You're quite correct and the sad part is : NO ONE ever wants to save the hard to find " Hard parts " like these that are so critical to keeping any oldie on the road.
I pass up so many good engines , trannies , brake drums and so on , it makes me crazy .
There used to be ever so much more good 116 , 123 & 126 Junkers , now not so much .
Luckily many 126 Hard Parts will work on our 123's .
I have been told that Limited Slip final drives were _never_ fitted to any 123's (?) . I grew up on snow country so I'd wanted one but in truth , I'll prolly never need it .
SL's (107 Chassis Coupes and Roadsters) use the same drive axles as 123's , I often see mangled 107's in the Junk Yards .
I now know the 126 CV Joint Boots are the same as 107 & 123 , maybe 116 too ? .
I meant to grab the nearly new 126 axle but it used the fine spline (? 12 point ?) bolts and I only had the 8MM HEX typ tool necessary for the 123's , my plan had been to buy the 126 axle and see if it was the same as the 123 one , failing that I'da taken the new 126 boots off and used them in the 123 axle I have......
Oh well .
Soon this will be done for a while , I'd best get up underneath my wagon and 240D sedan to see how their boots are looking .
My bet is : you have a parted / torn boot and this was just the first indication of a dry CV Joint ~ you'd best get it up on a hoist ASAP and find out , begin looking for the parts necessary .
Thom @ M-B Classic Center can order you in everything you need .
-Nate
Alan wrote :
You guys in CA have me green with envy. I can't even find one of those in my area. I have a related question . My 85 300SD just developed an interesting quirk. I drove it a few blocks, parked, started it up again and backed out of the parking spot. At that point, I heard a loud pop. It did it again the next time I backed up. I haven't driven it since. It seems to me like a failure in one of the real axle joints that is allowing it to wind up, and then release when the car is reversed. Any other possible causes? I haven't noticed any thumping, grinding or other sounds of immanent failure. I'll jack up one wheel and see what happens when I rotate the wheel back and forth, but the differential action may not let me learn anything.