Hi

I am in the same boat. I am in the process of replacing the driver side rear wheel bearing 0n a '87 560SL. I have worked on cars all my life, and done a few restorations. I feel if I can rebuild Porsche 911 engines, I should be able to handle this job. I have torn the side down, and verified that the bearing is bad. just the spindle is still intact, and it turns rough and noisey. The car was making a loud whirring noise. I isolated the problem by putting the car up on stands, and running it in drive. I got to the speed where the noise started, and blocked the gas pedal in position to hold this speed. I went to the underside of the car with a stethescope, and isolsated the noise to the driver side rear wheel bearing. We had two Mercedes mechanics tell us that it was the differential, and was going to cost 4500. to replace. I had a new differential ready to purchase, and was going to put it in without further investigation. Anyway, since I did not have any of the special tools, I removed the complete hub/backing plate assy from the control arm by doing the following: I took loose a bolt on the top, which attached to the rear sway bar, a "C" shaped piece that looked like a connecting rod clamp, and a large nut under a dust cap at the bottom of the control arm. This is a pivot joint with two tapered roller bearings. I disconnected the e brake cable at the center pull area in the middle of the car, as I could not figure out how to get it out of the backing plate. I now have the complete hub assy out, with the spindle still connected to the backing plate via the slotted nut. I tried to remove the nut with a drift pin, and hammer, but am thinking it might be a left hand thread. Not wanting to do any damage, I am thinking I should now take the backing plate assy to a Mercedes shop to have the bearing replaced. Is this the best approach? Would a machine shop know the bearing setting tolerances? I have several machine shops that I work with. Where does one purchase the special socket for the slotted nut? If I would have had this tool, would I have been able to get everything that I need to get out, without removing the whole backing plate assy?? Regaurdless, I am going to have to put this all back together myself, once the bearing is installed properly in the backling plate and I have some concerns. I noticed that alot of the bolts had what looks to be blue thread lock, or locktite on them. Is this locktite, or a special sealer that Mercedes uses? Everything else is pretty cut and dry, with the exception of the nut that was under the dust cap at the swivel joint under the control arm. This nut was not that tight, and seemed only to have the blue loctite holding it in place. What is the proceedure for setting the tightness of this bearing assy, and retaining the nut. Seems like they should have designed some sort of retaining clamp nut, like the front wheel bearing adjusting nut on some cars. How critical is the tightness of this nut. Seems like this is just a swivel joint. Can any one give me some assistance here.

Thanks to Tony, I found this thread. There are alot of us out here, who are very mechanicly inclined, and can do this kind of work ourselfs. I have been trained in large diesel engines, Jet propuslion on ships, Hydraulics, and just retired from a 30 year career as Heating, Air conditioning and Refrigeration mechanic. I have always done my own work on cars, and have a 38 year old Porsche that I maintain. This is my first Mercedes experiance, and I need to get this car back together safely, as it belongs to my Girlfriend. We are going to be getting it in pristene conditon, as we will be driving it for a while. Your pointers and help on this matter would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Rod