Dear All,

I thought I'd add some photographs of my most recent fun - Sub-frame removal and bushing replacement on my 1981 W123 300D.

If you are searching this forum BEFORE starting the job then the I'd say you are better off trying to remove the bushings by using the car's weight to push the bushings out of the sub frame.

However, if (like me) you've either

1) Already removed the sub frame and are now thinking "right how do I get the bushings out"...

or

2) The center pin in the bushing has corroded itself on to the pin-like bolt and has ripped itself out of the bushing

Then this information might be of use to you.

I'll start first with a picture of the pin-like bolt removal:-



When I tried to get the pin-like bolt out it was very very stiff. I used a 3/4" drive bar and put loads of weight behind it. This was probably a mistake - although as you can see the pin-like bolt is corroded fast to the middle part of the bushing (this is the powdery conical thing) - so may be a stupid amount of force was necessary...

...Anyway I found out that the amount of force necessary (in removing this pin-like bolt) is drastically reduced if you take the weight off of the sub frame by lifting the trailing arm with a jack - you can see this too in the picture. I'm definitely going to do this if I ever have to do the job again.

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