About 20 years ago, I began asking myself the question, why do all the old Mercedes steering gear boxes up to 1985 develop a lot of side-to-side play in the gears that is so bad it cannot be adjusted out? When this happens, you could move the steering wheel, One Direction or another up to 2 inches and the wheels don't move. It ends up being quite annoying and less than pleasurable driving experience.Compare that to all those Mercedes models after 1986, and you realize they don't seem to have the same problem with steering gearbox wear, even though the designs are very similar. Does anybody out there have the answer? Have any of you experienced this firsthand? Let's say you spent years driving the W115 and W123 and then you moved up to the W124 and suddenly things improved and after 200,000 miles, you realize the steering is still tight.
Watch this video and I will explain what I believe is the problem, and I will encourage you if you have one of these older pre-1985 model Mercedes W108, W109, R107, W116, W114, W115, W123, or early W126 chassis that used auto transmission fluid, you should consider upgrading to the newer power steering fluid used in the 1986 and later starring boxes this was before the era of rack and pinion steering.

I will also illustrate the problem of neglect as many of these older models hardly ever get their power steering fluid and filter changed. Here is the link to the kit I offer on my website, with instructions to upgrade the power steering fluid in 1985 and older models to the newer, more efficient fluid. https://mercedessource.com/store/search?keys=power%20steering%20fluid