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73 450SL safe for a road trip or not? I need a judgement call

2K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  dugald 
#1 ·
Well, I've been doing a lot of work on this car, and today I took it to get the alignment fixed. I had it in earlier in the week, but the younger guy was afraid of the car... so today it finally got done.

The car drives much better, but the steering is sloppy. It never made any noise before, but it would appear that doing the back and forth sweeping to measure caster without the assistance of the power steering has trashed the steering coupler.

I now get a clicking/clunking if I rock the steering wheel back and forth, and it's a bit loose.

My question is whether or not it's safe to drive in this condition? I'd really like to use it this weekend, about 200 miles round trip. I'll happily replace the part, but I won't get it or install it before Sunday morning.
 
#4 ·
I agree.
I doubt that the coupler will give you no steering - too much metal mass.
The safety concern is that you have to continually rock the steering
back and forth like driving an old Buick.
 
#6 ·
FIRST thing I'd do is lift the car and just check out the front end parts. Could be you are hearing the coupler as that is quite common, BUT what if they left something loose under there when doing the adjustment????

Not sure if you experienced the same thing as I did, but where my car is now I called a load of local shops and as soon as I said alignment for a Mercedes I got a "NOPE" straight way. I asked "even on a '77" and got a standard reply they all used which was "no Mercedes and no BMW".

Finally got it done at a shop and they told me the only real difference (blowing smoke at me or not) in doing the work is that it needs weights in the front (sand bags) and a full tank of fuel to get a correct alignment.

Anyway, first thing I did when I got it back was to get the car up on stands and double check everything was torqued to spec.

If it is the coupler's rubber just going then from everything I've seen so far it won't let go, but then how severe your "sloppy" steering will be especially at speed is still another matter. Myself, unless it was my only car and I HAD to be somewhere, I'd probably let it sit until I got the coupler changed.
 
#7 ·
Will it fail? No!

The only question is whether you'll feel comfortable driving it like it is and only you can answer that.

Me... I drove mine like that for a season before replacing the coupler and I was good with it on secondary roads and I did take several 200 mile trips.

Up to you!
 
#8 ·
The horse has left the barn....but I would have gone to the MB dealer for the alignment before locking the barn door.

My local dealer has the City Of Barrie's go to alignment machine. All special makes end up there.
 
#10 ·
First thanks for the replies! I was present for the whole alignment, so nothing was left loose, I'm sure.

Secondly, regarding alignments - not trying to start a flame war -

1) Do whatever makes you comfortable.

2) Be educated. My understanding is that the suspension might have changed on later 107s, but the early ones DO NOT REQUIRE a fancy alignment. I've been a mechanic for a long time, but I work in a shop that doesn't do alignments.

Your MB needs only an 'MB' alignment only if the suspension bushings are severely worn, in which case you should replace them anyway. The spreader bar puts pressure on the front edges of the tires in an outward fashion to simulate road speed- but think about it: The MB alignment is only being performed to compensate for worn parts anyway unless something is bent. Why do we need alignments? Cars don't go out of adjustment, things move due to wear. The exception, of course, is loose adjustment bolts etc, but that's pretty unlikely. Alignments are compensation for wear. Replace all of those parts, get it aligned, and then you'll find that all is perfectly well. Bent suspension parts should always be replaced anyway, as they are prone to failure if struck (or whatever happened) again.

The effect of the spreader bar is negligible if your suspension is in reasonably good condition. It's a great idea to have weights in the car, too, but also remember that those weights are to simulate a load in the car- if you weigh 250 pounds like I do, and have a 150 pound person in the passenger seat, a half tank of gas, and an empty trunk, then three 143 pound weights and a full tank are actually quite inaccurate.

Some (many) other MB models have difficult to adjust suspensions, which is why many shops won't do the work. Getting a 100K mile ML or even a W126 in proper alignment when it reaches 15 or 30 years old, respectively, is a lot of expensive work. Your corner Midas isn't going to do the suspension work required to properly align these types of vehicles, and they don't want to guarantee work for some whiny customer who is unhappy that their 300SD veggie car is pulling to the left after spending $69.00 on an alignment. So they 'refuse' to work on these models.

My 2c.

Back to the clunky steering coupler- I have verified it's the problem, and look forward (LOL!) to replacing it as soon as I can.

I kind of feel bad for neglecting this car for so long, I forgot how much I liked it.
 
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#13 ·
...
Back to the clunky steering coupler- I have verified it's the problem, and look forward (LOL!) to replacing it as soon as I can.

I kind of feel bad for neglecting this car for so long, I forgot how much I liked it.

If you want to put off the Steering Coupler replacement, it might be
interesting to ponder if there is a quick and dirty way to "tighten" the
darn thing up. Say wrap some wire around it, stuff the links with a piece
of bendable metal, etc. I'd be interested in finding out how much dampening
the rubber in the Coupler does anyway.
 
#12 ·
I'm a competent mechanic, but I haven't spent a lot of time wrenching on this car. I've actually put very few miles on it since I acquired it in 2007. It's very different in many ways from other Mercedes' I've worked on.

I'll always accept advice provided by experienced people.

Certainly there are people who have rebuilt these things from stem to stern, and I value the knowledge and information those people provide. If someone had told me they had the steering coupling come apart on the road after it started making the noise it's making now, I'd be leaving it in the garage tomorrow instead of taking it on a trip.

That said, I hate to see people get boned by the dealer when there may actually be a friendly local guy who is actually willing to try and adjust your alignment for you. Mercedes isn't keeping the alignment specifications a secret, and the adjustments are not difficult... in fact the suspension on an early 107 is very easy to adjust.
 
#14 ·
After I renewed my suspension I took it to the local Goodyear tire shop for alignment. The older guy used it to teach the younger guy how to do these 'specialty' cars. They spent four hours on it. My steering was still sloppy as I had yet to do the coupler and box but it didn't matter because it tracked so well.

Then I got onto the I81 bridge crossing the Potomac at Hagerstown, MD which was under construction. Tall concrete barriers lined each lane. Gouges, scratches and scorch marks were abundant. There were multiple curves and heavy truck traffic. Because of my loose steering I could not travel in a straight line! It was two or three minutes of terror.

So yeah, you'll probably be fine until something like that arises. Good luck!
 
#15 ·
I want to bounce this off the readers of this topic since we are past post #10 . . . I have rebuilt the entire front suspension, replaced the steering coupling, and even resorted to tightening the reverse thread bolt on top of the steering box. All of these steps made improvements to my steering system. What I have now is a slight play in the steering wheel when the car is run for short drives. If I take the car out for a long drive, the steering improves.

My mental picture of this is a worn steering box that tightens up when the fluid gets up to temperature and into all the nooks, crannies and seals. Does this sound reasonable? As I type this, I think replacing the fluid is a good idea.
 
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