Front drivers side spring snapped at low speed turning on a flat surface. Could drive it slowly home. I was thinking of just putting in quick struts but most manufacturers who supply these are unknown to me. Any thoughts on spring and shock suppliers? Oh its my 05 cdi.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

Are you certain the spring broke? Look closely at the strut. The lower spring seat retaining ring may be the problem. It's a pretty common issue on the 211's.....

The spring was at the bottom fork a smaller end broke allowing the rest of the spring through the bottom stop. In what you say being common should I be replacing the shock also? The after market quick struts are very cheaply priced so having second thoughts of putting those in.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

Alright some genius spent way to may hours coming up with a concealed nut on a movable rod that has the end of the rod with ground flats to prevent the rod from spinning. So how does one remove that nut? Maybe a special tool?

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

Google: 5pcs Strut Nut Socket 18mm 19mm 21mm 22mm 24mm with 12 Point 1/2" Drive, Suspension Strut Nut Socket Tool Easy Remove Strut Nuts

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78 W116 300SD 'Desert Rose' new as of 01/26/2014
79 W116 300SD 'Stormcloud' RIP 04/11/2022

Put an impact on it and it should spin right off. You may need to use vice grips to hold shaft. Put it jam up against opposite side where you are removing it.

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Jim

Lots of kits around the nut on my existing shock is 17mm but what are the chances of a new shock having the same size nut?

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I'd say pretty good.

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Jim

Bilstein, Sachs and Mercedes shocks all have different size retaining nut of course at least from what I could find on the forums. I going with Bilstein b3 springs and reuse my old shocks as they weren't giving me any issues. I've been trying to reduce my inventory of tools so I just bought a single 17 mm strut nut socket.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

Ok well changed my mind and also ordered sachs shocks. All the parts came in today and I was able to mount the springs onto the shocks ready for installation tomorrow. The shock retainer is the same as the original but the new spring has a slightly larger diameter. The refresher kit I got had new rubber bearings, stops etc. I did need to preload the springs with my old w123 spring compressor as my McPherson strut spring compressors are much shorter.

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Okay all together but looks high in the front so I checked old pictures and it's about the same so I think I maybe happy? Unless someone tells me differently.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

They should settle some.

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Jim

So now I have a click noise when hitting pot holes which seem to be everywhere. The ball joint on the lower control arm which connects to the torshion bar has a ton of play in it. I tried finding the part 211-323-00-68-05 which is shown on dealer sites but the picture of the control arm sure looks different to me. Has anyone changed just that joint while on the car or is it a bit more involved?

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I have the part on order and looks like I should be able toeither bang it out or press it out in situ.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

Well got my part but had to fully remove the control arm to replace the ball joint. Now I guess it's time for an alignment.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10