The guide rod on the W123 is crazy looking, would a shop with laser maschine know how to adjust one of those properly? Do they have to compress the front spring & would that be abnormal to them?

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A junkyard is not for junk

Loosen the lock not, turn the adjuster, tighten the lock nut.

The real problem (on 126 at least) is that changes in caster cause changes in camber & vice versa. I've had a tech chase his tail only to give up and hand me the car with camber on both wheels maxed out to one side of the car //.

You don't even need to remove the spring to install the guide rod mount. You do for the control arms. The car drives beautifully when all parts are new. $500-600 in time and some time takes care of it.

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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.

Thats what I've done, every single replaceable rubber part or joint in the front end is now new, and my wheel bearing are fresh as well. I'm excited to see the turnout, I was just worried that when i installed my right side guide rod, i might have mad it too long. The old mount was seriously impacted and was clunking up a storm anywhere from 1mph to 25mph. These new lemforder mounts are superb, I just want to know if a shop'll be able to align it better than my tape measure.

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A junkyard is not for junk

Hopefully a shop with expensive equipment will also have competent employees. Use an Indy if you have one. Chain stores are for crap. An Indy will adjust to make it handle. A chain will "adjust to specs" then stand around in bewilderment while blaming you if there are any problems.

Firestone has a lifetime alignment if you don't have an Indy that's better.

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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.

Thats where I was gonna go! Im really annoying about perfect alignment, I ditched sears cause it took them 8 times with the same idiot before they finally told me they had an experienced alignment guy that works once a week. He did it much better but I want to try firestone's. Im hoping theyll know whats up. it cant be as impossible as it seems to align these things. There's so many of them and all these different models share similiar if not identical systems.

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A junkyard is not for junk

If you're in LA, a good local indy sends their cars to the Discount Tire on Sunset/El Centro in Hollywood. Have yet to bring a car there, myself.

Considered the Firestone lifetime thing for years but never pulled the trigger for fear they're a bunch of monkeys until I get a legit referral to a good location.

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Firestone has idiots too. The only reason I go there is it's paid for. Most shops with machines think the only requirement is to follow the machine. They know nothing about going to one side of specs to obtain a desired result. If the machine says "in specs", any of problem must be the ownet's.

I think that with older MBs you need to go to the dealer if you want an alignment done correctly. I've never been willing to spend the money, I think that my last estimate over the phone was $175.00.

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'81 300SD

Looks pretty obvious. The guide rod adjusts the lower ball joint fwd and aft, which is "caster", or the "shopping cart wheel" effect. It isn't a particularly critical spec. As mentioned, that does affect the other two - camber and toe-in. Toe-in is the most critical to get correct, so should be adjusted last. Hard to believe anybody w/ alignment experience would be confused, or indeed anyone with even a little common sense.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

The alignment shop i went to didnt have any computers. They only had rulers , levels, measuring tapes, pointed scrapers, black and white spray paints and really experienced mechanics. I asked for the specs and they wrote it down on a piece of paper. It was the best alignment i had in 29 years of driving the car.

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'85 300D Cal 280,000 miles
'14 GLK 350 60000 miles

Right now, I'm getting the most even tire wear and best tracking I've ever had on my 300sd, and it's because I adjusted the toe on the passenger's wheel myself to compensate for the error that either the computer or tech made.

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'81 300SD

Ditto. I adjust toe-in w a tape measure. You can measure the effect of 1/8 turn of a tie-rod, so hard to see how a laser machine can do better, nor that any adjustment will hold >5 yrs.

Caring and a tape can do a good job. Not caring with a laser can so a bad job. Caring with a laser can do a good job easier. There is more than toe on these cars.

I called the Mercedes-Benz dealer here and they said it's $230 for an alignment and I have to book weeks in advance. The cheapest dealership price I could find was $170. When I had mine done at the dealership in Washington a few years, ago, it was only $120 then for all 4 wheels.

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DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

It goes in for alignment tomorrow. I fiddled with the old guide rod mount and then notice the hexagonal notch. by rotating the ball joint *in* the guide rod mount it pulls and pushes the guide rod, and lower control arm. I can't believe it was so hard for me to understand. I thought you literally had to remove the guide rod mount from the frame and spin the whole thing in or out then remount it by the three bolts. talka bout ignant. The eccentric pin is my only other worry, but if thats not as complicated as i believe then this should be no problem for a tech who takes his time.

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A junkyard is not for junk