to work on the rear end of the car. As you know I have already removed the trailing arm from the car. Today my special tool to remove the slotted nut arrived. On the back of the flange you'll see the slotted nut. This nut is also bent over the grooves once you assemble it and have the right amount of free play. So what you have to do is unbend those little tabs and insert your special tool in the grooves. I used a screw driver to remove the outer seal and retaining ring. I then fired up the compressor and used my 1/2" impact and in a matter of a few seconds, the nut came right off! At this point the axle is still attached to the flange by means of pressure. What I did was take one of the old bushings from the trailing arm and used that as a punch tool (bottom right of pic). It's rubber and fits perfectly around the slotted shaft. It took about 5 blows and it all came apart (see pics).
I'm now going to take all this to the machine shop and see if they will pull the bearings, races and tensioning ring and press on all the new stuff. If they can do that for me I'll be ready to reassemble the rear driver's side.
At this point I can say the rear of the car has been pretty easy. As long as I can get the machinist to take care of the bearings I'll be happy with my progress. Today I asked the Mercedes dealer what they would charge to do nothing more than remove and replace my bearings and races. Keep in mind I have everything taken apart as the pics show. The dealer said it would be $350 for labor!!!
I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe another week or two of messing around and I'll be ready for a test drive.
Later,
-Tony-
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