Lemforder Wishbones W124

[Steve260E]

Hi

I noticed if you order the Lemforder wishbones for a W124 you get a selection of nuts and a bolt with it.

Could someone tell me what these are for? I'm guessing the bolt and one nut is to replace the ones on the ball joint, two others are for the anti roll bar but that still leaves two more that I'm unsure about.

I'm wondering if they are nuts for the eccentric bolts which I was going to replace anyway as mine are well and truly rusted so will probably need cutting when it comes to replacing.

Here is a link to the wishbones in question
>>Lemforder wishbones<<

Cheers
Steve

 

[grober]

The ball joint "pin" is secured by 1. a clamp bolt and nut to the strut
---2. the antiroll bar is secured to the arm by capitive studs on the arm and a U shaped clamp bracket plus the 2 small locking nuts. 3. The remaining two locking thread nuts will be for the inner excentric bolts as you surmised [ the assumtion being you reuse the old bolts]

Ps you may wish to renew the antiroll bar rubber bushes at the same time if doing both arms.

 

[Steve260E]

Many thanks for clearing that up grober, thats also an excellent point about the ARB bushes which I hadn't thought about but will definitely do now.

Cheers
Steve

 

[ss201]

After replacing the wishbone and re-fitting the long eccentric bolts, it's advisable to have your tracking set up properly.

Been there!

 

[Steve260E]

After replacing the wishbone and re-fitting the long eccentric bolts, it's advisable to have your tracking set up properly.

Been there!

Thanks ss201, luckily I'm just across the road from a shop that does the laser tracking, they did mine when I replaced all the steering arms, so I intend on putting everything back as close as possible so the 30 second drive over there shouldn't be too scary.

I have just ordered everything now including 4 new eccentric bolts and the ARB bushes along with the lemforder control arms plus the correct internal spring compressor and it all came in at under £300 which I think is quite a good deal.

Then when it arrives comes the task of actually doing the job

 

[Steve260E]

Made an attempt today at changing the control arms, got as far as removing the coil spring but managed to bend the threaded shaft in the spring compressor somehow, stopping me dead in my tracks.

It was the Chinese one for about £50 off eBay, this seemed completely unintuitive to use and poor quality, anyone had any success using the cheap one as may have to buy another

 

[grober]

These springs are under tremendous compression loads. You need the proper tool for the job £50 Chinese knock offs ain't going to cut it sorry. the originals were made by Klann BUT THEY AIN'T CHEAP- maybe you could borrow hire a set?

 

[Steve260E]

These springs are under tremendous compression loads. You need the proper tool for the job £50 Chinese knock offs ain't going to cut it sorry. the originals were made by Klann BUT THEY AIN'T CHEAP- maybe you could borrow hire a set?

I thought as much to be honest, I normally talk myself out of buying Chinese rubbish but as I was buying all the other parts OEM in one go I needed to skimp a little.

I have noticed another brand called BERGEN I wonder if they are any better, they are more expensive than the Chinese and look better but I doubt they are upto the Klann standards, otherwise as you say I will look into hiring a set if I can find somewhere that has them.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Stegel]

i had the same dilemma when changing the bottom ball joints on my CLS - tales of Chinese copy tools bending or breaking. I bought the Laser tool (twice the price of the cheap copies, but I justified it on the basis we have a 211 which I am shortly to refresh the suspension on as well) and it seems well made and did the job without a hitch. Laser also make a spring compressor for 124/129/140s etc which I imagine will be far superior to the cheap copies, even if not the full Klann. (With a 124 and a 129 in the garage, I'm sure I'll be refreshing their front ends too at some point).

ETA - I have a few Bergen hand tools - they're OK, but not professional grade. OK for DIY use, but given the forces involved in road springs, I'm not sure they're sufficiently "better" than the cheap copies to risk life and limb with.

 

[RichardF]

Why don't you compress the spring 1st (jack under the arm) then put your spring compressor in. Release the jack slowly, bobs your uncle spring compressed without so much strain on the bolt.

 

[Steve260E]

Thanks guys, I drove 180 mile round trip to pick up the Bergen spring compressor from Barnsley yesterday, I can report that it is 100x better than the Chinese rubbish and I got the spring off with ease in about 10 minutes.

Got one control arm bolt out fairly easily but the other is being an utter b*stard, nut is off but looks like its seized into the bushing and no amount of wacking is budging it, may have to cut it off

 

[brucemillar]

Will it work on my 4-Matic springs ;^)

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[WDB124066]

Thanks guys, I drove 180 mile round trip to pick up the Bergen spring compressor from Barnsley yesterday, I can report that it is 100x better than the Chinese rubbish and I got the spring off with ease in about 10 minutes.

Got one control arm bolt out fairly easily but the other is being an utter b*stard, nut is off but looks like its seized into the bushing and no amount of wacking is budging it, may have to cut it off

Heat?

 

[Steve260E]

Turning out to be an absolute pita of a job, luckily its not a daily so I can take my time with it off the road, managed to cut the siezed side of the wishbone but then finally when I think I'm getting somewhere the pinch bolt on the ball joint will not move and looks like it needs cutting off too...

 

[The Dude]

...I watched my local garage change both lower control arms (lemforder) and it was a miserable bloody job to do...hardest part was relocating the ball joint with the hub, took them ages on both sides...not a job I would ever want to do at home...
Good luck and I hope you get it done successfully...

 

[Steve260E]

...I watched my local garage change both lower control arms (lemforder) and it was a miserable bloody job to do...hardest part was relocating the ball joint with the hub, took them ages on both sides...not a job I would ever want to do at home...
Good luck and I hope you get it done successfully...

Thanks, I think I'll need all the luck I can get, the problem seems to be that a lot of the tutorials you see are American and in their dry climates the undersides stay relatively rust free so they can maybe get away with doing things "shade tree" as they call it.

Here in sunny Britain however the nuts and bolts underneath have had 26 years exposed to the salt and water and I come along with a 2ft breaker bar and they just don't want to budge at all.

I hindsight I should have done as you did and get it into a garage but my fear is that they treat every car the same and I don't want them getting things wrong when it comes to the suspension, the only Mercedes specialist I know of in my area(Liverpool) is B & R Motors in the Speke area but I haven't heard anything good about them...

 

[rorf]

Soak all the nuts and bolts in PB Blaster or whatever. Might help for rusty components.

 

[grober]

It's in situations like like this that a fully equipped garage with a proper ramp and access to a welding torch and pneumatic air gun can make such tasks much easier.
Be thankfull you don't have a VW passat which has a setup involving 2 ball joints. This post describes a method of clamp bolt removal involving a dremel tool- whether this would be applicable to your situation I don't know??
PINCH BOLT REMOVAL made easy - pics

 

[WDB124066]

What would you reassemble it with grober to stop the corrosion from starting again...anything special?

 

[grober]

Permatex Anti-seize compound gets good reports. However there may be instances where its recommended that some form of thread locker compound is used- in bona fide Mercedes bolts that's the blue stuff on the bolt threads.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000FW7VGE/?tag=amazon0e9db-21
If memory serves correct MB are not too keen on anti-seize compounds?