I just got rid of my '87 four months ago. The maintenance was about to kill me. The rear suspension work was probably the easiest chore I had to do. The "links" were fairly easy to replace, but it did take some muscle! I too engineered my own puller tool for the sub-frame bushings. I bought some threaded rod, some washers, nuts, and two very large sockets. One socket was used to push the bushing, the other to accept it while it was pushed out by tightening down the nuts. It worked very well!

The biggest chore I had was the evaporator core. This was 22 hours of labor. Nothing hard about it, just tedious.

I also rebuilt the front end of the car. The front ball joints were a chore compared to the ball joints on my 123. I also replaced the shocks all around. This was probably the easiest job.

I also did the water pump, vacuum pump, transmission gasket, and many other parts.

The straw that broke my back was when the car started hemorrhaging oil out of the front seal. The crank nut had come loose at some point, damaging the nose of the crank, causing massive oils leaks.

Hope you have better luck with yours.

__________________
Mike

'80 300D
'84 300D
'85 300D
'87 300D