Thank you for showing everything, regardless of how supposedly obvious it is. Very helpful to have videos like these to prepare for such an intimidating job

@straybenzes

4 ай бұрын

Thank you and the best of luck to you.

Thank you. I needed to change these out today. Always looking forward for your videos

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Good luck and plenty of patience for you.

I took my hubs to a Mercedes shop close by and had them replace the ball joints on their press. I didn't have the equipment to even attempt it.

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

That works of course too!

wonderful video! Thank you very much! God bless you!

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! You too!

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 I usually use a20 Ton Press to get them in an out. I admire your raw muscle power, but I am getting to old for this s….t Your buddy Peter from Kansas

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

I hear you on that. Even the hydraulic press needs special push or holding tools in order to get the old out and new one in. A press definitely takes care of the heavy grunt work.

Very informative, thank you

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

🤣 not to be nasty but watching you struggle .. made me think of my one I did both sides and .. I had no tool it was Sunday all shops closed and needed my car Monday for for work. eventually had to call in favors and got me a tool like yours also spent most of the day modding it to work bug once you master it it becomes a little easier but still pain in the but and alot of fancy words been said 😆. Well done 👏 love your content

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Better to stand the spindle upside down and beat the ball joint out from the bottom with a small sledge hammer and suitible size tool held carefully without hitting your hand and then install with correct very beefy MB tool or let the dealer or other shop do it. Easy to cook and jam and break the new ball joint!

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

And there are more horror stories abound. The worst one I ever did I had to use a 5# hammer and used an acetylene torch to heat up the steering / axle to drive the old one out.

Excellent work getting that ball joint replaced Ralph. This is a heck of a big job to be sure. I suppose the silver lining here is the tiny turning radius of these cars. I'm assuming that this ball joint design plays into that. My friends are amazed at the maneuverability of my 126.

@straybenzes

9 ай бұрын

I believe you hit the nail on the head. Based of what I have been able to dig up on W115, 116, 123, 124, 126 cars, they were designed to provide a quiet and smooth ride. Especially 115, 123, 124 cars were once the heart of taxi fleets in Europe. That meant that they had to be very maneuverable in the tight medieval towns and cities. 116 and 126 shared a lot of those parts bins and it is no wonder how tight the turn radius is on even SELs.

Hey buddy, good job! Many thanks for your videos regarding steering and suspension. One question - did you adapted the puller for the ball joint to press it into the steering knuckle? I mean in 15:35 - the chamfer there. BR from Germany, K.

@straybenzes

3 күн бұрын

Oh I had to adapt the living daylights out of that tool. It was a loaner, but I had to buy it.

It would be helpful if you could show how you are supporting the car while doing this procedure. I see you have chassis jack and a floor jack supporting somewhere. You also mention the shock assembly is holding up the spring assembly. Do you put a support under the spring or where? The spring on a 126 can be dangerous as you know but better instruction would be helpful.

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Hugo. I use heavy-duty 2 1/2 ton jack stands and placed them under the car jack mounts as you may be able to see in the background here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/haV8zNiCnNTMeJs.html. The shocks keep the lower control arm assembly in place and there is no additional support needed to contain the springs. Hoping this will help you.

Nice work, I was under the impression that to do this job you had to remove the coil spring

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

The shock keeps the lower arm assembly in place and there is fortunately no need to mess with the springs.

@bikeman123

Жыл бұрын

​​​@@straybenzes I would still tie that spring to the shock and put an axle stand under the lower arm just in case.

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

@@bikeman123 That is a thought.

My balljoint rubbers degrade and breakup every couple of years. The car doesn't get used in bad weather so the joints are still good. I can't seem buy just the rubbers.

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

The ball joint cost is so cheap that I have just bought the ball joint and used the rubber boot when I found that the installed ball joint is still in great condition.

Were your rotors hard to pull off? Were they rusted and how do you get them to come off. I redid my rear brakes and the rotores were very tough to get off..

@straybenzes

11 ай бұрын

The front rotors are mounted to the wheel hubs from the rear side. That means you have to remove the wheel hubs with bearings to get to the rotors. So, removing the hubs is not difficult at all (but you have to adjust the bearing clearance once you are done). The most difficult part is to loosen the rotor bolts. Those are Allen head bolts, and a video on this channel explains how to best remove them. The rear rotors typically require you to back off the parking brake shoe adjusters. They are accessible from the rear through the brake shield. If you are replacing the rotors you can whack the old ones off with decent hammer blows. Good luck.

Hi Stray Benzes. I got question. Are there any chance to restore a thread which bolts caliper? There are two bolts and the lowest has a stripped threads. Buying another one is a plan B of course, but before buying, want to make sure that all possibilties to redo it are thought out. Thank you.😊

@straybenzes

4 ай бұрын

The only way to do this properly is boring the bad part out and replace it with a proper bushing. Just using a thread repair kit on such safety-related parts is not a good idea. Sorry for the bad news.

@azimutnorth8570

4 ай бұрын

@@straybenzes thank you very much. We will do it properly.

@straybenzes

3 ай бұрын

Good luck. Hopefully it will not cost too much. @@azimutnorth8570

Where did you get that sleeve from

@straybenzes

10 ай бұрын

It was part of the ball joint removal tool kit from AutoZone.

@unclepeanut8066

10 ай бұрын

Ah, I ended up having to go to Menards and get a 2 inch threaded sleeve and cut it in half, because they didn’t have short sleeves

@unclepeanut8066

10 ай бұрын

But I ended up having to take the boot off, and putting the ball joint stem through the hole and putting the flat press fitting on the bottles of the spindle and pressing like so.I got one to work but had to take it to my local mom and pop shop to have it pressed in for $20!

@straybenzes

10 ай бұрын

@@unclepeanut8066 It can be quite the chore to get these out.

@straybenzes

10 ай бұрын

@@unclepeanut8066 That was a good move and cheap!

It's a pretty dumb design. I don't know what MB were thinking.

@dwaynecoomber6610

Жыл бұрын

it's a very strange system lots of strange bits and designs in this front end... but it works.

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Why easy if you can make it complicated.

Looks like you had fun with this one.. is the 1987 300d just as hard to do as this one. I am considering doing my front and rear suspension. I want to get all of the mechanical work done so I can strip the body of trim. Rubber and glass so I can paint it. Then install my new interior kit. Trying to get as new as possible within reason. But hard to find a stopping point.

@straybenzes

Жыл бұрын

Too late. You have got the bug now....