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...

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