Wishbone bush removal w208

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zingerburger

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Jul 3, 2013
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26
Car
clk 200 komp coupe w208 manual
Has anyone successfully removed the noisy inner bush from the wishbone on a w208 coupe 2002?
I am going to attempt this as the part is now removed and sitting on the bench and I do not have the expensive removal tool and wondered if there's a cheaper way to get this out as fitting seems much easier option using a g clamp and plenty of grease?

Any ideas welcome...
 
I have today purchased a complete used wishbone lca and will fit the bush to this prior to removing the old one so I can do a straight swap in situ.
This will allow plenty of time to remove at leisure without the risk of the car being off the road for any period as is needed for work
I will be making a threaded rod assembly to remove the lca bush and would appreciate any ideas for best construction for this or any known links.
 
They can be very very tight. We tend to replace the whole arm as it can be labour intensive to just replace the bush.

We use a special tool to do it but on a few occasions the arm has flared out and damaged it beyond repair.
 
Just what I suspected looking at the build of the thing.
Thanks for that. I think I will go with the complete unit.

I've heard a jack being used to lower the spring and arm once the bolts are undone.
I assume a trolley jack is no good due to the rapid release. Would a scissor jack do the job and if so has anyone done this and did they use a buffer such as wood blocks or a arrangement to steady the arm whilst lowering??

Thanks in advance...
 
NEVER use a jack to compress the spring. It is very dangerous doing it that way. Use the proper MB compressor.
 
update

NEVER use a jack to compress the spring. It is very dangerous doing it that way. Use the proper MB compressor.


apologies to you but had to do it my way or there was no way really apart from a stealership and if we all had MB tools then we wouldn't have the need for this forum.

  1. Jacked up car and put rear end on stands
  2. removed LCA plastic cover
  3. removed shocker bolt
  4. removed upper control arm bolt
  5. loosened LCA connection at hub end but left bolt in place
  6. placed scissor jack under chassis end under LCA
  7. placed a very large g clamp through base of spring through LCA and tightening section of clamp through lower section of spring. This ensured if spring detached it could not go far at all.
  8. loosened and removed bolt with jack tightened up just enough to nip
  9. Slowly and carefully lowered scissor jack
  10. Spring came down just about 5 inches and the tension was completely gone and spring just fell out after LCA lowered to floor
  11. removed hub and bolt from LCA and removed LCA
  12. When reconnecting HUB side up I used the jack again to get perfect alignment and it made the job very easy indeed- I had read about issues people had getting thing lined up so decided this in advance.
  13. RAISED chassis side LCA after placing spring back into is allocated slots . This was also very very easy with no problems at all as clamp was placed into spring again to safeguard any issues that may arise
  14. Bolt needed a tap with a hammer to get through last chassis hole but the jack made things easy by moving things slightly up or down as bolt fed through
  15. finally removed clamp and replaced dust cover
  16. went for a quiet test drive!
I have no doubt I would feel confident doing this time and time again and I feel its one of these jobs that create fear (understandably so) but once undertook is surprisingly easy- just be careful and check things 3 times and have plenty of breaks and time outs as you go to reflect on progress and think about the next step logically.
 

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