Replacing Rear SLS/ADS Shock Bushings, Rear Shock

Top Mounts/Absorbers, Springs, and the Rear Knuckle

Bushing on my S600
benzworld.org/threads/replacing-rear-sls-ads-shock-bushings-rear-shock-top-mounts-absorbers-springs-and-the-rear-
knuckle-bushing-on-my-s600.3100155

I tried to make this post short, but its not at all..Just a little warning

After having a clunking noise coming from the rear of my suspension, I decided to replace the
rear shocks on my car (1996 S600).I was lucky to come across a S500 with ADS at a junkyard
during my vacation, so I had to get up early, buy some tools, drive 45min and remove them
and send them back home so I had a spare to play around. I saw them new online in stock for
about $450-$550. Long story short and after making about 10 orders with various vendors
and various part numbers (1403209913, 1403209613, 1403208913, etc), a lot of calls, I found
out that they do not exist anymore and are replaced by part number 320-96-13-26 with a new
price tag of about $1000 to $1200. Once I found that out, I definitely decided to replace the
bottom bushings and top mount/absorber on mine own and not pay over $2000 for new
ones.

I have seen a thread where some people successfully replaced bottom bushing with
Lemforder control arm bushings PN# 31121124622. This requires cutting a metal jacket and
shaving the rubber so I tried to find a different solution. I decided to go with a polyurethane
bushing for bottom of the shock.

After a lot of research, the best option I found was this bushing (PF99-104) from
PowerflexUsa that has outer diameter of 35mm and its $28, with full dimensions shown
below.

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Given that the length of a bushing housing at
the bottom of my stock shock is about
31mm-32mm I had to cut “G” part of the
Powerflex bushing to be about 16mm since I
need 2 on each side (16x2=32mm). The lip
“H” is 7mm so that gives me total length of
the entire bushing once pressed in of about
46mm (G-32 + H-14), if I cut it where lip “H”
sits exactly on the outer edge of the bushing
housing. You can leave “G” part little longer
and have exact length of 52mm (length of the
inside sleeve) but I didn’t do that, I left about
2-3mm left on each side and used a washer.

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Talking about the metal sleeve inside of the bushing, that was another problem since the
sleeve that comes with the bushing PF99-104 is meant for an 8mm bolt and mine is 12mm,
and its also much longer than 52mm. I had to find a new sleeve that’s 52mm long (to match
stock sleeve length), with outside diameter of 16mm and inside diameter of 12mm to fit
inside powerflex bushing and to accommodate the stock bolt. I couldn’t find it anywhere so I
had to custom order it and have it made from somebody on ebay. It costed me $18 per sleeve.

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Left is what was inside of the stock shock bushing, and to the right is a sleeve I ordered.

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Ok, so now how I did it…

I first I pressed out the stock bushing with a 12ton press with ease, using a 1 ½ socket:

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I just pushed against the inner sleeve an it popped out on the other side, it popped twice, first
time to break the metal seal/lip and the second time when it was totally free. Then I had to
flip it to the other side, and pop the other side since metal seal/lip was still there and some of
the bushing was still there…

First side successfully popped…

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Other side with the lip/seal and some of the bushing left inside.

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Like I said, I just re inserted original metal sleeve from the other side and pushed through the
metal seal/lip and got everything out.
Other side being popped like this:

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G

Gile89
Registered
1996 S600

Joined Feb 22, 2021

36 Posts

Discussion Starter
·
#2
·
37 m ago

So here is what was pressed out and you can see the metal seal/lips I am talking about next to
everything else that was pushed out:

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So now that old bushing was out I had to get the new Polyurethane bushing in. I also bought
another bushing with 32mm diameter but that one was too loose and it makes sense since
inside diameter of the stock bottom shock housing is more like 33mm.

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I also measured the stock metal sleeve that was inside and it was about the same:

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Bushing, PF99-104 has 35mm outer diameter and was slightly too big. I think it could have
been pressed in but I did not want to risk it so I trimmed the diameter down just about 1mm
or so and it was a good snug fit. I did find someone with lathe locally to trim it in minutes but
if I didn’t I was going to try with the sandpaper (I am sure you can use a Dremel too). Also,
inside of the stock shock bushing housing can be slightly sanded down/cleaned up and that
would help gain some more space if you are doing it without a lathe.

PF99-104 bushing diameter:

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Below is how much the “G” part or the length was cut or shortened by (I did it with lathe but I
am sure it can be done with razor, saw, or similar)

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Below is how it looks finally pressed in (I did it with a 12ton press and it was easy). There is
about 2mm of sleeve sticking out but I don’t think it’s a big deal even if it moves. I did use the
M16 washer just in case too. This is also where you can originally cut the bushing little less
and have it 52mm long to match the metal sleeve exactly, but I wanted to have the “H” lip of
the bushing against the edge of the shock and wanted a few millimeters of room in case it’s a
tight fit. It’s easier for me to add a washer than to take it all out and have to cut it again. If I
had my own lathe sure, but I don’t, and did not want to risk it and have to make another trip
for an additional 1mm cut.

