ThePollitt
Posted a lot
Fix up, look... at that car on eBay!
Posts: 4,696
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:00:58 GMT
|
Yo! So, as the Benz has been MOT'd for around 18 seconds it's about time I start thinking about lowering it. This will of course be done via the angle grinder utilising method. It's the only way. The thing is, I'm sure I recall there being a special 'tool' to do the job. By 'tool' I mean a contraption that can be fabricated from some scrap steel and then, iirc, used to compress the top 2/3 of the spring while it's in situ. Allowing a number of coils to be looped of the bottom. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Also, how low do I go? I have 2.5 coils from the front and 2 at the back. Will that be doable with 17 x 8.5 rims? All thoughts and ideas are welcome! Chris
|
|
Last Edit: Jan 25, 2011 21:57:16 GMT by ThePollitt
|
|
|
markbognor
South East
Posts: 9,970
Club RR Member Number: 56
|
Lowering the W126...markbognor
@markbognor
Club Retro Rides Member 56
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:06:33 GMT
|
Epic 123 coupe at the top!
Indeed there is Cris, bit of large diameter threaded bar goes through the hole in the inner wing and down the coil, this bar has a nut welded to the top to make it a big bolt, make a big thick flat washer that this sits on and which sits on the inner wing. fed through one of the coils underneath you have a bit of cut and shaped box or thick bar that has a nut weleded too it. As you wind the bolt into this it compresses the spring upwards into the inner wing.
Sorry for the essay, I don't have any pictures.
|
|
|
|
markbognor
South East
Posts: 9,970
Club RR Member Number: 56
|
Lowering the W126...markbognor
@markbognor
Club Retro Rides Member 56
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:08:33 GMT
|
Ahh, here it is: You need one of these, I call it my lowering stick You can lower a w123 in a couple of hours safely without removing the coils. My stick has lowered many, many Mercs! Some 14 or 16 mm bar, nuts and washers. A piece of 2x1 with a hole in it, and another tough piece of metal that will fit between the coils. I have since cut the long piece of box down quite a bit. So, the fronts you cut the bottom off the coil, the rear you cut the top. Car on axle stands with suspension at full drop. Put the threaded rod down through the front coil via the hole in the inner wing. Attach the bar at the top, attach the piece in the second photo through the coil about 2/3 of the way down. Now put a jack under the wishbone, and jack until it just about pulls off the axle stand. This will compress the spring loads so that you can tighten up the lowering stick around it. When you now (slowly) release the Jack, the coil will remain compressed at the top, and should pull off the lower wishbone so the bottom 3 or 4 coils are under no compression. From here you can safely lop off a few coils with the grinder (suggest 1 & 1/2 or 2 off the front and 1 off the rear for starters). Then jack the wishbone back up to relocate the coil, undo the lowering stick and jobs a good-un. The only difference on the back is that you want to push the lowering stick up through the lower wishbone, pull the spring down, and cut the top of the coil. Look at Matt Jones w123 560 for an idea of height adjustment. I took 1 1/2 off the front (OK, so it has a heavier engine) and just one off the rear. It sits really nice now! Oh yeah, if it still a bit high for your liking after the above operation, leave it for a couple of weeks, as it will settle about an inch all round! I would lend you my stick, but it is in my barn in Suffolk, and I live in Germany, but hope the above helps!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:08:35 GMT
|
I have nothing helpful to offer, but I do have this picture: Make that kind of thing happen, somehow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:12:13 GMT
|
speak to cocacola stat
and have his lorinsers off him..........
|
|
2001 HONDA CT110 (NOT RCV)
|
|
|
Lowering the W126...BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:20:48 GMT
|
Congrats on the MOT pass! I need to make one of those spring compressors, I think I'm pushing my luck with the "suicide method" of Benz spring removal.
|
|
|
|
markbognor
South East
Posts: 9,970
Club RR Member Number: 56
|
Lowering the W126...markbognor
@markbognor
Club Retro Rides Member 56
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:22:22 GMT
|
Removing a front coilf from a w123 with "regular" compressors is without any shadow of a doubt the scarryest thing I've ever done.
|
|
|
|
ThePollitt
Posted a lot
Fix up, look... at that car on eBay!
