Saturday I had a few hours to work on The Project (aka '95 E300 Diesel) so I replaced the tie rod ends and steering damper and rebuilt the idler arm, and also investigated the source of the groaning noise at the right front of the car, which occurs when turning the steering wheel. Also tried to fix or diagnose the stiff steering.
My conclusion is that at least on LBJ is bad (left has ripped boot) and one questionable. Left has black boot, quite aged and torn. Right has newer looking boot, brown in color, which is intact. I injected about 1 mL of ATF into the right side, which cured the noise IF that was the cause vice a tie rod end (replaced tie rods and injected at the same time, had the car up on jack stands and wheel off). Stiffness seems a little better. Right side LBJ has no play as far as I can tell. My dilemma; how far do I go? Whole hog rebuild of lower control arms including the inner bushings? They are old and checkered looking, probably original with 275k miles on them. I don't want to drive the car too much until the LBJ's are done, and I'm tempted to have a garage do the work, as I don't own the spring tool nor the LBJ press nor the special tool for the inner bushings. I'll bet the bill will be around $300 for just the LBJs, which I think is a fair price but I'm getting sick and tired of sinking money into this car. Anyone know the book time for LBJ's and inner bushings on the lower control arms? Very respectfully, /s/ Max Dillon '87 300TD 330k miles '95 E300 275k miles (project) '73 Balboa 20 Charleston SC _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
