Upper Control Arms
 

Hi All,

At 170,000 miles it looks like it is time to do the upper control arms on my 1984 300D. I am planning to buy the parts from Pelican.

This car is my dd, so I need to be relatively sure I have the right parts for the job.

I understand I need four outer bushings.

Are those all part number 116-333-40-14-MBZ? If I buy just the UCAs and these four bushings, will I need anything else for the job?

Thanks,

Dkr.

If nothing is rusty and everything comes apart without breaking yes, those 4 parts and the two arms should do it.

Thank you for supporting us Dkr. If you're wanting to double check on those part numbers, please feel free to give us a call at 888-280-7799 and one of our MB part specialists will be happy to confirm this for you.

Changing suspension components can change the alignment.

Besides the 2 on each side rubber bushings there is also rubber bushings on the Torsion/Swaybar that bolt onto the Fire Wall.

They come with the bushing where it bolts to the car, most of them don't come with the conical swaybar bushings. At least not from what I remember when I was redoing my front end last summer.

Try to get new nuts for the ball joints if not supplied with the arms you are purchasing.
Use quality parts!
Good luck!!!

I just ordered the Lemforders. What's with the nuts? That isn't usually a wear item, is it? Do they want to stick?

Dkr.

I think it e,tra work to only do uppers at that mileage.

Suspension and steering nuts that are not castellated (slotted and use a cotter key) are of the self-locking type and are generally not re-used. The concern is that they may not stay tight/self-lock when re-used. They are inexpensive although not always easy to source.
Good luck!!!

If the Nuts come off OK you can use something like Loctite on them just as you can any other Nuts.

You ought to find some threads detailing the removal and re-installation of the upper control arms.

That should take care of things for parts. Two of those bushings where the Upper Control Arm attaches to the Stabilizer and the Control Arms. They are probably the easiest parts to change of the front suspension.

If they are worn, it's likely that other parts aren't far behind.

I agree, I started to have a squeaking upper balljoint, and the project spiraled into an entire front end rebuild... If you're gonna have to pay for an alignment, may as well replace everything.

This is exactly why I haven't bothered with anything in the front end of my car. I already know it needs bushings and balljoints, I figure I'll do it all at the same time, do it right, do it once, get it aligned and be done with it for the next 10 years or so.

It depends on the car. If the car had 300,000 miles and everything was out of spec, I would agree with you. Many of these replacement parts are not quite what the OEM ones are, even the better brands. If you replace everything at the same time, you may have a difficult time restoring that OEM suspension experience to troubleshoot what is causing wobble or vibration.

As your car gets knocked out of alignment multiple times, that wisdom can be questioned.

Dkr.