So my 1992 300d which is still in the process of getting it to run right hasnt been driven on the road alot lately. Well we have it at a point that it runs well above idle and not so much at idle. I knew that it hadnt been started in a while, so I was going to take it up the road and let her warm up andd charge the battery. I made two turns in our driveway and all of the sudden, i hear a loud ping, and a few thumps and some scraps. I imediately got out to see my wheel completely sideways in the fender well holding the car up as the control arm was laying in the gravel After some inspection it was a failed ball joint, but wait, the ball of the assembly was still in its socket, it had sheared off the rod it was connected to If I had driven 30 more feet and pulled out onto our 55mph road, I would have been in the other lane before i even knew what happened! So anyways theres my experience for the week, mixed with some fear as to why this would break like this. Our family mechanic is coming out tonight or tommorow to fix in the driveway...

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1987 300D(Erma)- #14 head, 193k
2003 TDI Beetle sold
1985 300sd sold
1987 300D(Ursala)- #14 head, 157k when sold
1987 300D(Wilbur)- #14head, 356,000+miles, sold after 7 days of owning it.
1992mercedes 300d- totaled and in a junk yard somewhere..
1983 mercedes 300sd- scrapped
1980 mercedes 300sd first mercedes diesel-sold

Wow lucky , good that u didn't speed. Post some pics

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1999 W210 E300 Turbodiesel

Oh, that old failure. Happens to me all the time, NOT

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Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D

CRAZY!!!

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1984 300td euro turbo

Heres some pics, looks like the break was from a while ago, as the break is pretty rusty...

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1987 300D(Erma)- #14 head, 193k
2003 TDI Beetle sold
1985 300sd sold
1987 300D(Ursala)- #14 head, 157k when sold
1987 300D(Wilbur)- #14head, 356,000+miles, sold after 7 days of owning it.
1992mercedes 300d- totaled and in a junk yard somewhere..
1983 mercedes 300sd- scrapped
1980 mercedes 300sd first mercedes diesel-sold

Our mechanic was very stumped that the joint of the ball bearing wasnt where the failure was, it seems very odd. Im going to blame this on the fact that the car was wrecked about 1.5-2 years ago. Obviously its just been slowly rusting into a small crack.

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1987 300D(Erma)- #14 head, 193k
2003 TDI Beetle sold
1985 300sd sold
1987 300D(Ursala)- #14 head, 157k when sold
1987 300D(Wilbur)- #14head, 356,000+miles, sold after 7 days of owning it.
1992mercedes 300d- totaled and in a junk yard somewhere..
1983 mercedes 300sd- scrapped
1980 mercedes 300sd first mercedes diesel-sold

That happened to me twice already. Once in 2002 in my old '81 Volvo 242, then 2 years ago in my Caddy. Same side as yours both times and both times I was going slow. It almost happens the third time in the Benz but I replaced the ball joints which looked just like yours sans the failure. Be grateful it didn't happen on the interstate...

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[/SIGPIC]~cirrusman

1983 Mercedes Benz 300SD - Wife calls him "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
[SIGPIC]




1983 Toyota Tercel (Tommy, The little Toyota that could)
1965 Ford F100 (Grandma Ford)
2005 Toyota Sienna (Elsa, Wife's ride)


Gone:
1988 Toyota Pickup
2004 Subaru Outback

1987 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
1986 Volvo 740 GL Station Wagon - Piece of junk.
1981 Volvo 242 DL 2 Door - Hated to see it go. R.I.P.
1987 Pontiac Fiero GT

Your lucky day! I've had a similar experience and have seen probably six or eight others. The 124/210/129 chassis all have the LCA ball joint as the sole connection to the wheel carrier, it is a very good reason to double check and replace if there is any doubt about those ball joints. With the proper tool it's fairly quick and straight forward, I always recommend installing a new MB factory bolt which secures the ball joint's stud to the wheel carrier, the bolt fits into the cut-out in the ball joint stud and in reality in addition to friction it's the only thing holding those parts together.

P. S. be careful, the only thing preventing the spring from launching out of its position is the front sway bay because it attaches to the LCA, the tie rod on the back side won't help at all!

Happened to me once in a '76 280Z at speed! I was young and invincible back then. I didn't know much and I tried for like an hour to jack up the car and get it to go back together...

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'86 300 SDL '83 300D Astral Silver/Blue
354k miles.. 326k miles..

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...ine=1310252049

Is this also the situation on w123 and w126 or are those a different arrangement? I have no idea, don't even know what I'm looking at in the front suspension/steering arrangements, and don't want to let this happen to any of my stuff without having checked the obvious.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

No, the 116/123/126 are a completely different front suspension design, in these chassis the shock is the connecting link between the LCA and the chassis. In fact when replacing the lower ball joint on these cars the entire spindle with the ball joint is removed from the car and then the ball joint is R&R, the spring remains held in place by the shock.

Now on the 116/123/126 the ball joint could fail like the OP's where the stud breaks off the ball, but that type of failure is pretty rare and probably was a unique combination of circumstances to bring it about.

Can you tell if the spring is still "loaded". The ball joint looks stable in the dirt. You need to be very careful trying to jack the car (initially). That spring could still easlily kill someone if it is still under some pressure.

Was the joint replaced at some point, or is it original?

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AJ

1985 300D (SOLD)

I have a 78Z waiting for a turbo transplant from an 83. Planning on megasquirt & making it a daily driver next summer.

Fortunately, I have never had catastrophic failure like that. FWIW, Firestone offers a lifetime alignment for ~ the price of 2. I usually manage to get into the shop & watch so they don't mess anything up. Most front end people aren't top notch mechanics whose decisions can be trusted but results are acceptable if you watch them.

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85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

The spring was still loaded, and did scare me alot. Our mechanic came out and worked on it for 4 hours, he used a spring pincher to hold it in place. We ended up removing the whole a-arm to press the ball joint out. If it wernt so cold out, id go back and take a picture to show you how rusty and seized it was. Im going to assume that the ball joint was original, based on how rusty and seized it was.
We decided that we are goin to pull the passenger side off and see how bad it is, since thats the side it was wrecked on. But were not gonna even attempt to drive until weve gone through all of it, and have it alligned.

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1987 300D(Erma)- #14 head, 193k
2003 TDI Beetle sold
1985 300sd sold
1987 300D(Ursala)- #14 head, 157k when sold
1987 300D(Wilbur)- #14head, 356,000+miles, sold after 7 days of owning it.
1992mercedes 300d- totaled and in a junk yard somewhere..
1983 mercedes 300sd- scrapped
1980 mercedes 300sd first mercedes diesel-sold

I should also mention that I got lectured at least 6 times tonight about owning junk cars that are hard to work on. It is getting harder and harder to stand up for my mercedes...

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1987 300D(Erma)- #14 head, 193k
2003 TDI Beetle sold
1985 300sd sold
1987 300D(Ursala)- #14 head, 157k when sold
1987 300D(Wilbur)- #14head, 356,000+miles, sold after 7 days of owning it.
1992mercedes 300d- totaled and in a junk yard somewhere..
1983 mercedes 300sd- scrapped
1980 mercedes 300sd first mercedes diesel-sold