This is in follow up to my earlier post about the nervous on-center steering in my 1987 300E.
I took the car back to the tire store that did the last alignment. The initial reading before doing anything was that the left front toe was too far out and the toe on both rear wheels was out of spec, with the left being too far out and the right being too far in. Also, the camber on the right front wheel was out of spec.
So, the alignment tech did the alignment and got everything squared away with a nice printout showing everything with green arrows as they like to see. Then...he says he pulled down on the front sway bar to compress the front suspension and all the alignment readings changed. The camber changed on both front wheels and the right front toe started to move in. The readings stayed this way after he let go of the sway bar. He said he has not seen this before.
The tire store was very puzzled by this and directed me to take the car to the dealer to have them figure out why it won't hold alignment or tell me if there is some special trick or tool that is supposed to be used when aligning the car.
Even with all that, the car seemed better on the drive back to work from the tire store. I am now wondering if there is some trick to aligning the W124 chassis and if I should take it to the dealer to get this sorted out. I am also going to look at the front sway bar and bushings as was suggested by someone in response to my earlier post.