Posts: 4,696
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 12:28:51 GMT
|
Thanks guys. ;D
So I assume the hole in the inner wing is also a feature of the W126?
Chris
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 13:15:34 GMT
|
Thanks guys. ;D So I assume the hole in the inner wing is also a feature of the W126? Chris It should be there for exactly that reason. The homebrewed coil compressor shown is just a cheap version of the proper MB tool, that is used in the same way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 13:20:18 GMT
|
|
|
Last Edit: Dec 16, 2010 13:20:55 GMT by cobblers
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 13:28:01 GMT
|
ill i can say is them from springs are leithal be carefull have seen a few accident boss broke his finger and that was removeing a broken one ouch !!!! and on a more possitive note bbs's are an absolute must !!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
1978 mk2 escort mexico
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 14:59:55 GMT
|
Don't even try it with "normal" spring compressors, get the proper ones, or build a tool like utterpiffle's. You could try it without any sort of tool. On cars with the springs in the center of the a-arms it's a piece of cake, but due to the spring position on mercs i'd secure the spring somehow.
|
|
|
|
Foxy
Posted a lot
Making pink manly in the north!
Posts: 1,913
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 15:15:40 GMT
|
Yep bloody scary for sure, Mike D and I when we did mine were giggling like schoolgirls and we made a piffle contraption. we still were bricking it! Dropped mine 2 1/2 coils front and 2 at back and she sat like this!
|
|
I'm the handsome fella with the cheesy white specs or is that the cheesy fella with the handsome white specs?
|
|
|
Lowering the W126...HARDCORE
@hardcore
Club Retro Rides Member 190
|
Dec 16, 2010 15:44:24 GMT
|
Is this the same for a W201? If so I'll be needing to do the same so if u want to share the cost of some high-tensile threaded bar etc to make a tool (perhaps keep it at A52?) then I'm in. Seems dumb us both making one..
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 16:55:43 GMT
|
What you need to do is get yourself on to a merc web site and you can hire the tool you need, there's a member on Mercedes190.uk who will hire them, they are big money to buy, have look on e-bay. Benzworld is another good site for information
I lowered a 123 series merc and a 190e with normal spring compressors but it was a nightmare of a job trying to get the springs compressed enough to get them out and both springs on the front of my 190 had already snapped on the bottom coil.
Rear springs on the 190 were a doddle, just drop the trailing arms with a jack underneath, 123 was not so easy if I rember as it has some lugs welded to stop the trailing arms from fully dropping which we cut off and rewelded once the springs were chopped
|
|
|
|
Mike D
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,196
Club RR Member Number: 57
|
Lowering the W126...Mike D
@v8mike
Club Retro Rides Member 57
|
Dec 16, 2010 18:41:44 GMT
|
|
|
Last Edit: Dec 16, 2010 18:48:00 GMT by Mike D
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 19:21:11 GMT
|
That was on my Merc that I bought off him, my advice, stick it on airbags cos Merc springs will kill you instantly the moment you even look at em.... Tbh, I don't even like taking out normal springs, was doing it to a golf, spring slipped out the compressors and flew past my head (it "hummed" as it went past) and took a good sized chunk out of the concrete ceiling! I had to sit down for a while when that happened
|
|
Remember the days when sex was safe and motorsport was dangerous. Vintage bling always attracts pussy.
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 19:32:20 GMT
|
I saw this in rod (off here's) gallery You scared me a little now... I need to take off the wishbones next week... Huhmmmm I better invest in a proper spring compressor...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 19:40:34 GMT
|
I saw this in rod (off here's) gallery You scared me a little now... I need to take off the wishbones next week... Huhmmmm I better invest in a proper spring compressor... Very expensive to buy
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dec 16, 2010 20:05:34 GMT
|
Excuse e if I sound a little smart a*rse here,
But There is nothing at all wrong with making your own tools providing you make em tough enough,
no offence Rod but that pasta shaped article in the pictures does look a tittle feeble doesn't it?
The Mercedes method looks far more safe winding the coil from the inside. and while your winding from the top you are well out of harms reach...
|
|
|
|
|