peter's canadian imola ZHP project

[Vas]

The 323's and 328's that this affected a lot barely had enough power to start moving, let alone apply enough torque...

sent from my Droid Turbo

Wasn't the metal weaker on those cars though?

[slater]

Wasn't the metal weaker on those cars though?

i think so, and less spot welds.

progress update for today - did not get a ton of time to work on the car, but:

- sanded down surface rust on rear floor (it was scattered and random, but i will spray it with self-etching primer, and then rubber undercoating)
- filled rear floor
- dismantled rear subframe: removed diff, unbolted control arms
- removed rear subframe bushings and diff mounts with awesome koch tools subframe bushing tool (will post pics later of it in use)
- removed powerflex poly RTABs and pressed in bimmerworld spherical RTABs (will post pics later)
- inspected rear control arm bushings - upper outers are shot (side-to-side play), the rest are actually in amazing shape - so good that i am electing not to replace them!


tomorrow's work: self-etch prime and undercoat the rear floor. sand, self-etch prime and paint the rear subframe, and install new poly subframe and diff mounts. replace upper outer control arm bushings. remove and reinforce lower control arms.

peter

[ELCID86]

Nice progress Peter.


Thumbs, iPhone, TaT.

[slater]

thanks, shawn!

here are some pics of the koch tools bushing tool in action; i removed all 4 subframe mounts and all 3 diff mounts in about 30min with this tool. the rear diff mount was the hardest, it was very much seized in place with rust. some PB Blaster and 10min of soaking later, it came out.

and yes, the subframe has some surface rust. it is getting wire-wheeled tonight, then etch-primed, then sprayed with 'rust converter', then painted with anti-rust paint (gloss black). i am using the same treatment on the rear floor, but rubberized undercoating in lieu of the anti-rust paint.

[slater]

...and here is a pic of the bimmerworld spherical RTABs installed. they were an extremely tight fit - i cleaned up the inside of the RTAB hole first, lubed the outer casing of the new sperical RTAB, then had to press it in with the koch tools bushing tool. then the outside cover went on, and blue loctite was used on the three mounting screws for the cover.

if this bearing ever dies, it can actually be pressed out of the black casing while remaining inside the rear trailing arm - pretty cool.

[Vas]

That is a different tool then I used when I did the diff bushings. Did you buy it or rent it?

[slater]

That is a different tool then I used when I did the diff bushings. Did you buy it or rent it?

i bought it - it's not cheap at $300USD (almost $400CAD for me).

there are other tools on the market for the rear diff bushings. this tool is marketed as an 'E46/E85 subframe bushing tool', however it does not take a rocket scientist to realize you can use it for just about any bushing, on any car - including the diff bushings. it's a phenomenal tool, i wish i had it 15 years ago when i started really wrenching on cars - it would've saved me a lot of time. which is the most valuable thing of all. so in that light - $300 is a bargain.

i might rent it out later.

[Vas]

Are you able to use it to press out the upper and lower outer bushings on the rear hubs?

[slater]

Are you able to use it to press out the upper and lower outer bushings on the rear hubs?

theoretically, yes. i will let you know tomorrow.

i'm only replacing the upper bushings (the sealed spherical bearings - or 'ball joints' as BMW calls them), as i inspected the lowers, and both upper and lower inner bushings, and they are all in very good shape - the inners were so good, that they deflected as little as brand new lemfoerders...

peter

[az3579]

i bought it - it's not cheap at $300USD (almost $400CAD for me).

there are other tools on the market for the rear diff bushings. this tool is marketed as an 'E46/E85 subframe bushing tool', however it does not take a rocket scientist to realize you can use it for just about any bushing, on any car - including the diff bushings. it's a phenomenal tool, i wish i had it 15 years ago when i started really wrenching on cars - it would've saved me a lot of time. which is the most valuable thing of all. so in that light - $300 is a bargain.

i might rent it out later.

Interestingly enough, my mechanic friend couldn't find this tool for purchase anywhere when we did my bushings, so he had to do it the old fashioned way: pain and suffering.