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Dec 18, 2004 10:48:39 GMT
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hi there i read on another thread that you chopped the springs on one of your mercs.my w123 has got a bit of altitude at the front and id like it down a bit. whats the best way to chop them?what did you do about shorter dampers?how safe is it? the springs have been tampered with on my vw 411 and the ride is terrible.the wheels foul the arches with a passenger in. can any of this be avoided cos the merc is my getting to work car an i don't want to ruin the comfort factor. cheers. ;D
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foa benzboyBenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Dec 18, 2004 15:13:54 GMT
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Hello, I chopped the springs on mine because I couldn't find any aftermarket lowering ones. You can get them for the W123 for about £100 (PI make them I think). If you wanted to go down the chopping route, the old benzes like ours have the advantage of not having the McPherson strut front set-up, so there are a few "dead coils" at the bottom. This means that you can chop off a coil and the spring will still seat properly. On McPherson types, you more often than not are left with a pig-tail so you have to heat the springs up and bend the ends flat for them to seat. The W123 is a bit different from the W115 (I think the rears are the same but I haven't chopped them - I went for a rake . The front springs on yours are longer if I recall correctly. I cut off one and a half coils from the front, and this lowered the car about 2 inches. Always cut the springs from the bottom, never the top. And obviously take them off before cutting . Sounds obvious but I know of a guy that lost two fingers cutting his springs whilst they were still fitted to his car . The amount of coils you cut off affects spring rate - they'll be stiffer with less coils on. This is no bad thing though as the cars are a bit "wallowy" (mine was anyway!) Taking off the springs can be a bit tricky too - Mercedes have a special tool to take them off with. I tried ordinary spring compressors but they won't fit in between the coils. What I did (and it isn't recommended but I had no other choice) was to put a trolley jack under the lower wishbone and jack it up so it compresses the spring a little. I got some nylon rope and tethered the spring loosely to the subframe incase the spring decided to make a bid for freedom and take out a passer-by. I then undid the two inner wishbone mounting bolts and drifted them out. Then, positioning myself in front of the car so if anything went wrong I wouldn't die, I VERY slowly lowered the jack until the wishbone and spring were free. Fitting, as they say, is the reverse of removal. Just watch out for those eccentric bolts on the wishbone as they also control your tracking. Very dodgy method but I wasn't about to fork out for a MB spring compressor! On the W123 you might be able to use conventional compressors - I've never worked on one so can't be sure . For cutting the coils off, I just used a mini grinder. Hacksaw would be way too slow. For the amount of trouble it is to do, and the unknown factor of how much the spring rate will be affected, it might be worth getting a cheap set of lowering springs - they drop the car about 40mm if I recall. Hope this helps - if you have any more questions just ask and I'll try and help
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Dec 18, 2004 18:12:22 GMT
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i know all about the fun of fitting front springs!i had to change one for the last mot because it had snapped .i bought two so i could change both to keep the old girl sitting level.we put the car in the garage,off with the wheel and had a look.no bother we thought and set about removing the bust spring.the broken one fell out.nice, this wont take long . five hours,much spanner throwing and cursing ,20 cigs later we'd finished!let the car settle overnight and decided not to change the other spring. they can be changed with "normal" spring compressors on a 123, but its a time consuming bussiness. my 123 is an estate so it has self levelling on the rear.on paper ive come up with a clever(if i say so myself ) idea of making it manually controlable,so i can have it low or raked depending on my mood. looking at your little picture, I'm sure ive seen your car at a show somewhere. i took mine to the national concours at battle, in 2003.my friends thought that was funny,my car and concours in the same sentence.got a bit of a rat look going on. when the fine weather reappears ive got a set of 16 inch pentas to put on to complete the look.all I'm lacking is lowness. thanks for the advice,if i get stuck il give you a shout. ;D
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Dec 18, 2004 18:13:59 GMT
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If the shock passes through the centre of the spring you may be able to do what I did on the Sceptre..... I removed the shock and replaced it with a long piece of 10mm threaded bar with a nut and big washer on each end, with the bottom nut tightened up so as to just start to compress the spring. Then disconect the bottom balljoint from the upright and wind the bottom nut down the threaded bar. You have to be careful of it binding up as the angle of the bottom wishbone increases (hammer at the ready) and make sure the threaded bar is long enough so that all the tension is released before you run out of thread.......
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... the only injury I sustained was a bumped head when I let the seatbelt of without realizing the car was upside down and that's not really the car's fault.
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Dec 18, 2004 18:30:57 GMT
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thats quite an ingenious method,but the spring sits in a cup on the chassis rail at the top, and in a cup on the wishbone.the damper mounts at the top to the inner wing and to the wishbone at the bootom.they run pretty much in parrallel.
the haynes manual showed something similar to your method.this might have to be tried when they come out. my mate mrsigma used to have a sceptre.1972 model.v nice but v rusty.
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ah the sceptre , what a piece of curse word that was lol. not half as good as thge minx it donated its wheels to eh dave. cant believe i never took any pics it was gorgeous
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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