New front Yokos are pretty much shot...
 

after only about 3k, I'm already thru most of the tread on both inner shoulders... :mad: Obviously I need to be paying much more attention.

I pretty much only drive on the hiway at hi speeds. Tires are slightly overinflated @ about 33 psi. Max psi for these tires is 35 :confused:

From the front, the car definately looks like its 'squatting'

I've searched, but I'm just not too clear on the front suspension dynamics of my benz. (guess I'm only smart enuff to understand the str8 axle setup on my jeep.)

where should I start? alignment by a competant shop? would new front springs fix the 'squat'? non-mbz mechanic down the street said 'ball-joints'

only positive is I got these tires at the junkyard for $15 ea and mount and balance was also $15 ea, so @ $60, this is actually one of my less expensive 'lessons learned the hard way'

rear tires are fine.

TIA,
cheers,
Robert

3000 miles :eek: :eek: :eek:
I would find a competent Shop and get a 4-Wheel Alignment done on your Car ASAP. 33 psi is not really over-inflated and wouldn't cause the wear you describe. You may have worn front suspension components but a good alignment shop should check for this before they waste your money on the alignment itself.
Good Luck

That's the way my tires were wearing too. Most of the issue for me was the upper control arm bushings were shot. They were cheap to buy and easy to replace. Look there first.

I've been playing around with camber on the rear wheels. The M/B tends to have negative camber most of the time, whereby the tops of the tires are closer to the centerline of the vehicle than the bottom of the tires.

You can get a very rough guide on camber by placing a 24" level across the face of the tire when the tires are pointed straight ahead. Pull the level off the top of the tire until it is dead plumb and look at the distance between the tire face and the level. It should not be more than about 1/4". Any more than this and the camber is too far negative and it will begin to wear the inside of the tires.

The SDL is currently at 3/4" in the back. :eek:

Front end rebuild time. :D

I'd do upper and lower control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, guide rod mount bushings, and any other bushing you can find. While you are at it put on a new set of tie rods, drag link, rebuild idler arm and repack the front bearings.

Excessive wear on both inner edges of front tires indicates excessive toe out. In your case it is VERY excessive. Caster and camber have to be WAY out to cause such wear and the odds of it being the same on both sides is nil.

Although a four wheel alignment doesn't hurt anything, you need to set the toe on zero, check all steering linkage and wheel bearings for tightness before doing so.

Good luck,

alignment
 

i think that trying to align the rear wheels is wasted effort. they rarely go out and im not sure there is any adjustment in any case. imo the shops say they are doing all four wheels and charge for all four but dont really do anything at all in the back.

I'm thinking the exact same thing. They can't do anything to camber, AFAIK. It's strictly a function of the body height.

As far as rear toe, I don't see how to perform any adjustments for it on a W126 without purchasing an eccentric set of bushings for the trailing arm.

Not sure if you are talking about front camber, which is adjustable. The lower control arms are located on eccentrics that move the arm in and out. You want to adjust to specs with the wheels normally weighted.

rear
 

we're talking about the rear.

Anybody know if rear toe can be adjusted on the W126 without the installation of special trailing arm bushings?? :confused:

rear
 

dont know but suspect some kind of shims might be available or could be fabricated by a zany engineer.

What would you shim?

It seems that the entire trailing arm must rotate about a vertical axis to change the toe.

shimmy
 

dont know just pure specualtion on my part. there must be a way... offset bolts... offset bolt plate... no specific idea without actually looking at it.

I decided to drive my jeep for a while and put the benz in storage. Just got her back out. Thanks for the all the replies. Based on them heres how I proceded...

parked on level surface.

I put a strait edge vertically on the rim, then put a level on that... the RF tire only showed a modest cant inward, looking at the eccentric washer, it had defintely been moved from its original position.


But the LF showed 1 inch or more. :eek: I looked at the eccentric washer and still appears to be at the factory setting. Additionally, theres cosmetic damage to the LFQP that may not be so cosmetic. This tire is in worse condition.

Since the skinnerbox site is down, I dont have a diagram handy. How precisely does one adjust the eccentric washer? Is it welded or fitted to the bolt so that it can be adjusted? Is one inch too far out of spec?

I'm acquiring the parts to refurb the front end, I don't want to take it to a shop until then. But I still want to drive another 500 to 1k miles on these dam tires.