Here is a picture of the steel plates I mean... just in case there is any doubt

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Tightening torque for hex bolt attaching front rubber bearing to frame floor 120 nm.

Tightening torque for hex screws attaching supporting plate to frame floor 40 nm.

It says to tighten the screws and the hex bolts (pins) in the same sentence, so it doesn't seem too insistent that there is a correct sequence.

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Bob
'82 300D Petrol B-G Metallic

Thanks for your response - one of these days I'll buy a FSM... 'got to get one in the US though as the ones over here cost nearly 5 times as much.

When I mounted the plates, I inserted the large bolts, but left them loose, attached the 4 13mm differential bolts, left them loose, then screwed in the 2 bolts for the plates.

By leaving the bolts loose you should have some wiggle room to get it lined up.

I used 3 floor jacks to raise the whole assembly up into position.

Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Thanks for the torque specs - I did need them.

Some how or other I had convinced myself that the left hand steel plate fits on the right hand side but that they go on upside down... doh! I received some information that showed me the errors of my ways - thanks a lot Yak.

(I should have looked more closely at my own photographs that I took when I took tha bits apart)

Army,

Truly impressive job.

I am inspired to remove the whole subframe now to de-rust and rust proof the whole thing with POR-15.

How long would you say this whole project took you?

I did the '85s front end and now would love to do this complete of a job on the rear. I fear this a long long project....Or it may be one of those things that doing the entire thing is not that much harder than doing it one bit at a time under the car.

How long did it take you to re-align the subframe?

dd

__________________
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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

I really took my time doing the subframe as well as the front suspension, power steering pump rebuild, new brake lines + rebuilt the calipers (one of which has failed - the bugger), cleaned out and removed the fuel tank, new fuel lines all the way to the injectors + new injectors, fitted an electric cooling fan, and I've been slowly stripping off that horrible plastic undercoating and assessing the condition of the chassis. So it is a bit difficult to give you an accurate assessment.

HOWEVER if I'm being positive and nothing goes wrong I'd say it is possible in a weekend so long as you've got the parts. If you need to go shopping you've probably blown it!

The surprising thing about the subframe job is just how light it is - remove the diff and it is quite easy to fling it about like Mr Schwarzenegger might do his car mechanics. The only real problem is getting it out from under the car - which for my case was only on axle stands. I found it best to lower the subframe and diff onto chunky bits of wood and bricks until I could drag it sideways out from under the car. I positioned the axle stands under the rear jacking points to start off with but found it better to have them positioned behind the rear wheels on the "chassis rail" close to the bracket for the joint between the flexible brake line and the hard one.

Once you've got the subframe out and you've cleaned it up and painted it get some cavity wax for the inside - there is access via a little rubber bung in the middle upper surface of the subframe.

Don't be too upset about scratching your new paint - it is quite likely to happen. (I'm sorry to report) I spent some time with more POR 15 underneath the car once it was re-assembled.

Fitting the subframe on to the car is best done with the diff on. I tried to fit the diff to the subframe once it was in place but when working under a car on axle stands - well shall I say a waste of time? My method of re-aligning the subframe was to raise it slowly on to more bricks and wood until I got the height right:-

Charmalu says to use 3 jacks. I guess this is best - I've only got one jack - so I used what was to hand. Be careful with such methods - jacks are likely to be way way safer.

Even so once you've got the subframe at the correct height you'll find it possible to lift the two front points (that have the bushings) by hand. The bullet like pins are sometimes a bit stubborn at this point - tap them into place with a hammer - and I mean tap NOT hammer! Once you've got one of these pins in place you can do them up hand tight and then do the other one.
Watch the height of the diff and make sure that is in line with the mounting holes - if it is nearly there it helps with the pin alignment.

I hope this helps and isn't another case of too much information...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Oh yes and for checking the alignment of the subframe and indeed the front wheels I'm in the middle of perfecting a time involved but accurate DIY way of setting up the suspension... once I get the data I want I'll publish...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Oh yes and another thing dd, I'm not sure if you've seen this - but here's something to do with the trailing arms!

