Mercedes W123 Ball Joints Replacement
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- Опубліковано 22 гру 2017
- We document the struggle of replacing the upper and lower ball joints on a Mercedes W123. This should be very similar for all W123 Mercedes. Hopefully, you will be luckier than we were. Our passenger side ball joint was very seized. This is how we accomplished the job.
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Finally a video with real mechanics fighting the difficulties of working on old cars. Great video that got me ready to work on my 300D. Thanks guys!
As someone who has worked on Mercedes Benz cars for over 40 years after all of my factory training over the years, I can with no doubt tell you that this guy is no "real mechanic" as you put it. He is a butcher who doesn't know the difference between a bolt and a nut and is using a carpenter's claw hammer instead of a ball peen hammer.
It would be unwise to go about working on a Mercedes Benz in the manner this backyard fool is doing this job. You are asking for trouble with this guy's technique.
with old mercedes two things:
you are a very strong man,
or you have the right tool!
EXACTLY! I looked for a long time to find the correct Mercedes ball joint tool to do this job but could not find one. A regular ball joint puller didn't work, so we had to resort to hacking it.
Over 30 years of stuck, 🔨 is pretty much the only tool...and drill.... I've got an 82 300d turbo rides like a crippled beast but I love it
Word. It's worth it to get back that quality ride though.
Throw some new oem shocks on, its not that hard or expensive. Mine were $55 each at rockauto for my W126, made a world of difference.
Thank you for saving me time and knowing what to do when i try this...
Video is still coming in handy old sport. Thank ye for it. Three comments: These foreign jobs strongly prefer to have the bushings tightened at the rest position. Pain with the tire there on some, so I usually throw a jack under the ball joint and then have Big Serji sit on the bumper. Keep a stand there to catch it if Big Serji sneezes hard. Next; When going after the ball joints, disconnect one end of the shock. Then back off the nut a few threads. Now look/feel at the sides of the arm the stud comes through, there is usually a flat spot. Sometimes the whole side is, other times it's just a slightly raised bossed spot. Go to town on that spot with heat and a good framing hammer. This'll work on tie rods too.That should eliminate the need of a grinder. Third; A healthy dose of determination and anger will replace out classed tools any day. A 1/2 breaker bar and a fence post or pipe to fit over it would have got that joint in place when you found your driver couldn't. Thanks again for the video of help.
To crack ball joints, you hit on the SIDES to shock the taper!!! It is a job I have done many times.
The shovel technique worked in 5 wacks, prior to spending 3 hours with heat and hammering! Thanks a lot!
9:50 When you position the control arm in the body I found that it gets easier if you aim it towards the hole in the body and just make sure that part of
the hole in the bushing is visible through the hole in the engine bay. Then you can stick a screwdriver in from the engine bay and wiggle the control arm into place.
And when installing the new bushings on the sway bar end it can get a bit easier if you mount it together temporarily with a longer bolt first. Because
the threads doesn't go very deep into the sway bar. Just be sure not to tighten the long bolt too much so the threads doesn't get ruined. Then we can put all of the other parts together. And in the end we can take out the longer bolt again, and now it will be much easier for the short bolt to recach the threads.
Beast mode. Nicely done. I was hoping you were gonna replace those shocks . I just did my upper control arms yesterday... I swear it’s always like this. One side is cake, the other is the biggest pain in the ass. I think it relates to what side of the road we drive on and typically for us driving on the right side of the road... the right side of the car closest to the edge of the road... Hits more pot holes, gets more road junk flipped up in there than the side that’s in the middle of the road. Just a theory, but I seem to run into the same problem with one side being easy and the other taking frustratingly longer. Nice vid
Yeah both sides are never the same. One is always trouble.
I did the shocks too but didn't use that footage. They are straight-forward and pretty easy. Wanted to include it but the video is already so long.
Clapped Out Garage
Yea they are the easiest things ever to change. I’ve done practically everything on these cars except for Springs , lower control arms, and ball joints. Most everything else is pretty easy if you just look at it and take your time. Out here on Maui everyone is coming up with alternative ways to do things to keep their Maui cruiser on the road. Lots of beaten up broken down cars but you sure do still see a lot of these w123’s just with the turbo diesel instead. Gasers are quite rare these days in that chassis. I like your vids. Keep posting them!
Great job, thanks for keeping it clean. outstanding
Great job!
Great way for a DIYer to work on a car. I can confirm the ball joint removal tehnique . As advice you should be angry for optimum results.
Watching this guy work reminded me of some of the hacks I used to run into. I was very fortunate to learn from some of the best technicians while I was going through my apprenticeship training with Mercedes Benz at the factory and thus never picked up bad habits or poor techniques like this guy uses with no regard for careful handling of a spindle and just letting it fall on the concrete floor and damaging the spindle threads. Horrible. This guy a a total hack!
Thsnks for sharing. I got an 82 240d needs the same work done to it!
Good stuff! Subscribed!
that was a great video, im about to start the same job on my old benz, you showed me exactly what i needed,,,thanks,,,
Good job never seen any one put the knuckle in the dirt to take out the ball joints but at least it works.
Thanks for the video. Really helped me do mine this weekend. Mine surprisingly came apart and went together fairly easy.
The shuvel...great tool! Hahaha...thx great video mates! From Belgium🇧🇪🍺🤜
I change that thing on my mercedes w123, didint have the press tools so we made one, never been so angry but it worked, it took maybe 5 hours to change it, first time tho. Now i know its the right tools thats needed. But it was first time and you learn by doing.
Thank you. My husband now knows exactly what to do.
I love the specific automotive tool, the shovel ! I will try this :D
very well done. The Mercedes has a cooling water expansion tank, I've never seen it. I also have a W123, you can watch it on my channel
Came for the tutorial, stayed for the struggles
Merke, immer schön die Teile einbuddeln ;)
Ja! es ist die beste Methode
Well done, pilgrims.
