Yes, you need the special socket, It's about $60 from PP and you can resell it easy if you want to. Yes you will need a bearing kit, another $50. You will also need to eat your Wheaties. I was sore for a week after setting the bearing end-play on one of my rear bearings, about $350 lbs/ft. Just in case someone thinks that's a typo, I do main bearing bolts in Detroit Diesel's that are 200 lbs/ft(10 at a time) and the rear bearing endplay was much worse.

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83 M-B 300D- daily driver
83 240D gray market
2002 VW Jetta TDI- beater