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Now that the bottom bushing is done, I went for the top mount/absorber.

I read that to take the top mount/absorber (1403200944) off you need to heat the hell out of
it. Oh well I did use the small torch and heated it pretty well, I thought, and when I tried to
unscrew it, I heard something pop and the mount just started spinning. I tried heating it
waay more after that but the mount would just spin. So I had to cut through it. I had
someone cut through it (Same person with lathe locally) and what I realized is that I did not
heat it nearly enough so something inside the mount just broke and was spinning but the
stud on the shock and the mount were not spinning.

Once it was cut through, I was left with the rubber and some metal, once we heated that part
with a huge torch and used some big pliers, it started unscrewing fairly easy. I still went very
slow with a back-and-forth motion just to be safe but it was easy. So, if you are doing this

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make sure you really torch it and all you need is the bottom stud to heat up so Loctite can
give in.

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After this, I just put some red Loctite on and screwed the new mounts/absorbers on, waited
24h for Loctite to fully cure and that was it.

Final product:

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My original plan was to replace shocks and springs only, but once I took the lower control
arm off in the rear, I saw that the knuckle/spindle bushing was shot as well. So, I ordered
new ones and had to install them.

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After struggling a little to take the first one out, putting the new one in and doing the other
side was a breeze and that’s probably because car was not rusted and my home made tool
(~$30) worked great.

I went to Home Depot with the new knuckle bushing in search of parts for my tool so I ended
up buying this:

1 x 6in Grade 8 bolt ($3)

Couple 1/2in washers

Couple 5/16in washers

4 x 1/2in grade 8 nuts ($2)

1x 1 1/2 inch galvanized cap
($7)
1x1-1/2 in. Rigid Conduit Nipple
($4)

1 x 1-1/2 in. Galvanized Iron Plug ($7.50)

1ft ½ threaded rod ($2.50)

I had to drill a 1/2in hole in the cap and the plug for the bolt and rod to go through. To get the
bushing out I used 15/16in half an inch socket and it worked perfect, I pressed it out into
conduit nipple that was just a perfect size to receive the bushing. And to drive the new
bushing in I used galvanized iron plug, which fit perfectly around the edge of the new
bushing without damaging the rubber, I was pretty excited when I found it at the store and
how well it fit:

Extracting a bushing (used 6in bolt). Little tip is to make sure you align receiver well on the
opening so the edge does not overlap the opening which would prevent the bushing entering
it as its being pushed put:

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You can see on the picture below the size of the bushing getting into a receiver and why you
need to make sure its align properly as there is not too much wiggle room:

Putting a new bushing in (used 1ft rod). If I had 7in bolt it would work great, but they didn’t
have it at the store so I got a 1ft rod.

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This is how bushing sits inside of 1 x 1-1/2 in. Galvanized Iron Plug to drive it in:

Pictures of the
set up while on
the car,
pressing a new
bushing in:

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New bushing is in, I think it could have gone little more in, maybe 1mm or so but my driver
(Galvanized Iron Plug) was not able to go further in, but it should be fine I think:

Old vs new bushing:

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G

Registered

1996 S600

Joined Feb 22,

2021

36 Posts

Drilled holes,
make sure they
are centered (I
was little off on
the one to the
left but it
worked)

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Not sure if it matters to anyone but I did take a lot of measurements so here are some, it
might help you when looking for a perfect set up, at least it did help me:

New bushing diameter (40.12mm), old one was close to 40mm:

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Knuckle space for the bushing (39.30mm), it was hard to measure it so I might be slightly off
but I sanded it down and cleaned it up later so that might have gotten me some extra space:

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After the bushings were done, I replaced the springs and Mercedes spring compressors tool
made it suuuper easy but also so scary at the same time, just make sure that top plate of the
compressor is not placed higher than the 3rd coil since you won’t be able to release the shock
compressor once decompressed due to it being too high (don’t ask me how I know it).

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For springs it was interesting that my new springs were taller than old springs, but when
measured with the spring pads on, both were the same height. My old springs had a spring
pad 140-325-04-84 which is the thickest one. I followed below instructions and got the pads
140-325-01-84 and springs 140-324-19-04 since my springs came with blue mark.

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With the pad:

With no pads:

That was it, I went for a 5–10-minute ride, after refiling hydraulic fluid, and everything
seemed just fine, and no more rear end noise. I will try to report back much later on how
shock bushings are holding and everything else.

I hope it helps someone in the future since I did not want to pay over a $1000 for a single
shock and get charger around $1000 for knuckle bushing replacement (highest quote I got
was $1400+ for knuckle bushing replacement!) which would total in well over $3000 easily
just for those two. In my case bushing for the bottom of the shock was $28 each, metal
sleeves were $18 each, top mount was $97 each, so that’s ~$286 to fix both shocks and I do
not anticipate Polyurethane bushings going bad before the shocks go out since Polyurethane
is so durable.

I tried not to make it too long but it’s hard since I took so many pictures and went through so
many steps to get all this done. If I missed something let me know and I will try to clarify it.

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