After we fully sorted our Mercedes, we headed out for our three-week family trip with a trunk full of spares, clothes and a decent tool kit. We hadn’t gone a mile when we realized that—despite some testing—we had too much weight in the car. The rear end was nearly dragging on the ground.
Mercedes use a compensator spring in the independent rear suspension. Since our car came with unnerving positive camber and a very stiff compensator spring, we opted for the spring from the much lighter 230 SL when we swapped the rear end. This got our rear camber to an ideal zero. We had tested the car with five people in it, but we hadn’t taken into consideration the weight of luggage, tons of tools and spare parts.
Time was not on our side, so we decided to jettison the tools and parts and press onward. While this solved the problem, it was not comforting to head out on a 3500-mile trip with all our carefully organized tools and spare parts sitting on the home workbench—where they’d do us no good, if something were to happen. Initially, the trip went well. Check our message board for daily updates.
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I love the story! We have a 67 230 with all of the repair record, all the way back to it's purchase in Spain by a proffessor from Oregon State who brought it back to to Oregon. It has been garaged for about 16 years and needs some TLC. I wish I had the facility that you do to complete the work myself since that bring so much satisfaction. I have enjoyed reading the car's story and hope you have a wonderful and mechanically uneventful trip.
Hey guys, I just wanted to praise you and say that you've done a great job with my old car. It makes me sad that I ever sold it, seeing the potential that I saw, now met. But on the other hand, I'm glad that it went to you. You're treating the old girl well, and that makes me happy. The car looks fantastic, and it sounds like you've got it running well too. Enjoy your trip! -Josh
Thank you so much for letting all of us be a part of your trip! I knew you were special back in the AutoX days when I asked for a back issue and although it was unavailable you made me a copy of the article I needed. Re the Merc, the rear spring spacers also fixed the driveline vibration in my lowered Volvo 740! Party on, Suddards!
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Update by Tim Suddard to the
