Just got finished with installing new tie rods, drag link, and steering damper on the 300D. What a difference!

The car has been out of alignment since I bought it, but not enough to get excited about until recently. It always tended to run off to the rigth a bit, but otherwise was fine until last month when I noticed that the belt was showing on the outside edge of the right front tire (Michelin MVX-4 plus tires, about 40,000 miles). I know what that means!!!!

Jacked it up, and sure enough there was some play in the steering, mostly on the right side, so pulled the splash pans this week and checked. One tie rod was definitly sloppy, and so was the drag link, so bought it all, plus a damper since my parts supplier thought it was probably bad due to age alone if not replaced recently.

Started about 8:30 this evening, and with a parts run, was done with the front end stuff around 10:30, but I wanted to replace the missing shifter bushings as well, since I had the car up in the air and the splash pans off.

Ha, that was a bust! Got the one on the tranny lever in, but not the one on the shifter. Is there a trick to this I don't know? Never even managed to get it really started, so quit, and buttoned everything back up.

Even with a "measure the old tie rod and match the new one for length) and seat of the pants alignment, the difference is astonishing! Steering wheel is crooked (to the left), but there is almost no drag to the right now, it tracks nicely, and it's MUCH quieter! No tire scrubbing noises anymore.

Will get it in for an alignment (and new tires!) as soon as I can manage, hopefully Sat. morning (or tomorrow afternoon). I'm looking forward to this, it's already almost like driving a different car!

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Slick work in that time. Sure does bring the old babies around. They should have put a removable plate in the transmission tunnel to access those bushings., guess a persond could make one with a sawsall.............

William Rogers.............

The only way that I have been able to install the shifter bushing is to ever so slightly, grind the "lip" down on the bushing until it will go into the shifter with pressure applied. With the bushing as is, and the limited space, quite frankly, there's no way in hell that you can get it in. I tried lubing it up, heating it up, vise grips and all other methods. Just did the grind technique last month on my 400E. Grind it, push it , then install the linkage from the "good side" of the bushing to push/keep the bushing from slipping/popping out. Next install the retaining clip

__________________
Regards,

Albert
aldedmon@yahoo.com

Your car might be different than the 126 - and it has been a while, but if memory serves me well, I had softened the bushing in boiling water and then used a small flat screw driver to assist in inserting the bushing into the shifter hole. It really was no big deal. Ofcourse I had taken the shifter off the car but that too just took a few minutes of my time.
Good luck

wow.. that boiling water idea sounds good. Might come in handy with other parts as well.

Yeah, I always pull the lever off the transmission, it's not possible to get the bushing in otherwise on the 300D (or even touch it, for that matter!).

I was trying to save time, foolish thing to do. Doesn't take that long to pull the shifter, after all.

A pit may help, it's very difficult to manouver around on the ground. I also can't get far enough away from it to see what I'm doing, either....

To top it all off, my rear-view mirror split as I was changing shoes this afternoon. Must a bopped it with the steel-toed boot, split from the upper left side right through the pivot down to the lower right corner, but not all the way through on that side. Sitting on the dining room table waiting for the JB Weld to set up now, and I suppose I shall have to look for another, I don't expect it to live.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!