This one was on the drawing board for a while, so I decided to squeeze the trigger. Much of what I am doing is nothing buy copy-katting all the others who have blazed a trail on the HPS system. I am using the more uncommon W126 HPS system versus the W116. The W126 is more in the weight class of a W123, although the systems appear virtually the same.

Attached are some pictures. Since the SLS pump is the same across so many model lines, and incredibly well documented, I will save that part towards the end. I decided to tackle the rear struts first, since they appear to be the easiest, the cheapest, and for some odd reason more available here and there on the net.

The rear strut appears pretty simple, part #126-320-25 13. Sachs' part#: 06 2400 102 111 OD.

The rubber top bushing shows its age, part #116-327-14 81, which shares part # 126-327- 0281. This part was first contemplated as being a mod'd or upgraded part, e.g., poly or some other material. However, costs were not horrible, e.g., $67.20.

The bellows are toast. Part #116-328-02 92. Again, looking at universal bellows, but this one was surprising cheap at $26.80 for the MB original.

The hose, part # 126-997-40 82 is in surprising good shape, so that's a keeper. It cleaned up good enough, and the inside bore looked about perfect. Metric copper can be found anywhere so nothing unique about them. I will post the spec's shortly.

The other pieces, e.g., tip, rubber bushing with insert, part# 116-327-15 81 likewise look amazingly well intact. I guess being inside the cabin had something to do with that.

I will take some pictures of the strut tube disassembly. The factory paint is still there, and the big white dot represents the orientation of the top (and bottom) piece. The O-rings and nylon seals appear to be fungible, so just a few bucks.

The real zinger as for pricing are the ball joints. I am looking at mod'g the struts to use rebuildable balljoints because there are a number out there which look just about the same.

Right now, my aggressive goal is to keep the entire project under $2,000. I have all the parts except the main valve. I found one in Germany for $200, but still looking CONUS. The big investment down the road will be the 5 nitrogen spheres which run around $700 for all of them.

Rear strut investment so far is $53.12 cores, + $8.50 shipping. Bellows, rubber top bushing, seals, and ball joints will put me in the ballpark of around $180.00 per rear strut for a completely rebuilt unit (less the bits i am re-using). If I go to new hydraulic lines, then they are around $20-ish at the hydraulic shop, so ballpark is $200 per rear strut.

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