w124 300TE 4Matic front springs

[grober]

Its also a question that occured to me. There are a lot of differences of course. The lower suspension arm is a cast unit with a large bushed mounting point/pin for that yoke. - bit like a shock absorber. You could possibly get round that by welding on a mount on to the existing W124 arm or fabricating a new arm. Its the upper part thats problematical- the upper shocker part of the w210 strut appears to locate the spring in the vertical by passing through the spring perch and terminating further up in a further top mount higher up. This would not be possible in the W124 since the existing strut is mounted up there in that region. Any substitute fabricated W124 assembly would have to terminate at the existing spring perch in some way I think as its function would merely be spring location. This is all speculation of course as the geometry of the whole set up and the relative strut/spring/ spring perch geometry /angles might be completely different??
2001 E320 4matic front drive axle replacement - Page 2 - Mercedes-Benz Forum

2001 E320 4matic front drive axle replacement - Page 2 - Mercedes-Benz Forum

 

[bolide]

W124 suspension is distinctly odd by most standards as the shocks & springs have separate mounts. Also the springs are a fair way inboard. This necessitates those monstrous springs

Typical hatchbacks have pathetic-looking springs thinner than your little finger but, as most use McPherson struts, the motion ratio is pretty much 1:1. In other words, if the wheel rises 1", the spring compresses 1". W124 springs are about half way along the wishbone so the springs have to be about four times the rate

A hatchback spring might be 250 lb/ft - so a W124 is more like 1000 lb/feet. This explains why they have such enormous springs, but they ride so softly

The springs are also very long, allowing the suspension travel (the Japanese call it "stroke") to be very long and the fundamental frequency to be quite low

I don't know them that well but suspect the W210 moved far more towards a conventional design

Nick Froome