W123 rear wheel bearing removal help needed

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Dieseldan, when I replaced my subframe, I just raised it up and bolted it in. there isn`t any adjustments.
one large bolt through the sub bushings, and the 2 that hold the plate on for each side. then the 4 that hold the Diff mount to the body.
mount the shocks, torque things down and your good to go.

If all you are going to do is replace the trailing arm and sub frame bushings, it`s a days work.
if you want to get all detailitis, then longer.

I called Whunter to ask him how do I jack up the rear of the car and mount the jack stands, when removing everything out from under the car. Its just sheetmetal, and nothing solid to have the car sit on.

His reply, was to make some rods to insert into the jack holes for the jack stands to sit on. with this bit of info, and have seen somthing like this on E-bay before, I went to a welding shop to have something made.

we used a piece of 3/4 in steel rod. inserted it into the hole, and left 3 inches sticking out. then the guy made a 15 degree bend to each one so they would be level when sitting on the stands. welded a little plate on the ends, large washer could also be used.

make sure your jack hole aren`t rusted to the point they can`t take the cars weight.

Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Thanks guys....nothing like talking to those who've done it.

Rust treatment and prevention is the inspiration for detailitis.

Did you guys disconnect the driveshaft at the rear and just leave it supported when you removed everything else?

If I go in to just replace subframe and trailing arm bushings and paint what is exposed' will I need to mess with the driveshaft?

__________________
-------------------------------
'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

Nice write up, great pictures. I am curious what your parts bill totaled(?).

I am searching for DIY info to do this to a W124 wagon. I have to replace differential bushings at a minimum.

__________________
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.

I disconnected the DS at the Diff and let it hang
.
Disconnect the calipers, I used a short bungee cord and hung them over the sway bar with the hooks in the bolt holes.

Disconnect the parking brake cables. I loosened the adjuster, pulled the cotter and pin, spring and "V" rod. then the rear cables can be disconnected. there is a clip on each side to remove and a clamp with 2 screws that fastens the left cable to the floor.

Remove the shocks.

three floor jacks really help.
place one under the Diff, and one for each trailing arm.

Remove the 4 13mm bolts on the Diff mount.
Remove the (two on ea side) 17mm bolts and the large one in the sub frame bushing,

with come coaxing the assy should lower down.

You might want to remove your axles first, as it will make it easier to remove the trailing arms to replace the bushings.

I replaced my arms with a set from PNP that were lower milage, rather than mess with the rear bearings. and replaced the Diff with a lower milage one.
I steam cleaned the parts, scurbed them down with Marine Clean, sanded them and painted with POR, then top coated with their chassis black.

cost wise for the bushings is around $150, including the Diff mount.

Iam doing this from memory, so I might have missed a step.
Whiskydan was a great help with his thread for me, I linked to in post #5.

Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Errrm I did the lot because I also re-booted the axles and painted them up with POR 15 and then of course I replaced the prop shaft centre mount, and so painted that up too. And then because of an incident of sand blowing into the diff I stripped that too and painted it up after replacing the seals on the axle outputs...

Oh by the way my method of de-rusting is to go for gold with an angle grinder with a wire brush attachment. I then de-grease with KBS aqua clean / (POR 15 version) marine clean and then sometimes I use KBS rust blast and then I finish off with POR 15.

You don't need to get as anal about your daily driver as me though... just do what Charlie says!

The Whiskey Dan Method is indeed a great inspiration to me too.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Hi Renntag,

I was planning to publish a comparison of part prices once I've done the rest of the work I need / want to do on the car. But for the sub frame job the following applies:-

2 new steel plates that connect between the sub frame and chassis - 35 euros each (Dealer only part)

2 sub frame bushings (Febi) about 30 euros each I think - sorry I'll check this one

1 diff mount 78 euros (Febi)

2 repair kits trailing arm bushings (4 bushings in total) 20 euros each (Febi)

2 new sub frame bullet shaped pins (dealer only) about 20 euros each - sorry also have to check this too.

Untold amounts of POR 15 and cavity spray!

Sorry all prices are in euros - it is where I live! As a rule of thumb at the moment one USD feels like one Euro even if exchange rates differ.

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!