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1978 300D control arm bushing replacement

Hello, I need a bit of advice on the control arm bushings. My control arm bushings are totally shot, I am able to move the upper control arm up and down a few inches with a bar. The lower bushing also look in bad shape. They sag down quite a bit. The handling is terrible ( I am talking a crazy wobble when getting up to speed) and there is severe wear on the inside of both the fron tires. I paid 200 bucks from this old lady and drove it home. Really I just want to replace the worn parts.

1) I plan on cutting the old control arms completely out (torch possibly). Anyone done this?

2) I have 1" threaded rod to make my own spring compressor and plan on chaining the spring into place. Anyone have any experience doing this? What do you think? Is there any tricks to know?

3) Would it be better to replace just the bushings rather then the whole arm? I would go this route but it seems easier for me to cut out the old control arms right out as the bolt is seized above.

4) Any advice in replacing the lower control arm bushings? They seem pretty straight forward. (except for maybe pushing the new bushings into place.)

Thanks

Reply to
brokespokes
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That's a good way to die. Mercedes springs aree more like truck springs that car springs. You need a special compressor. Rest one.

Having said that I've seen people take suspensions apart with just a jack perfectly safely but I don't know wnough about it so advice you how.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

My wife's '85 300D had the same symptoms when we got it. A couple hundred bucks at the local mechanic solved the problem for us; I wasn't too interested in doing the work myself but it looks pretty straight forward without cutting anything with a torch.

Just buy the new parts and bolt them in. Why cut things to bits?

-tom!

Reply to
Tom Plunket

Use internal spring compressor to remove the spring first, then you can do whatever you want. Once you take the spring out, make sure you decompress it or you got a missile sitting there waiting to explode on you.

Why cut if everything will come out by loosening the bolt?

Reply to
Tiger

The bolts are seized (upper). Anyone had this problem before? I know it's fairly common.

Reply to
brokespokes

Brake lines are really close to the upper bolts so if you ignited the brake fluid, you can't stop it...

You can use the torch to heat up the bolts so you can loosen it in all other safe places.

Reply to
Tiger

The guy who says messing with the spring is a good way to die is correct. You will not have time to react before the spring takes your head off if you start messing around with a cutting torch under there.

The front springs of a Mercedes 300 are in a place that requires a special spring compressor to remove them safely. It is possible to replace the bushings without removing the springs, however. You can just use the weight of the car to compress them. But if you want to renew the springs take the car to a Mercedes dealer and have them put the springs in for you. I had new front springs installed on my '82

300 TDT last year. It drives like new now and the tire wear is even all the way across like when the car was new. Tires are lasting for years again. I can tell because a set of tires I put on last spring still look like new. No worn inside or outside edges like before I replaced the springs. You can buy the special compressor for about $600. Labor to have the Mercedes dealer in Las Vegas do mine was about $400. I bought the springs on line and brought them in. My old springs had about 385,000 miles on them. I replaced the rear springs at about 250,000 miles and I probably should replace them again soon. The rear springs may be less critical because of the load leveler, but if the springs get tired you will end up needing to replace the very expensive components of the load leveler system.

Paul Fretheim

Reply to
heav

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