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The steering damper is held by two 16mm fasteners. The shield under the engine does not have to be removed. Jack up the driver side and for God's sake put jack stands or some other support before crawling underneath. The damper is in plain sight just behind the plastic shield, remove the nut on the passenger side. Driver side is held by a bolt which needs TWO wrenches to remove. The top of the bolt is hidden and a bit of a pain to reach. Put the new damper in place and reinstall passenger side nut and then tape or wire the damper in place to hold it in position while you fish the bolt in blindly from the top on drivers side. Snug both down and go pound the Budwieser.
Dictionary check. Night and day diff is a figure of speech so it is 'figuratively night and day' rather than 'literally (in actual fact) night and day diff'. You kin look it up in yer Funk-an-Wagnalls !
Has anyone with w202/208 have any success with this conversion? Car is in shop getting cage installed, if this is real possibility might get them to do it as well!
05 CLK55 AMG (1 of 247) Cubanitsilber designo series
Originally Posted by AMS Performance
Most of the time the reason Recirculating ball feels bad is because the stock steering damper is bad. It costs only $25. Replacing the steering damper makes a world of difference in steering feedback. Most peoples steering dampers are bad and have been for a long time and they don't even know it.
Agreed. Also wear in the steering box sometimes needs to have a backlash adjustment. When recirculating ball steering is correct in a Mercedes it has great feeling and feedback. That fact that it's been used for decades means you are driving a Mercedes and not some POS Ford.
Nothing against steering boxes, they are just not as good as rack and pinion setup for performance cars. All modern cars have moved to R&P, including mercs.
I replace my damper every 2-3years now since its cheap and easy to do. Helps a little but steering will always be lacking with this setup.
I would love to go with a rack n pinion setup. It would likely shave around 100 lbs from the chassis.
Hey Marcus!! I remember reading some of the advantages and dis-advantages of both systems in one of your write-ups. Might have been in a coil over vs strut suspension. This is the place to put the link.
I think 2precice has accomplished a rack retrofit but I have never researched it. He is twin turbo W208. He welded a couple of perches for the mounts and found proper spindles.
With a Rack and pinion exhaust header fitment headaches will be gone.
If there was a mounting a kit I would be interested. Finding a used rack from a W211 or W203 would not be hard. Mabye
Best, Gator
WOW this post is old
Last edited by GatorMB; 06-02-2016 at 10:46 AM.
Reason: added content
Check this one out, I contacted them to see how it can work on w202/208 mercs. Will let you guys know what I hear back. Their products are kind of expensive though!
I would love to go with a rack n pinion setup. It would likely shave around 100 lbs from the chassis.
Hey Marcus!! I remember reading some of the advantages and dis-advantages of both systems in one of your write-ups. Might have been in a coil over vs strut suspension. This is the place to put the link. . . . . . . . . . .
Way back when, I wrote about the W208's double wishbone being a better design than the W209's struts, but the rack and pinion unit is a much better design if someone is looking for road feel.
Yea I finished the conversion, but more to it then meets the eye. I had to use a reverse steer rack and it's a manual rack. Mounted a GT front strut and made lower control arms. I'll take pics of the actual rack and parts under hood. But i selling this conversion set up . Anyone interested let me know. I'm doing another front setup .
so much for thinking outside the box...
02-07-2011, 05:29 PM
