Lemforder Wishbones W124

[Steve260E]

Thanks guys, I'm off on holiday for the week so I will give it another shot when I return, I have noticed though that the new bolts that come with the Lemforder control arms come with what looks like a thread lock blue coating on the threads already, will probably give the inside of the control arm bushes a coat of copper grease as well just incase they need to come off in the future

 

[Steve260E]

Update: Spent an hour or so tackling the n/s control arm and eventually got the thing off, brute force got the ball joint bolt out and with a good wack it popped out, still the outer ball joint part of the control arm is still stuck in the chassis so will see if I can get hold of a 9" grinder to get that out the way and finally onto refitting the new parts.

I'm sure you will agree it was well due to be changed judging by the state of it...

 

[jaymanek]

Done this job recently on my 500E and my W124 Estate.

Not a job that is much fun and I have a fully equipped workshop!

Its opened a can of worms though as I am now renewing pretty much all the suspension on my estate. Roll bar bushes, shocks, links... Rear wheel bearings, all the links on the back, bottom hub bushes..... many nights spent so far..

 

[Steve260E]

Done this job recently on my 500E and my W124 Estate.

Not a job that is much fun and I have a fully equipped workshop!

Its opened a can of worms though as I am now renewing pretty much all the suspension on my estate. Roll bar bushes, shocks, links... Rear wheel bearings, all the links on the back, bottom hub bushes..... many nights spent so far..

Your right, its certainly not a job I will be so quick to take on in the future, worryingly If the front end is like this I will probably end up like you having to overhaul the rear end as well, although to be fair the car drove quite well apart from the squeaky ball joint and vague steering that hopefully the new control arms will improve.

The strange thing is that the shocks look original but when looking under the gaiter at the actual piston it looks in pristine condition and moves up and down very smoothly, shows how well some of these parts are engineered.

 

[Steve260E]

A quick update!

I have now changed over the pass side control arm and the arb bush, once I got that seized bushing out putting back together was a breeze, hopefully the preload is correct as I finally tightened up with the weight of the car on its wheels on ramps.

Just the other side to do now

 

[Steve260E]

Happy to report that I finally completed both sides Sunday evening, just waiting on getting the alignment/camber done tomorrow.

Early signs are very good as driven slowly round the block it felt so much smoother and lighter, so hopefully once the camber is setup properly it will be even better, especially at motorway speeds were it used to be scary.

One thing I must say about doing this job at home on the driveway is...never again!

 

[grober]

It can be a pig of a job-glad you got it sorted.