Did my first brake job on the 300D!
 

Well today I put new brake pads and rotors on my '85 300D. I went in with the impression that it would be a real easy job based on some of the previous threads I had read. Well it was a big PIA! Yes, if I would have only had to just replace the pads it would have be fairly easy, but you always have to machine the rotors. The rest really wasn't. The caliper bolts were hard to get at with a 1/2" drive breaker bar. A 1/2" ratchet just didn't have the leverage to break those bolts free. The rotors came off fairly easily but they were machined so many times that they would not take another machining so I had to replace them. There were five 10mm hex head bolts holding the rotors to the hubs. Again these needed brute force to break loose.
This was by far the most difficult brake job I've done so far and I've done my share of them over the last 25 years.
One good thing though, the total on the pads and rotors only ran me $68. $40 for Teves rotors and $28 for Texstar pads.

on the 123's I usually attach the hub and rotor to a rim then have one person hold the tire while the other loosens the allen bolts with a 20" breaker bar. It makes this job quite a bit easier.

I put the rotor and hub in the big vise, never had a problem that way. Can scratch up the old rotor pretty bad, but who cares?

MB rotors are almost never turned -- they need replacement by the third pad change most of the time, and they are so thin to start with that turning them almost always takes them below the minimum. I've never had one gouged badly enough by the second pad change to turn, either.

Peter

lietuviai

"The caliper bolts were hard to get "

A friend sold me his old impact wrench and I shudder to think of how many busted knuckles I could have saved over the years had I discovered the virtues of that tool. The pulley on an alternator, and nuts on the flex coupling, for example, can be removed with ease as can those pesky calliper bolts. If you have a place to work get yourself a 1/2" impact driver, you'd love it.

When I replaced the rear callipers on my 240D I put them on the wrong sides (bleeder down), No workey.. :confused: till is was enlightened by a list member. :D

An impact wrench would be nice but that would mean that I would have to upgrade to an air compressor to handle the cfm's that one of those impact wrenches need. So for now, I still use a pipe to extend my ratchets and breaker bars.