I’m proud of you.
You tightened the upper control arm to chassis bolt with everything hanging down. This will stress the bushing. Always do the final tightening of suspension bushes with the car resting on its wheels. Also you really should get a balljoint splitter.
My Holiday plan this year 😂
Just wondering, when you buy a new upper control arm, does it come with the upper ball joint in there ?
Yes
Get a hole thought a bolt. Then blow the torch up through it and heat it up real good. Use oxy/acetylene if you have it. Let it cool. Smack it and it pops right out.
When removing the ball joints from where they are bolted down you want to hit the material around it not on the joint itself.
Yeah we tried a lot of different methods. They were really stuck in there and we had to resort to some hacking unfortunately.
Ball joint separator on lower would have pulled it out instead of having to drill it out
Possibly, but the Mercedes ball joint tool for this job is very expensive and difficult to find. We obviously didn't have one. I wouldn't recommend using a generic ball joint tool on this car. If you live in an area where your car is not exposed to salt or if your suspension wasn't damaged like ours, perhaps it will go more easily for you.
I have replaced mines after an accident where one them pop out at 30km/h, now after replacing both of them, every time i hit a bump on the road my whole steering wheels shake a lot, do you know what can be the problem?
Could be a lot of things.
During the accident something else could have been damaged, like your tire rods. Or you could have bent your wheel or thrown your tire out of balance. Need to go to a tire shop to have those checked. Or it could be poor installation of the new part, like that the retaining nut for the hub and rotor that attaches to the spindle not being tight enough or the ball joints not being totally seated.
I would start with the easy stuff and take your car to a tire shop to make sure the wheel and tire are okay.
KOOL IM GOINN TO DO MY 300 D .
I used a pitman arm/tie rod removal tool to get my lower out. heated the shit out of it put the tool on cranked and BOOM popped right out. Videos soon
You do not need to remove the hub!! This job is easy with the tools needed.
Hammered out Garage. I've never seen hammering to this level - ever. To get out ball joints - hit the outside of the control arm - this is Comedy Garage. I'd delete this video.
We did do that - A LOT. This side was really stuck. Never have seen a ball joint this stuck before, but we did get it out eventually. Most of the time they will pop right out with one or two hits.
OK - maybe I'll subscribe to see what you will do next.
Thanks, man. We like doing stuff and making videos is a fun way to share it. After we finish our current project (Volvo 240 Pickup) we have some projects planned that will hopefully turn out really cool.
I think you're on to something. I'll stay tuned.
Hi sir, I watched this and recommend you stop using a 🔨 hammer in general, at all on anything ever epically💯😂
Matthew Gorgoglione yea should be a ball peen hammer
my ball joints popped right out, dunno why you decided to cut em before even giving it a try
Here in the Rust Belt our cars tend to be a little more stubborn ;) We used our pullers on the other side before we filmed this side and nothing was budging no matter what.
Never use an impact on a ball joint tool.
If you're not careful or you don't grease the threads on the tool you can definitely create a problem. Otherwise, it works great.
dude when you were pulling on the hub that car was moving a LOT. are you aware about the springs on these as well, should be putting some pressure directly under the spring on the lower control arm
That's true. You do have to be careful with these springs. Fortunately they are in there really really tight and as long as your control arm is solid it's fine to work on the ball joints.
The springs on W123's are just about the most dangerous thing to work on when it comes to cars though. I've replaced them before and you have to be EXTREMELY careful.
Clapped Out Garage impressed with the joint removal I just dropped mine to be pressed out
Not in Kingman AZ cheapest you can get it 100 bucks for 2 front lower.
🙏👍👍👍👍
bruh. you need a can of pb blaster XD that and the torch you'd be a lot better off
Tire rod?!
The tire rods are just like on any other car. Pretty easy to do.
im doing my homework. Because this is not what i want to do.
Harbor freight is great
That poor car. Survives 40 years and then you have a go at it.
It hurt me so much the way they treated this car. When he warped the upper control arm holes I cringed :/ We all gotta start somewhere tho.
its not easy to work on these old merc ,,,,,,,, thats one of the reason why you dont see many of them on roads,,,,,,
Great stuff? No. Use a ball joint tool to remove the old ones.
barbarian
As someone who has worked on Mercedes Benz cars for over 40 years after all of my factory training over the years, I can with no doubt tell you that this guy is no "real mechanic" as you put it. He is a butcher who doesn't know the difference between a bolt and a nut and is using a carpenter's claw hammer instead of a ball peen hammer.
It would be unwise to go about working on a Mercedes Benz in the manner this backyard fool is doing this job. You are asking for trouble with this guy's technique.
I stopped watching when he said a shovel. Geez.
OMG, who turned u loose on that old Benz? I guess your doing the best you can with the few brain cells you seem to have functioning.
SCARY DUDE,
REAL SCARY!!
PLEASE BE MORE CAREFUL, HOPE YOU DON'T GET SERIOUSLY INJURED!
why not remove the spring if that shoots away you will get seriously injured.
that spring has a lot of tension
@briwatkins79 that spring is only held in by tension. Its way to easy for it to let go.
What a fricking hack this guy is. Goes from one hammer to the next and putting heat on components that one should never put heat on. This is a classic video of how not to do this job!
As someone who has worked on Mercedes Benz cars for over 40 years after all of my factory training over the years, I can with no doubt tell you that this guy is no "real mechanic" as you put it. He is a butcher who doesn't know the difference between a bolt and a nut and is using a carpenter's claw hammer instead of a ball peen hammer.
It would be unwise to go about working on a Mercedes Benz in the manner this backyard fool is doing this job. You are asking for trouble with this guy's technique.