Topic: My Custom 1980 300SD Project Part 2

[floyd111]

So the York can not be used if one wants a more effective AC system?

[UTn_boy]

So the York can not be used if one wants a more effective AC system?

Not necessarily.  The York is really good at what it does, and does it well!  It's just that the York takes more horsepower to operate....something like 9-13 horsepower.  The Sanden offers equal performance....maybe even a little better, but takes less horsepower to do so.  So when we say the Sanden is more efficient we mean only that it takes less horsepower to operate.  The York is simple, and parts are easy to find for it.  They're very universal, and can be mounted vertically, diagonally, (45 degrees), or horizontally.  Aside from how much horsepower they rob, they also have much less of a tolerance for oil shortages.  When they go it's usually a very dramatic event in which loud noises and pieces of its insides come outside. haha 

Scott's car originally had a Harrison R-4 radial piston compressor.  Those are wonderful compressors, but short lived on a diesel.  They literally get shaken to death.  I'm not sure of the amount of horsepower an R-4 takes away from the engines output, but I'd imagine that the Sanden is still a better choice in that regard.  I've yet to figure out why the U.S. cars received the R-4 on 98% of the diesels made between 1980 and 1985 while all of the Euro cars received the Sanden.

[Squiggle Dog]

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[Squiggle Dog]

I got my new tires a few months ago.


It's interesting because they've always been advertised as made in USA, but the ones I received were made in Mexico. Oh, well. They still seem like GRRR-eat tires.



Uniroyal Tiger Paws have been around for a very long time.


Our rescued dog, Koda got a Tiger Paw tire, too!

[Squiggle Dog]

What a difference in the ride they make! Now I can drive my car again without fearing a blow-out. These tires are 195/75R14, which is the closest equivalent to the stock size of 185/80R14. The tires I had on it before were 185/70R14, which were a smaller profile tire. These new tires are about an inch larger in diameter and fill up the fenders nicely.


The rubber is so soft. Pet the kitties.


Here is one of the old tires. It has a date stamp showing it was made on the 44th week of 2008, so that's ten years ago. As you can see, the tread is quite worn and there are cuts in it.


A sidewall cut with torn threads.


Another sidewall cut.

[Squiggle Dog]

My car has been down for a while. For the past few months the alignment has become poor, the rear of the vehicle feels like it's loose and makes clunking noises, and the last time I drove it to Carl's Jr. to get a Beyond Famous Star Burger without cheese, it was difficult to steer and the front end was making popping and clunking noises.

The major diagnosis was a worn out tie rod and broken rear swaybar links which were rubbing against the new tires. But, most of the steering and suspension components are worn out, so I ordered the parts I need to replace every part to make the entire front and rear steering and suspension like new (ball joints, control arms, tie rods, drag links, idler arm rebuild kit, bushings, subframe mounts, swaybar links, differential seals, etc.).



The axle shaft boots are also cracked and about ready to tear open, so I ordered remanufactured axle shafts from CVJ Axles because I don't want to mess around with trying to cut these ones apart, repack them, and install new boots and crimp on new cans, only to still have worn axle shafts.


I purchased mostly high-quality German Lemförder brand parts and I felt the price for everything was very cheap, in fact probably less than it is for most other cars. This is going to be quite the job, and sadly I can't do it in the garage because my side has been taken over by other projects.

I guess after 39 years and 346,000 miles, parts are bound to start wearing out, but they're usually inexpensive and I can replace them myself. It's also a well-engineered classic that's bound to go up in value unlike an appliance car which isn't worth fixing after it's ten years old (if you can even get the parts).

[Squiggle Dog]

The parts I ordered started coming in. I would have liked to use genuine Mercedes parts on it all but some of the prices were several times more expensive than the Lemförder, which are typically still good quality. I really cringed ordering the Meyle lower inner control arm bushings, front subframe bushings, and rear subframe mounts, but they were the only brand available other than genuine Mercedes.

Then the price differences were so huge between Meyle and genuine that I couldn't justify it. For example, for the lower inner control arm bushing kit, I paid $55.08 each (X2) and free shipping for the Meyle ones. Mercedes wanted $380.00 each. That's a difference of $649.84 plus tax and shipping just on those two kits! For the front subframe bushings, I paid $13.90 for a pair with shipping for Meyle ones. Mercedes wanted $54.00 each. That's a difference of $94.10 plus tax and shipping on those two bushings. For the rear subframe mount kit, I paid $47.83 and free shipping for a pair of Meyle ones. Mercedes wanted $276.00 each. That's a difference of $504.17 plus tax and shipping on those kits. So, I saved $1,248.11 plus tax and shipping choosing Meyle over genuine. I really wish there were at least Lemförder options available as I really try to avoid brands like Meyle and ÜRO. But, I don't have the money to pay the difference.

I was very disappointed to see that the Lemförder idler arm kit was made in China, and the upper control arms were made in Taiwan with one of the boots having a grind mark cut in it. I also paid extra money to get the pair with the control arm-to-swaybar bushings, but it appears the Lemförder control arms already come with those bushings in the box, so I ended up paying extra money for bushings that weren't needed, though I will say the Febi brand bushings are more substantial than the ones that came in the Lemförder boxes. There is only about a $10 difference between genuine Mercedes and Lemförder upper control arms, anyway, so I decided to ship them back and order genuine.




