w126

Today I replaced the passenger-side braking support rod bushing on my 1982 300SD. The job didn't go so well on the driver's side, because I attempted to use all of the specified replacement hardware. Unfortunately, Meyle is currently delivering substandard and improper hardware for remounting the bushing carrier, with the effect that the nut shears off of its captive shim and causes you to live in a world of hurt. Using the original hardware with some red thread locker seems to be a workable solution; I've done it on the other side with good results, and now I've done it on both sides. In the process, I also learned that one can trivially press the new bushing in with the old hardware.

When a one day job becomes a two day job because a part is incorrectly specified or otherwise wrong, you can be sure that you are having an excellent time. When the new self-locking nut intended to retain one end of my driver's side front suspension carrier sheared away from its magical captive shim during yesterday's automotive repair attempt, I knew that I was in for a really good time.

With the heat coming on I decided to browse through eBay for A/C compressors, rebuilt or what have you, and found that a new compressor is about the same price as a reman, at least from buyautoparts.com. This is partly due to where I bought it (everyone else seems to want more) but also because it's a common GM axial compressor which is used on many vehicles. It's a really small little sucker that can turn 7,000 RPM, and Mercedes wisely used a V-belt pulley which makes it easy to source.

Well, it wasn't 102 like yesterday, but it was a pretty hot one here at about 96. Around 10 AM, as it really started to warm up, I decided to take on a couple of simple W126 300SD repair tasks: steering damper replacement, and shift bushing replacement. These are both conceptually simple jobs, and replacing the steering damper is even simple in actuality. The shift bushing replacement is a little trickier, but I had purchased a parts kit that made it at least reasonable.

On my last visit to the tire shop for my '82 300SD I got some Dorals (I thought they were cigarettes, but they're also an Indonesian tire) and an alignment. Turned out one of my braking support rod bushings was going, and also that my rear springs were shot. Consequently I have just replaced them. I spent half the day trying to use a spring compressor and the other half of the day doing the job right. Short form, drop the rear of the subframe and they will fall out.