Hello all,
Some of you older members might remember my installing a 4.3L Astrovan V6 in my '82 300D. I've driven it over 60K miles now without any problems at all until now, but I need some information from those in the know now! The driveshaft center bearing support rubber bushing has begun to fail on the car, allowing the driveshaft to hit (I think) the muffler during hard acceleration. I've already purchased a new support, but my question is this: What is the normal service life of the rubber support? The car has around 300k on it at this point, so I have no problems with replacing this component, but at the same time I'm wondering if the conversion contributed to it's failure? The car has almost twice the horsepower as it did, and the low gear torque is also substantially higher. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that has replaced the center bearing support - how long do they normally last?

Thanks,
Richard Wooldridge
'82 300D/4.3L V6