On the 80, I have looked over the front end and see nothing obvious, the front wheel on the right I have noticed would seem leaning in at times, I always wrote it off to eneven ground at first, but it is becoming more pronounced lately, flat paved ground and what not, it has a good deal of lean over the other 3, and (maybe this is in my head) it seems to feel to me like the front of the car has a sloshy (not loose) feel to it, sort of in a diagonal direction toward that corner when hitting road irregularities or turns. I have looked at the ball joints, tie rods, bearings, suspension bushings, spring and perches. Could it be the tie rod mount under the battery? I wrote that thought off because the car still seems to feel normal and identical on left and right cornering, both low and high speed. There also appears to be no leaning/sagging of the body.

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Chris
64 190D R.I.P.
80 240D W/617 engine -for sale
82 240D -for sale

Is it leaning in at the top or bottom?

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Sagging upper control arm bushings will cause the camber to become negative, resulting in inner edge tire wear.

It is the top, has a knock kneed appearance on just that side.

Tango, I looked them over today, (along with the subframe seams and upper arm mount point), they are aged as expected, but not missing or worn with any gaps that would cause such a lean, this is VERY noticeable. I would rough guess approaching 20* of lean.

Driving it today I intentionally pushed it hard in a few opposing corners, it almost does have a mushier feel turning left, and that sloshy feel is almost like a whip when coming out of the turn as if something was unloading too much (It whips my head back and forth a few times before it stabilizes), maybe it is the swaybar.....there is no evidence of it making contact to the wheel well around the hole though. I guess it's more curiousity to me at this point than anything, I'm not going to dump any big money into this one, simple cheap fixits are fine, just wanted to make it last as long as it would until I had the 82 ready, then it's a parts donor. I'm also noticing lately the doors are becoming a bit more stubborn to close right. Maybe I need to go re evaluate the rust progression.

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Chris
64 190D R.I.P.
80 240D W/617 engine -for sale
82 240D -for sale

it could be slowly collapsing from rust. How is the shut line between the hood and fender on that side?

I would not push it in any turns until I get this fixed. A wheel folding under would not be a good feeling to experience.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Barring some catastrophic failure due to rust, the most common cause of the front wheel tilting inward at the top is failure of the upper control arm's inner bushing, where it's bolted to the inner fender. I've replaced three of the upper arms on two different W123s - not worth it to R&R the arm just to replace the inner bushing.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

I will respectfully disagree. I replaced one, entire UCA, because of a failed bushing you describe. IIUC, you have to remove the arm to grid out any remaining rubber, and fit a new one in. The new arm comes with a new ball joint also. https://www.***************/search/product.aspx?sid=yq2svpuk3hefvf3oljmjt155&makeid=800016@Mercedes&modelid=1193767@300DT%20&year=1982&cid=control%20arm@control%20arm&gid=7532@Control%20Arm%20Bushing
https://www.***************/search/product.aspx?sid=yq2svpuk3hefvf3oljmjt155&makeid=800016@Mercedes&modelid=1193767@300DT%20&year=1982&cid=control%20arm@control%20arm&gid=7536@Control%20Arm%20%26%20Ball%20Joint%20Assembly

The pic is of the one that I removed.
Firestone quoted me $435 to r'n'r it. I spent $50+ in parts, and learned a trick.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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83 SD

84 CD

interesting...i was just noticing the exact same thing on my '83 a few minutes ago. passenger side front wheel's top seems tilted inwards. no uneven wear on the tire yet, but i haven't started putting serious miles on it yet. guess i need to go check the control arm bushings.

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1983 300D classic white 196,xxx
2007 toyota yaris lb
2007 nissan versa (wife's)
2001 nissan frontier
2006 bmw r1150gs
2001 ducati monster 900
2003 zr7s
2007 klr650

To try and clarify what I meant, I've REPLACED 3 upper control arms due to failed inner bushings. Because the replacements came with new bushings and balljoints, it wasn't worth the trouble to REMOVE & REINSTALL the old ones just to replace the inner bushings. (Though in my case all three of the old control arm balljoints were still fairly tight)


Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Well, the left fender line has always been a bit off since shortly after I had the car, I went to replace the rubber bumper cap on that side, and twisting on the rusty thru bolt caused a 6" hole in the rusty old fender, so it has one on it now that I had to wrestle off of a wrecker car (that glue is not fun to separate with a pocket knife and screwdriver). The other side and cowl looked good until my boss modfied my grille last week, now they're just close to right after some hood adjusting to make it operate properly again (bent hood hinges). The tire problem was there before that happened though. The door gaps seem normal still, it just acts like they're a bit tighter on the latches, need to be slammed a bit harder now.

I guess the thing to do is to put it on ramps and give it a good looking for rust movement this weekend and pull the wheel and wiggle stuff to see if/what moves, a bad bushing on that upper arm should show up.

I know what you mean on the collapsing wheel thing, my first car was an old Toyota Corona hatchback with 250K on it, the -original- front struts had rubber mounts on top, one finally split in half going down the freeway (680 in Danville), the only recognizable part left was the trunk lid. That was how I spent easter sunday in '94...

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Chris
64 190D R.I.P.
80 240D W/617 engine -for sale
82 240D -for sale

Something expensive, probably labor-wise.

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2003 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg Edition, "Tiffany," - Black/Black Cloth - 75K miles, Jetta #6; my faithful, turbocharged, BBS-adorned sled

SOLD 3/08 1981 Mercedes Benz 300D, "Elise" - Astral Silver/Black M.B. Tex - 217K miles - I miss her everyday; the best-built car I've owned

Big adz honking curbs could be another a root cause...

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Bama1


2008 SLK 280, Firemist Red - "Hurricane"
2001 F150 Lariat 4x4, Black on Black - "Badboy"
1982 240D 4 speed survivor -"Pearl" - Donated to Vietnam Veterans
1962 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 -"Gertrude"

1954 model original owner - ~2.5M
Gray softtop/solid exterior/modified chassis

Ah, I misunderstood.
We're on the same page.

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83 SD

84 CD

Ahh but I live out in the sticks....we aint got no curbs out chyheah......jus' them thar biggol boulders along the roadside, an' they aint your friends neither boyhowdy I tellya hooweee!

UH-Hmmm....ok, back to reality now...curbs dont exist here so much as roadside ditches....I suppose that could be worse though...lol

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Chris
64 190D R.I.P.
80 240D W/617 engine -for sale
82 240D -for sale

On my 240D, and a friend's 300D, I could see that the upper control-arm inner bushings were shot. In my case they were so bad, the control arms were rubbing on the inner wheel housings, but because of the tension applied by the stabilizer bar bolted to the upper arms, I couldn't actually tell they were loose by shaking the wheels or suspension. My friend's upper control arm went in easily, but I had to cobble up a special tool to pull on the stabilizer bar, and allow the control arm pivot-bolts to line up with their holes in the inner fender.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW