I am still diagnosing various problems with my "new to me" 87 300D. One such problem is a front end shudder when braking, especially from faster speeds. If just slowing down from say 10 or 20 mph, it isn't very noticable, but when I slow down from 50mph, it is very noticable. Would worn tie rods cause this problem and is there anything else I should look at? I have detailed my troubleshooting steps taken so far below.

I suspected it was a brake rotor problem so I removed the front wheels this weekend and inspected the rotors. They checked out visually, no cracks, gouges, or other imperfections. I measured as best I could with my crappy micrometer and they were all within spec still at about 20mm. A very small lip on the edge of the rotors and the pads seemed to have worn evenly. I can't guarantee the rotors are good until I can get in there with a good brake micrometer.

I checked the rest of the front end components by moving and shaking them and the only thing I found that seemed abnormal were the tie rods. On both sides the boots were totally shredded and when I turned the wheel back and forth quickly, I got a clicking sound seemingly coming from the tie-rod ends. When I manually try to move the wheel, there doesn't appear to be excessive side to side play in the tierods, but there is some up and down play. I never noticed this before, but after putting the wheels back on and lowering the car, if I jerk the steering wheel back and forth I can here the clicking sound coming from the front end.

Thanks for any help for this novice mechanic,

Jeremy