I finally got to get the wheels in the air last night and began with a brake inspection. The front brake setup looks just fine, with the brake pads looking like new (I was surprised, since I've been driving the car for two years - about 5,000 miles - and I have never done any brake maintenance on it). Though the wheels, it seems to me, are not spinning totally free... there seems to be some slight brake dragging there, but I am not sure 100%, since this is the first time that I look into this type of maintenance.

BUT... THE REAR BRAKES ARE A BIG MESS! and I think I have found the culprit right there!

First of all, the brakes are heavily dragging on both sides. When I tried to spin the rear wheels (gear in neutral, parking brakes off), there's no free spinning whatsoever, the wheels are almost stuck and on the right side there's that grating sound (no wonder, then, that the car has had a low fuel mileage all along - around 20 mpg...) Moreover, on the rear left brake setup there's a segment joining two balljoints (I have no idea what that thing is or what it is called... it's not in my Haynes manual) which is completely detached on the lower end. The same segment in the rear right brake setup is still attached on both ends but the lower attachment to the balljoint is visibly damaged and about to get detached. Can someone suggest a site that gives a better description on brakes than my manual does, where I can learn about those "balljoint segments", possibly with pictures so that I can get a better idea of what the normal setup should look like?
The rear brake pads are worn out on both sides, but more so the inside pads, which are now about 2mm. So I am going to get a whole new set of pads for the rear and replace them.

What else should I do? What about those "balljoint segments"? (please excuse my not being able to use a better terminology at this time)

Hopefully, fixing the brakes will also take care of that horrible grating noise...

Rino

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1979 240D, W123, 105K miles, stick, white w/ tan interior.