As many of you are aware Samson has been down since September 12th, when it was last limped into the Sikorsky Aircraft Auto Show to claim a second place trophy along with Delilah.
After installation of a limited slip diff and sticky summer tires followed by sever beatings in Cleavland Ohio, the rear differential mount had enough. Of course it couldn't break at a more inopportune time, one week before the show. well I guess it could have been wore, It could have been in South Carolina or Cleavland or anywhere in between.
In any case for the past 2 months I have been busy at work on weekends and with Delilah's quasi restoration and doing all the pre-winter services on all the other family cars so I didn't want to tie up the lift.
With all that behind me, I spent the day cleaning the garage and getting it ready for Samson. Tomorrow the rear sub frame will come out for surgery. I will hope to have Samson back up and running by end of year. It sure was nice to fire up the V-12. I forgot how nice it sounds.
Rear subframe fixture complete. Just about ready to go in but two of my wheel speed spacer washers flew when I took it apart so those will have to be remade tomorrow.
The subframe is shown with the diff and axles installed in the straight across level attitude. This is the position that the rear control arm bushings need to be tightened in.
OK after getting all the welding done and ready for installation, it has just been too cold to install the rear subframe up until last week. I now have the rear subframe installed and now its just a matter of all hookups. Drive shaft, brakes exhaust. It wont happen right away since I need to go to work this weekend. But its coming together.
Samson is back. No test drive yet but run through a full warm up cycle and off and back up the lift. Too late at night to drive and out of gas. Tomorrow a good wash and test drive.
Well it appears that the PS box has given up. It works but leakage that was present last year has now evolved into a leak that leaves you smoking form under the hood at a traffic light. Been wanting to replace this part anyway as it is the last component in the chain of 200,000 mile front end components that hasn't been replaced and it is worn out beyond adjustment. In fact I really need 2 of them one for Samson and one for Delilah.
I already tried tightening up and sealing this one. Over 200K miles its just too old. Looking for a good low mileage used one if anyone has one. Must be from a 560SL.
Got the new PS box installed. I went with a rebuilt since all the rest of the parts in the front end are new. Gave it a quick road test in the dark. It runs nice but I now have to burn off all that PS fluid that got on everything. $387.00 delivered + $200 core. I will be sending the core back mighty quickly.
I was surprised that the wear component - the gear sector part - is either available from MB or is made by someone. But this seems to require so many specialized tools that I don't think I'd try to rebuild one myself even if I had the part.
An expert tech at an MB dealer told me that most leaks are only at the main shaft, and replacing that one seal (he swore it could be done on the car while on a lift) will be good to go for a very long time.
There is a lot of mis/disinformation on the steering box on 107's if you look at eBay. the 560 box might physically look like the 380's and bolt in interchangeably, but I think it's travel limits are different because the frame itself is different. Misapplication might be a safety issue. No box AFAIK will work as from the factory with "all 107's".
Yes the sector gear and ball nut combo are available for about $600. So for about $700 you can rebuild your own. I would like to find someone who reconditions sector and ball nuts. I wonder if that is what the re builders do. In any case driving with a new gearbox is really an improvement. It was the last loose part on Samson.
OK I finally got a good chance to drive Samson for the past 2 days. It now has a fully overhauled front end with all new MB parts and a rebuilt PS Gearbox. It really did make quite a difference. I still have a few more pieces to install. I expect everything will be in tomorrow. As I was assembling everything I did notice the trans mount was torn.
So at this time the car has all new rubber underneath everywhere with the exception of the rear sub frame mounts. Car is now being prepared for trip to St Loise in late April.
John, what did you do about the floaty feeling the car had? Was it a fig newton of your imagination, or did you find something, or make a change, that made it go away?
The old gearbox was very loose and adjusted beyond limits. That's a good part of it. I still need to get a set of wheel spacers for the rear to even up the stagger. Really what I need is the right wheels. I'm getting Penta envy from the Penta forum.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Mercedes-Benz Forum
7.6M posts
693.6K members
Since 1999
BenzWorld.org forum is one of the largest Mercedes-Benz owner websites offering the most comprehensive collection of Mercedes-Benz information anywhere in the world. The site includes MB Forums, News, Galleries, Publications, Classifieds, Events and much more!