[MBZ] Wobbly 124

[Hendrik Riessen]

I had a look at a 86 230E over the weekend, at an asking price of AU$3500 
and with 240k on the clock it sounded like a good replacement for the 200 
which  recently was in an accident and is now officially on death row.
Anyway the colour was a nice light blue and was in pretty good shape except 
for a bit of fade on the bonnet (probably because the underbonnet padding 
has been removed), bit of a scuff on the front bumper and a bit of rust on 
one of the rear doors. About what I excpected for a $3500 124.
The down side was the interior, one of those dark blue ones that makes me 
feel like I am sitting in a coffin.
I did notice that the rear of the car was very bouncy and wobbled, sort of 
like being in a boat at sea. Almost got seasick driving that thing around 
the block.
My question is what causes this phenomenon? Is it the rubber mounts in the 
rear subframe or is it the shocks/springs which cause this or is it a 
combination of a lot of things? Another thing that worried me was the auto 
box which did not like to engage 2nd, when I pressed the pedal to the metal 
it kicked down but would shift up real quick again. Manually shifting the 
gears helped but there definatley seemed to be something not right.
There where some other issues, mainly electrical but I did not bother to buy 
it because of the interior colour and all the issues that have to be fixed.
Anyway I thought I asked how easy/hard and expensive it would be to get the 
car to handle like a 124 should, in case I come across this in another Benz.
Ta for all replies.