What a productive day Jaime!! So glad you will head north for Saturday Should be nice beach weather too. Narragansett beach is really nice. Dwight
Dwight Giles Jr. Wickford RI On Sep 4, 2018 9:01 PM, "Jaime Kopchinski via Mercedes" < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > Ok, things are looking good... I took today off to finish the car, working > from 7:30am to 5pm. > > Everything went together nicely. I marked all the adjusters before removing > them, so the alignment felt surprisingly good with all the new parts. But I > brought it in for an alignment anyway, I don’t want to wear out the new > tires i put on today (on NOS bundt wheels). I ended up at the local > Mercedes dealer since the rack at my preferred shop is down. It’ll be done > tomorrow. > > A few things to note: > One of the M.B. upper control arms had cracks in the rubber bearing, quite > bad ones. I ended up keeping the arm that was in the car as it looked quite > good... I had put it in in 2009. I’ll get an exchange at the dealer and > replace it at some point so everything is able the same age in the front > end. > > I also put in a new master cylinder since the old one looked terrible and > the brakes were getting very questionable since I last did them in 2009. > The calipers look good, but the mounting lug for the brake sensor connector > on one caliper was cracked off (probably by me in 2009), so that didn’t > quite go back together with sensors connected. I guess I’ll keep an eye out > for a new set of calipers. I did pads and rotors too. > > I adjusted the steering box out about 1/2 turn... there is still a touch of > play that wouldn’t adjust out, but it’s hardly noticeable. I had done all > the steering linkage in 2009 and it was all still perfect, so I left it in > there. > > The shocks that came out of the car were original M.B. with the green > stripes... they felt so tight I really thought about putting them back in. > It’s remarkable just how good they were from the factory. > > And finally, I have a weird creak which I believe is related to an engine > mount. I was thinking about it while driving to the dealer and remembered > that I had to remove the engine mount (or was it the arm?) to replace the > oil cooler lines last year. Perhaps I didn’t torque the arm to the mount > tight enough. I’ll check it tomorrow. Maybe I’ll change the mounts... in my > mind they’re still new, but I think I actually did them 6 or 7 years ago. > > Some photos here: > https://www.instagram.com/p/BnUrMxqnPqU/ > > So, its looking more positive for a road trip on Friday!. Did I mention we > got a hotel in Narraganset on the beach? > > Jaime > > > > On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 8:06 PM Jaime Kopchinski <jaime...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > I hit a bit of a setback this week trying to find the time to work, but I > > was back at it last night and today. I finished pulling the old bushings > > out of the control arms and subframe. I ended up burning the last two > out, > > worked like a charm. I then sand blasted, primed, and painted the > arms. I > > ended up breaking a bolt off the held the spring cup on one arm, so I had > > to drill that out and tap a new hole. New bushings went in without an > > issue... slid right in with some rubber paste. > > > > I also banged out the old ball joints from the spindles. The first one > > came out with a few blows from a 4 lbs sledge... under a minute. The > > second one took a few hours. I managed to get it to move a bit with the > 4 > > lbs sledge before breaking the handle. The hardware store didn't have > any > > handles, but they did have a 6 lbs sledge, so I bought that. Blow after > > blow... plus heat from MAP gas... finally the thing popped out. I'm > > already sore, tomorrow will be worse i suspect. > > > > Still left to do: replace the upper control arms, which should go pretty > > easily. Change the wheel bearings and install new rotors on the hub. > > Reassmble the suspension. Install a new master cylinder and bleed the > > brakes. Then I need an alignment. > > > > Its going to be tight for the Q, but i'm going to try. > > > > Jaime > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 8:57 PM Jaime Kopchinski <jaime...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > > > >> Sawzall made the subframe fall out... I cut right through the bushing > and > >> the bolt. Then I spent about an hour beating the control arms with > chisels > >> and big hammers to get the old bushings out. I'm nearly done... just > about > >> half of one bushing to go, then I have to get the subframe bushings out, > >> which shouldn't be tooo bad. I can get the subframe in the press at > least. > >> > >> It did make me feel like all of this work is worth it when I saw the > >> condition of the bushings. Some photos here: > >> https://www.instagram.com/p/BnALEJCnDwE/ > >> > >> The picture showing the offset bushing in the control arm is most > >> interesting... it shows how distorted the bushings are... it should > >> normally be centered! I'm really looking forward to getting this car > back > >> on the road, its going to be a joy to drive. > >> > >> Jaime > >> > >> > >> On Sun, Aug 26, 2018 at 9:32 PM Jaime Kopchinski <jaime...@gmail.com> > >> wrote: > >> > >>> I made some W116 progress... rear brakes are done (I started easy). > >>> Front brakes, springs, hubs are out. Front adjuster bolts for both > lower > >>> control arms are out. The subframe mounts the rear part of the > control arm > >>> and to the body, so has to come down. The left side subframe bushing > bolt > >>> came out without much fuss. Right side is a different story. I got > the > >>> nut off, but it seems that the bolt is seized to the bushing inside the > >>> subframe. It took a long breaker bar with a pipe to get it turning a > bit > >>> and I can feel the bushing turning. At least the bushing will be easy > to > >>> get out once its down! I've got to hammer it out, but access is very > tight > >>> to the back side of the bolt. Might need the sawsall. > >>> > >>> I'll continue tomorrow. > >>> > >>> Jaime > >>> > >>> > >> > >> -- > >> Jaime Kopchinski > >> http://www.jaimekop.com/ > >> > >> > > > > -- > > Jaime Kopchinski > > http://www.jaimekop.com/ > > > > > > -- > Jaime Kopchinski > http://www.jaimekop.com/ > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
