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Guide rod mounts and Alignment

2K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  wooky_chew_bacca 
#1 ·
New tie rods and lower ball joints replaced ($750 labor only, as I had purchased the parts previously). Now need guide rod mounts done, although mechanic says I could get by without doing them, as there is not a safety issue, but there is some clunking that I hate, so I may do it. Cost will be $650-700. Does this guy seem crazy expensive? I like him, and he's not pushing me to do any work, in fact he's very busy and hard to get my car in with him. He specializes in European cars and older ones especially.

And follow up: He cannot do the alignment, as he says his machine is 'limited' to a rough alignment only, and he cannot give me a good place to go, as he says none are very reliable he has tried. Will it be hard to find a place? What should I look for/ask for? Will typical alignment shops be able to do it, or do I need to look for a MBZ specialist or something?!

Thanks guys. I still love my car, but it's starting to drive me crazy lol. Something new everyday. Yesterday a window stopped working, but I think it's just the switch. I'm telling myself to stick with it, keep putting money into quality parts and service and eventually it will pay off ;-)
 
#2 ·
Yes, do the guide rod bushings, another set of parts that hold the front end geometry in place. The clunk is from them moving back and forth. Alignment machine should be a "Hunter" 4 wheel from what everyone else says. Local Kaufman Tire place here aligned mine with a Hunter, spot on

Once you get everything sorted . . . . . enjoy it while you get to that point and afterwards it'll drive like a dream, ask me how I know
 
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#3 ·
demet,

How do you feel about doing the guide rod bushings yourself? I've done it before and it's not bad at all. I feel his price is high.

Those $700 charges add up fast. I'd suggest you take a serious look at how much you're spending and how much you love the car. It may not be the right time for you to have it?

I like to push people to keep these amazing cars but sometimes it's not ideal.

As to the alignment, a regular shop can do it. I have one nearby that I use. I had a frank conversation with the manager discussing the use of a spreader bar and locking the steering gear. He was amenable and his guy does a good job for me.
 
#5 ·
Thanks guys! Yes Mike, I have thinking about doing it myself. I've just been researching technique for DIY for the last hour. I think I could do it, but the amount of time, and the unknowns that always pop give me pause. I may just bite the bullet and have my mechanic do it. :-( This means other issues on the car go unresolved for a bit.

If I didn't love this car so much I would have bailed on it by now, but the design is so perfect I can't think about something more practical right now. In fact if I gave up on this car I would just buy an old BMW motorcycle lol!
 
#7 ·
Not really a difficult fix, the most aggravating part was getting the new ones screwed in, roughly 1/2 turn at a time with the wrench. Before taking mine down I put a dab of white-out on the exposed threads so I could eyeball how far in the new ones should go. The alignment will fine tune that

One word of warning though, and maybe I just got a bad run of the new dogbone nut thingys, I ended up using the old ones with no issue. The new ones wouldn't let the bolt screw in very far before binding and ultimately popping out of the bar
 

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#9 ·
Agree on the new captive nuts generally being bad quality. Taught everyone around me several new words and a dance step in getting that snapped off nut from the bolt!!

To get the bolt out of the Lower Control Arm (LCA) in order to take the brake thrust rod out with the Dogbones, normally you need to remove the spring (a DIY but dangerous task) and then remove the spring perch to let that bolt come out the top. MB did that for safety so if the nut falls off, the brake thrust rod is still captured. But...since I don't mind living a bit more dangerously, I put the bolt in from the bottom.

Last time I did this, I removed the nut, pushed the bolt up as high as possible (up against the spring perch), then used an angle grinder to take the head off the bolt. That got the bolt out and released the rod from the LCA. For reassembly, I could snake that tapered washer and rubber piece into the LCA with the spring perch in place. I put the nut in place on top of the washers in the LCA and then with a new (or in my case, salvage yard) bolt put in from the bottom, tightened it down. But...I made very sure the nut and washer threads were clean (grease free) and used plenty of blue Loctite to keep the bolt in place. Did that several years ago and it's all still tight.
 
#10 · (Edited)
The bolt/nut thingy I was talking about was holding the dogbones in, 2 per side. I had to file a slot to get a pair of needle nose vice grips to hold the nut. Not to worry, after this was finished I painted and undercoated the slots so no rust

I didn't remove the spring but simply ran the old bushing out to almost the end of it's threads then set the lower control arm on wood blocks (rear wheels chocked so no roll) and then dropped the dogbone, otherwise I would have fought getting the new bushing started back. I learned this when I did the SE's years ago
 

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#11 · (Edited)
The difficulty of this job can vary somewhat depending on how hard it is to get things apart. I found when I did it on my SEC that the metal/rubber part that has to come out of the "dog bone" popped out with a little persuasion; on the SEL, the metal shell had rusted quite a bit and it took a lot more work to get them out. Always done it with the spring removed, so can't speak to that.

I've also had the captive nut thing come apart on both jobs I did. One pair of kits was Febi, the other was Lemfoerder, so maybe that's a reason to go with OE. If you get an aftermarket kit and want to use those nuts, definitely run the bolt part-way in while holding it with a vice-grip or big pliers. Unfortunately, that sort of defeats the purpose of replacing them - the locking part of the nut loses most of its grip with a couple of in-out cycles - but you've got a 50-50 shot if it staying together as-is. I found you can work one of the jaws of a channel-lock into the opening, and that holds it pretty well if it does come apart.

Last time I did it, I found a good spot to measure from the dog-bone to the bolt at the opposite end of the arm, and that worked ok for keeping the alignment within reason. Best to plan for an alignment afterward though, it's cheaper than a new set of tires and/or other things that could happen.
 
#12 ·
Yeah I had an alignment done after the bushings change, had em recheck the alignment after ball joint change and new tires up front, spot on with the recheck and she drives so SMOOOOOOOOTH now, no hops no bops juss guide her around the curves
 
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