Joined the Club Today
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+3 cut off head, remove trans, heat slightly, vise grips/pipe wrench. this will also give you the advantage of being able to turn the remaining bolt in both directions. tightening it maybe be easier than loosening, since the corrosion is mostly on the threads on the engine side.
Dan
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Appreciate the advice friends. Cutting the head off the bolt it is.
My parents were generous enough to let me use the third stall of the garage to store this thing. Main reason being that the third stall is blocked by the boat that parked in the driveway so the third stall is just where misc shit got put(rider mower, trailer, etc). Forced us to organize and clean up the space which will help when it comes time to put the motor in. Gonna make life so much easier having the car at home and not on the other side of town. Having my tools, electricity, and plumbing will be very convenient.
Dollied the car home yesterday with the help of a buddy. Gave it a quick pressure wash to get some of the main gunk off the car. Will be doing a full cut and polish like I did on the last E30 once the car gets closer to being road ready. Wanted to get right to work so the low hanging fruit was the coil overs, the rears in particular. Don't have the hub centric rings, but mounted the wheels to get an idea...this is gonna be spicy. Might be able to add a 5 or 10 mm spacer in the rear with a little fender rolling.
Next step is getting the front coils and the ZF rack installed. Along with the other things that need to be done before the motor can go in(brake booster relocation, fire wall clearancing for the steering column, AC component removal and other unnecessary things in the bay).
Just need to drop the diff in the M3 and then I can get that car removed from the storage unit. S52 can't leave the unit until the car is gone because of how narrow the unit is unfortunately.
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Would have liked to have made more progress tonight than I did, being that it wasn't 100 degrees out and 100% percent humidity, but something is better than nothing. Wanted to get the front coils in today, was set back by the lower control arm ball joints. Driver side nut won't come off, passenger side stud is stuck in the knuckle.
Driver side nut spins with the ball joint stud. Thought the trick was to put a jack under it to apply pressure, no dice. I'm not sure what to do for this one. I'll have to do some more research.
Passenger side nut off, but I'm having difficulty removing it from the knuckle. Hoped I could pull the strut out of the strut tower and then I could pull it out of the knuckle, but I can't get it low enough to clear the top.
Progress I did make was getting all of the A/C stuff out of the engine bay. For the cruise control module, can I just cut the line close to the firewall? I'm assuming it runs up through the dash, not sure how much of a pain it is to pull it out from there.
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I've always had luck with a balljoint fork and a big hammer, but it'll probably ruin the rubber boots
This if you're just replacing the full control arm anyway.
The Harbor Freight ball joint separator works on the outer instead of the fork if you want to save the boot.
Re stuck nut: The jack under the ball joint trick works to stop the spinning but it takes a lot of pressure. Jack it up until it stops spinning (it might lift the car a bit). If the nut is rusted on solid then penetrant/heat and if that fails cut it off.
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FYI on the cruise control, are you removing it or what? The cable doesn't go through the firewall, it loops near the fusebox and goes go the throttle body. Unless you are talking about something else?
Or is the e30 cruise control totally different? Maybe don't pay attention to me
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FYI on the cruise control, are you removing it or what? The cable doesn't go through the firewall, it loops near the fusebox and goes go the throttle body. Unless you are talking about something else?
Or is the e30 cruise control totally different? Maybe don't pay attention to me
I am removing the cruise control. Maybe I saw the other half of the cable that went into the cable. I will double check, but running along the line it looked liked it went right into the car through the fire wall.
The thing that will get that off is heat, penetrating oil, and an impact. You may have to run the nut on and then off a few times to get it to go. The other side with the stuck nut needs heat and you need a lot bigger hammer lol
I'll give this a go. Didn't try going back and forth with the nut. Was going to use heat, but my torch was at the storage unit across town when I used it do remove the drive shaft.
Wanted to save the control arms, so I'm assuming smashing the top of the stud with a big hammer will probably ruin those lol
This if you're just replacing the full control arm anyway.
The Harbor Freight ball joint separator works on the outer instead of the fork if you want to save the boot.
Re stuck nut: The jack under the ball joint trick works to stop the spinning but it takes a lot of pressure. Jack it up until it stops spinning (it might lift the car a bit). If the nut is rusted on solid then penetrant/heat and if that fails cut it off.
Would like to save the control arms as the boots all look in good shape still. I had the car lifted off the jack stands with this trick, but wasn't able to apply any heat as I did not have my torch. I will give this method a try.
Thank you for the help gentlemen.
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stuck nut: you don't want to reuse that nut, so you could just cut it off with a dremel
stuck spindle: heat up the steering knuckle around the spindle, then strike the knuckle (not the spindle/threads) with a bfh.
secondly, if you are ditching your cruise control, can I have it?
Dan
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There’s two things coming off of an e30 cruise control actuator, the cable itself that runs to the throttle body, and the wiring which runs through the firewall as you said. It has its own hole in the firewall, so all you have to do is disconnect the plug underneath the kick panel, shove the grommet back through, disconnect the cable at the throttle body, unbolt the actuator and you’re set!
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Don't hit the stud with the hammer. You hit the knuckle hard and rapidly to free up the corrosion and allow it to drop out as it is wedged in because of the taper.
This. ^^^
I'll give this a go. Didn't try going back and forth with the nut. Was going to use heat, but my torch was at the storage unit across town when I used it do remove the drive shaft.
Wanted to save the control arms, so I'm assuming smashing the top of the stud with a big hammer will probably ruin those lol
Would like to save the control arms as the boots all look in good shape still. I had the car lifted off the jack stands with this trick, but wasn't able to apply any heat as I did not have my torch. I will give this method a try.
