W126 front brakes on a W116 - hows it done?

[B13]

I've seen it made mention in various places that people have successfully adapted the W126 front brakes to a W116. The pad area looks to be about 33% larger than the W116 front brakes, yet the kit still fits under a 14" alloy rim.

If someone knows, let me know. I'd assume straight away you'd need the calipers, discs, and hubs and stub axle? But does this all bolt-in or are some mods required?

I.

 

[TJ 450]

I'm in the process of performing this conversion on my 6.9. I'll report how it goes. I have the Bendix calipers, rotors and hubs off a 1984 500SEL. On the W126, the rear brakes are exactly the same as the W116 versions.
The front stub axles and thus wheel bearings and hubs are the same AFAIK.

Tim

 

[oscar]

TJ, for the fronts, dya reckon w126 rotors can go straight on a w116 hub?

 

[B13]

There's a lot of W126s being wrecked in melbourne at the moment... and the TeamW116 cars are only getting faster... might be time to stock up on spares for future projects.

 

[BAR]

In my humble opinion one should not use an used rotor as it may be warped. Better to buy new one's which are relatively inexpensive. DBA provide a non slotted item DBA 262 and slotted item DBA262SL for use with W126s.

The go and buy the calipers from a wrecker and recondition them before fittment to your W116.

Given that the PCD is the same for W116 and W126, you need simply to unbolt the old calipers and rotors (these allen headed nuts can be VERY difficult to undo, in doing this on my car a few years ago I broke two 1/4" drive allen key socket drives). Then bolt on the new units.

At the same time, one might as well replace the roller bearings for each stub axle... as it will only take a few more minutes!

 

[TJ 450]

TJ, for the fronts, dya reckon w126 rotors can go straight on a w116 hub?

I'm quite certain that they would simply bolt straight on. The hub appears to be exactly the same, although mine have the toothed ABS wheel. Once installed, nobody will know they are off a W126 but me.

I will be installing the used rotors and pads, as I drove the car they were off just prior to it being wrecked. There were no issues with the brakes and the front rotors are near new, as are the pads.

Tim

 

[B13]

unbolt the old calipers and rotors (these allen headed nuts can be VERY difficult to undo, in doing this on my car a few years ago I broke two 1/4" drive allen key socket drives).

Are you saying the calipers are held on a W126 with Allen headed bolts? I know from my two W116s the calipers are held on with 19mm bolts.

Good advise on avoiding using 2nd-hand discs. I would have put them on for testing purposes but when its all up and running put on new slotted discs and competition pads.

I.

 

[TJ 450]

The brake rotor is fastened to the hub with allen head bolts from the inside. I believe this is the same on the W116.

Tim

 

[B13]

A good long soak in Inox might do the trick. I suppose its going to vary from car to car and also relate to how long ago the disc was changed/last removed from the hub... these allen-head bolts are going to be harder to remove from a 30 year old hub than one which had been rebuilt 5 year previously.

I.