Jacking a 300E

[Jordan_3202000]

The servace manual for the series 124 says when replacing the rear shocks to "Lift the car by the rear axel" i'm guessing they mean the rear diffrental, but i'm not sure. Does anyone know if its safe to lift a 300E with a floor jack by the rear differental?

[Robert Goodwin]

Looks like nobody wants to come out of the closet on this one. I have always jacked up my Benzes by the differential. I never felt fully comfortable doing it. A search of the CDs indicated a jack under the carrier only for the purposes of lowering and raising the carrier, not the car.

Lets try a different approach to the issue: Has anyone ever expeienced a broken carrier case or similar damage due to jacking the vehicle at the carrier instead of the jack points? If so, what happened?

[vince]

I've lifted both 124 and 210 cars by the diff with no problem whatsoever.

[Robert Goodwin]

I ran accross section 00-9007 of the 126 MB maintenance manual while searching for something else. Title is "Lifting vehicle with pit lift or shop jack." Shows car being raised at front cross member and rear axle carrier. While this makes me feel better, a search of my limited data sources did not produce the same data as being applicable to either the 124 or 123. Any current or former techs out there with an inside track on this issue? Anybody?

[Jordan_3202000]

I talked to a mechanic at the mercedes dealer, and he told me that its ok to lift the car by the rear diff. So i figure that being an MB mechanic he must know something. But this makes me wonder, at the dealer i have never actually seen a car being lifted that way.

[Robert Goodwin]

My guess is that a busy shop with a profit motive has little time to fool around with a shop jack. A lift does not require that you get out the jack stands, place them and later remove and return them. At more than $100/hour, I would opt to see the lift in use, since I am paying for the time. I think that if we looked around in any dealer shop, we would make the same observation. The dealer probably has a shop (floor) jack, but only uses it rarely and not likely for crawling under the car. An independent would be equipped comensurate with his level of investment in the business. Ie, the best equipment he can afford.

[jamesrichard]

The servace manual for the series 124 says when replacing the rear shocks to "Lift the car by the rear axel" i'm guessing they mean the rear diffrental, but i'm not sure. Does anyone know if its safe to lift a 300E with a floor jack by the rear differental?
I've jacked my 300d under the center section many times witha floor jack,I install a small block of wood between the jack pad and the center section to distribute to load.