Thank you for the help gentlemen.
Judging by the rust around that stud, you WONT get this off without heat. There is also no way you will get this off without ruining the boot, ball joint, or both. You can buy replacement boots from the auto parts store. I got Energy suspension ones for roughly $10 for the pair I believe and the part number is in my build thread somewhere. They are much better than the oem ones.
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stuck nut: you don't want to reuse that nut, so you could just cut it off with a dremel
stuck spindle: heat up the steering knuckle around the spindle, then strike the knuckle (not the spindle/threads) with a bfh.
secondly, if you are ditching your cruise control, can I have it?
Will give this a try after work. Otherwise, after looking at complete control assemblies I might just buy two new ones.
I'll message you about the CC
There’s two things coming off of an e30 cruise control actuator, the cable itself that runs to the throttle body, and the wiring which runs through the firewall as you said. It has its own hole in the firewall, so all you have to do is disconnect the plug underneath the kick panel, shove the grommet back through, disconnect the cable at the throttle body, unbolt the actuator and you’re set!
Will do, thank you.
Don't hit the stud with the hammer. You hit the knuckle hard and rapidly to free up the corrosion and allow it to drop out as it is wedged in because of the taper.
Will give this a try.
This. ^^^
Judging by the rust around that stud, you WONT get this off without heat. There is also no way you will get this off without ruining the boot, ball joint, or both. You can buy replacement boots from the auto parts store. I got Energy suspension ones for roughly $10 for the pair I believe and the part number is in my build thread somewhere. They are much better than the oem ones.
Yeah, after thinking about it and checking prices for complete control arm assemblies, I might just buy new ones. Probably would be a good time to replace them.
I appreciate everyone's help and input. I know what I'm doing for the most part, but this is for the most part my first real dive into work on a car as well as an E30. So a lot of this is a learning experience.
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FCP Euro has the pair of e30 Lemforder control arms typically on sale. Plus free lifetime replacement for any reason if your hooning goes bad.
Might as well replace the bushings with offset m3 CABs while you've got it all apart. Gets you more negative front camber.
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FCP Euro has the pair of e30 Lemforder control arms typically on sale. Plus free lifetime replacement for any reason if your hooning goes bad.
Might as well replace the bushings with offset m3 CABs while you've got it all apart. Gets you more negative front camber.
This was my next question. I have the control arms in the basket. For the CABs, do the offset ones just give more camber than the centered? Are there any options for pre-pressed bushings into the lollipops other than the Turner ones?
For putting the CABs onto the control arms, is there any kind of special tool or procedure that needs to be done? Or should new CABs be able to just be pushed onto the control arms?
This is sounding like probably the best option for the lack of headaches as well as replacing some important components while I'm in there.
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To install the control arm bushings they can be removed with an air chisel or cutting the rubber out and using a saw to split the outer ring so it collapses and falls out. To install they can be pressed in with a decent vise if you don't have a press. Pay attention to the orientation, and either get the offset or centered e36 M3 bushings. To get the control arm into the bushing I use dish soap. You need to install them onto the control arm last so the car can be set down quickly while the soap is still slippery, then they will be clocked correctly at ride height.
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To install the control arm bushings they can be removed with an air chisel or cutting the rubber out and using a saw to split the outer ring so it collapses and falls out. To install they can be pressed in with a decent vise if you don't have a press. Pay attention to the orientation, and either get the offset or centered e36 M3 bushings. To get the control arm into the bushing I use dish soap. You need to install them onto the control arm last so the car can be set down quickly while the soap is still slippery, then they will be clocked correctly at ride height.
E36 M3 bushings work with normal 3 series control arms?
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New rotors and hub centric rings ordered with the eBay 15% off today. Control arms, control arm bushings and lollis ordered thanks to @patsbimmer1.
This was definitely the best way to go. Might as well do it right and replace this stuff while everything is out and have easy access to it.
Made some good progress tonight. Struts, steering rack, and subframe dropped. Gonna clean up the subframe and paint it before it goes back in. Does this surface rust look concerning at all? Didn't break or crumble when I messed with it. Probably will wire wheel it, primer, and paint it. Same goes for the strut housings, it will be nice for everything to be cleaned and painted come time to reinstall.
Got some broken bolts to take care of now though. Broke one of the subframe bolts in the frame. Assuming I can use an EZ out or whatever that drill bit kit is. This shouldn't be that big of a deal with how space I have to work around it. I am ordering 4 new genuine BMW ones to replace them all.
The other ones are the ball joints from the lower control arms that have left some in the knuckle. I'm assuming I can use the same procedure for the subframe bolt by drilling it out or EZ outing it. Is this portion of the stud threaded, or should I be able to just smash these with a hammer to remove them?
Pulling the steering rack, the spline came out with the steering knuckle that goes through the fire wall. Should this have been tightened at some place in there? It looks like there isn't a bolt in any of the "clamps". Maybe they don't require one, but I thought the M3 had bolts that needed to be loosened on the knuckle to pull it?
On the same note, is the E30 steering knuckle the one to use for the swap? or the one off the ZF rack? Watching this video on a ZF rack swap, this dudes knuckle looks completed different than what I had. I bought the spacer kit, did I miss something else?
Will be pulling the sway bar from the subframe so I can paint the frame. Is there any issue with giving the sway bar another coat of paint? Will also adding to the subframe bolt order are new sway bar end links and bushings to do while its all out and available. I hear the bushings can be kind of bitch...
I appreciate all the help and feedback this forum has continued to provide.
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