Hey all,

I'm having one heck of a weird issue with my 300E. About two months ago I was driving down the highway and had a little more vibration in the rear end than usual. It felt like a tire slightly out of balance. I pulled off the highway and the first light I accelerated from I got a loud banging from the left rear. It was metal on metal & sounded like someone taking a 3/8in steel rod and banging it around in a 1/2in hole. It was definitely wheel-speed relative and only under load (torque-related). Two accelerations of me panicking & it was gone for two months & 250mi. I got underneath and banged & pried on everything I could get my hands on & nothing was loose. All the bushing looked OK.

Cut to today. I'm 350mi from home and that back-end starts vibrating terribly if I'm accelerating even a little & any touch of the accelerator under 20 inducing this heart-stopping banging from the rear. (Coasting produces no banging or vibration at all).

--Interesting thing though: If I'm accelerating and turning right, it bangs on the driver's side rear. And if I'm accelerating and turning left, it bangs on the passenger's rear. Whoa.

I stopped and crawled under her and couldn't see anything unusual, so I drove her home through the hours & hours of vibrations and banging, waiting for SOMETHING to snap. Nothing. In the AM I'm getting under there to what there is to see. Something has to be shiny & worn after all that...

Any clues? Does this sound familiar to anyone?? Diff Mounts???

If I had my way I'd skip the trouble-shooting and just get a R129 LSD rear end out of the bone & put it in and solve the problem that way. Unfortunately my bank disagrees with that solution after the SL I just purchased...

__________________
Currently:
1972 350SL Euro 4spd
1973 BMW R75/5
1981 BMW R80GS
1995 FZJ80 with OM606 Conversion In Progress

Classic bad CV joint in one of the rear axles. There is probably a crack in the rubber boot and it has gone dry.

Happened to me on my 300E. It was progressive over a few months. When it finally really broke, I was on a street close to home. Loud noise and barely made it into the driveway. You definitely need to get it diagnosed and replaced.

Steve

On my 190E, the parking brake is on the driver's side.

With the parking brake being a drum brake, it does require grease to keep the parts moving freely. The symptoms I had included a very loud banging sound from the back left side of the car - one bang for every time the wheel turned. The other symptom included very little braking action when I pulled up on the handle of the parking brake.

Basically the shoes on the parking brake had worn and the the parking brake needed to be adjusted. In this model (190E), when you pull the parking brake handle far enough, the mechanism to force the brake shoes apart was getting hit by one of the wheel lug bolts. It stayed that way after I released the parking brake because the parts needed greased (years ago).