PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Kuhlrover · #9 06-07-2007, 11:34 AM

Eyeballing something like this is very difficult. It is hard to see straight while your head is tilted, lighting is questionable and you don't have square edges as a reference point. Mostly likely it is what the other folks have said, which is you have a bad bushing or a collapsed support or arm due to damage or rust. None of these are good things and potentially very dangrerous. I suggest you jump right in and have that arm or bushing repaired.

However, if you want to play around with diagnosing what is crooked, you can do the following. Get the car on a level surface. Preferrably concrete. Get a piece of chalk and a plumb bob connected to some string. On both sides of the car (the good wheel and bad wheel in the back) hang the plumb bob off of several points on the suspension and body parts in the area. Mark where the plumb bob is on the concrete surface with the chalk. Good points to mark are like the center of the axle, the center line of the support bushing, identifiable marks on the body and so on. Mark the same spots on both sides. You may want to map the marks on a piece of paper with a description of where you took the mark from. Then roll the car back and get a view of what is out of alignment. When you mark the different connection points of the support arm, after the car is rolled back, use a straight edge to draw a line between the points. Do this on both sides. You can also draw lines beteen common body points. What you are looking for are things that are not symetrical between the good and bad side.

I have used this method to diagnose a bent chassis on my suburban which has a fixed axle in the back with no adjustment. I was able to determine if the chassis rails were out of square of if it was a bent spring shackle.

TimK