Topic: Suspension sag

[jim carr]

Hi all, I have just aquired '78 450 6.9 RHD,Whilst looking up info came across this site and joined hoping to solve the few problems i bought,here is the problem. The right side of car seems to sit @ 20mm lower than left, when driving she :?  loves right hand corners, hates left, seems to get bump steer as load shifts to front right.Any ideas
Regards
Jim

[Tomi]

Hei,
check your springs, perhaps you have a broken spring (very normal in W124) you can adjust the car height with the rubber cushions on top of the spring. there are 4 alternatives (different thicknesses). They are marked on the side with small bumps. 1 bumps means the thinnest cushion, 4 bumps is the thickest. You can adjust that amount of height with these cushions. Due to the geometry, the car rises about the double as the difference of the new and old cushion thickness. The spring has to come of, so you need spring compressors, (use only MB ones, because that is dangerous). It might take a few trials to find the correct height.
There might be other issues, hope not.
regards, Tomi

[jim carr]

Thanks Michael, Think it might be front strut, looking for a speed hump, mostly open road down here, couple hours south of syd.
Regards
Jim

dear jim, it's great to see another 6.9 owner,like myself, join this website. I had a similar problem with my car as well, but there was a difference to yours - my suspension did not sag. I have a suspicion that the right hand front strut on your car has  given up the ghost and would appeare to be leaking back through the system internally. Have a look at the small plastic tube that leads from the strut back to the main system - is it full of oil? There is a certain amount of leakage allowed over a period of 12 hours, but once that figure is exceeded,the strut requires replacement.Also, what are your Air cells like ? Does the car ride harshly?  A good test is to go to a shopping centre, and drive over speed humps at say 5 km/h - first left side, then right side - does the suspension jolt the car ?
Struts are expensive and I believe they cannot be rebuilt - let me know how you get on - I am in Sydney, can be reached by e-mail or by telephone. Would like to hear how you get on.
Regards,
Michael