The Lemförder rear swaybar links, drag link, and rear trailing arm bushings arrived. They are made in Turkey. I guess buying Mercedes parts made in Germany is quickly becoming a thing of the past. And the reason I care so much about in what country they are made is I want the parts to fit correctly, work properly, and last a long time. I don't want the rubber boots and parts to dry rot in the desert climate in only a short time after all the labor that's involved.


I'm pretty sure that back when I rebuilt the steering in my 1968 W110 200D, all the Lemförder parts I received were made in Germany, and that's why I paid the extra money over other brands. Now it seems that if you're not buying genuine, you might as well buy the brand that has the cheapest price because it seems there is no guarantee of quality or country of origin anymore.

[Squiggle Dog]

I lifted up the rear of my car and disconnected the axle shafts by removing the 10mm head bolts on each side and then using a brass punch to punch them most of the way out of the hubs.


I disconnected the driveshaft from the differential, supported the differential with a jack, and then I removed the four bolts for the differential mount.


There are four nuts that hold the differential to the subframe, and all of them were loose!



I lowered down the differential and slid out each axle shaft from the hubs, then rotated it so I could roll it out from under the car.

[Squiggle Dog]

It's out!


I got the rear cover off. It had been sealed with this strange sealant that squished down to practically nothing and beaded up around the inside.


I grabbed the clips securing the axle shafts with a brake spring hook and pulled them out.


The axle shafts have shims that need to be kept with the differential and used on the replacement axle shafts. The sealing surface is quite worn.


The remanufactured axle shafts arrived and look great. Oddly, all the boots have little tubes pinched underneath them. They must be to keep vacuum due to temperature changes from sucking in the boots. I'll inquire with them to make sure this is correct. They now pack them with moly grease instead of oil, so at least oil leaking out won't be a problem. CVJ Axles checks them for straightness, inspects seal surfaces, replaces ball bearings while not removing the hardened bearing surfaces, and installs new boots.

[Squiggle Dog]

At this same time I was replacing the differential pinion seal on a 1960 Ford F-100. It turned out the yoke holder tool that fits the Ford 9 inch axle also worked for holding my 300SD's yoke. Getting the staked tab of the pinion nut bent away was tedious.


I don't have the four pronged socket for the pinion nut, so I used a screwdriver and a hammer. It broke free and rotated without much effort.


After I removed the nut, the yoke slid off by hand. I hooked the seal with a removal tool and pounded it off.


I was relieved to find that that sealing surface of the yoke had very little wear.


After running sandpaper along it radially. I was left with a little groove that was imperceptible on one side, and barely visible on the other.

[Squiggle Dog]

Because the paint was in such bad condition, I used paint stripper on the differential case, used naval jelly, and cleaned it up so I could paint it. I installed new genuine Mercedes seals.


I painted the rear cover and yoke with Duplicolor Ford Semi Gloss Black engine paint.


I measured the pinion bearing friction with a lb-in beam type torque wrench before I loosened the yoke nut and got 25ncm/0.25nm/2.2 lb-in (which is almost nothing). The factory service manual states that used bearings should have 50-100ncm of friction WITHOUT the gear set installed. Then I got the same value with the yoke removed, so apparently the pinion bearings had no preload or were possibly loose. When I set the bearing preload, I factored in the 25ncm friction of the gear set and set the bearings at about 80ncm as I didn't want to goof and overshoot the maximum range. The pinion nut gets cranked down super tight and then the friction that it takes to keep the torque wrench smoothly rotating is read. The more the pinion nut is tightened down, the more a crush sleeve inside compresses and the preload on the bearings increases. If you go too far, then you have to resort to removing the gear seat, which might possibly require a case spreader tool, because that's the only way to remove and replace the compressed crush sleeve from behind the pinion bearings.


The new 12-point nut got staked into place and I made sure to put sealant on the yoke splines so oil can't seep out of them.


Sadly, the German-made Lemförder flex discs that I installed eight years ago are cracking, so they must be replaced at this time.

[Squiggle Dog]

I marked the relative position of the two lengths of driveshaft and then loosened the coupler with a 46mm wrench and a large adjustable wrench.



There is a circlip that must be removed and then a shield.


The center support rubber was cracking.


I tracked down a new genuine Mercedes center support (part number 123 410 10 81, made by GMT), which wasn't easy because they are apparently no longer available. But, ECS Tuning was able to get one in after a couple of weeks. It was ten times as expensive as aftermarket, but all the brands I could find seemed to be made in Taiwan, China, Thailand, or India and I don't want to be replacing the part again anytime soon.

[Squiggle Dog]

Before removing the rear suspension, the rear brake calipers came off and were hung up out of the way. I placed a carpenter's pencil between the brake pads to prevent them from accidentally popping out.


I removed the shock absorbers, which allowed the trailing arms to drop down enough to release the springs.


Then the subframe was disconnected at the mounts so it could be lowered down.


I put a pair of moving carts underneath the subframe, lifted it over the exhaust pipe, and rolled it sideways out from under the car.


There's almost nothing left under the rear of the car now!

[daantjie]

Wow well done this is a monster job!

[gavin116]

Hi Scott
What a great effort! Good write up so far. The car's handling will be transformed when it's all back together again. Since I had my suspension done, its got that new car tight feeling, none of the old wallowiness.
And you're so right about M-B parts pricing... it's getting more and more out of reach for us classic car enthusiasts. It's not all that it seems either: I bought a new set of front indicators from M-B and they no longer have "Bosch" or made in Germany on the lens. They have no name, but do have "Made in Poland" embossed on the lens, so even M-B is sourcing out of Germany.
Good luck with the rest of the job,