The dreaded sub frame bushings.. advice

[fujioko]

Hey folks,

My E34 has been off the road for three weeks now ( I really miss it). Anyway, life has a way of getting complicated … I finally had a chance to work on the car today.

I’ve always known the rear sub frame bushings were NFG.. and yes I confirmed that today. Wow! they are way past gone.

I’m going to do the Sawzaw method as this seems the easiest. Of course I had better order up some parts first.

Obviously I’ll need the bushings… what else should I replace? I see the dog bones mentioned a number of times on this forum. I assume the “dog bone” is the dog bone looking device that spans between the training arm and sub frame. Bentley refers to this as a “trailing arm connecting link” I also noticed a “dog bone” that is connected to the sway bar. Bentley dose not illustrate this item.

Get me started on a rant… this Bentley manual is about as useless as **** on a frog. It glosses over major assemblies and doesn’t even get into the engine block and crank. I can certainly see the gear box being too complicated and special tools required… but the crankcase should be in the manual… Arrrggg.

Enough of that.

Back to the main topic….What else do ‘ya think I should replace while I’m under the rear of the car.

[BillionPa]

the thing on the swaybar is the sway bar link.

ever changed the rear wheel bearings and trailing arm bushings?

check the exhaust mounting hardware, i had a snapped hanger, and the whole exaust was about to fall right off!

[fujioko]

As far as I know the trailing arm bushings are original (277K miles) Should I replace theses as well?

With the car on the jack stands, I placed a hydraulic jack under the trailing arms at the pivot point. I applied pressure and monitored the deflection of the TR bushing. They appeared not to have any significant deflection. Of course the whole sub frame moved about an inch upward. However once it stopped moving and pressure was directed to the TR bushings nothing appears abnormal. Is this an accurate way to check?

I’m going to drop the entire exhaust in order to weld some leaks, I’ll have a chance to inspect and repair any hangers and mounting issues.

I’ll be placing an order tonight for the sub frame bushings and I wonder if there is anything else I should replace while I’m under the rear of the car.

[fujioko]

BTW this car is in outstanding condition for 277K miles. Yeah the body has some issues but the undercarriage is pristine and it appears that the car was not used in the winter. Every fastener I have removed was near perfect condition.

[BillionPa]

get new dogbones and swaybar links.

if you are planning on lowering the car with a sport suspension get adjustable trailing arm bushings, since the car in its current state doesnt have camber adjustment, and the new bushings let you mess with it a bit.

do the fuel filter while you are down there?

check the rear calipers and rotors, mine were in REALLY bad shape.

I live in MN, and the car is driven all winter..... the underneath looked 40 years old!

[fujioko]

I pulled the exhaust system off last night.. from the head pipe to the tail pipe. It’s a monster! Some leaks I’ll need to attend to but the exhaust appears to be intact.

Ordered standard trailing arm bushings and trailing arm links as well as the sub frame bushings from BMA.

I had a silly idea.. since the sub frame is halfway falling out and the exhaust is out of the way… Why not just pull the frame and work on it at the bench.

Basically just brake lines, e-brake cables and drive shaft.. plus some wiring and the frame should drop right on my ATV lift. Oh yeah the diff mount!

Normally I wouldn’t go through such an extreme, but like I said the car is pristine underneath and everything seems to come apart like the car was only a year old.

We’ll see if this is possible tonight.

[fujioko]

As for lowering the car… I gave it a thought, but this car is pretty much a useless toy and I’ll need a good reason to keep it. Since the car has some weight and a bigger engine than my Saturn… a trailer hitch is the ticket! The poor Saturn has been tasked to the limit on many occasions. Last fall I put a tow dolly behind the Saturn and towed a complete E21 50 miles. Very dangerous as the Saturn weighed less than the E21 and the brakes on the Saturn were not up to par. Wont do that again!

[shuriken]

Hey folks,

Get me started on a rant… this Bentley manual is about as useless as **** on a frog. It glosses over major assemblies and doesn’t even get into the engine block and crank. I can certainly see the gear box being too complicated and special tools required… but the crankcase should be in the manual… Arrrggg.

Enough of that.

Back to the main topic….What else do ‘ya think I should replace while I’m under the rear of the car.
Try and get hold of a Haynes manual ISBN 1 85010 948 6, this book covers models up to 1991 and 535i to 1993. M50 engined cars need another manual. Try Amozon. Realy good books and tell you everything you need to do to strip the entire car down. They are UK books so only cover these, but shouldn't be a problem on other countries specs.

[fujioko]

Hi ‘ya folks,

Thought I would share some pictures of the rear suspension rebuild on my 525i. As you can see I opted to drop the entire subframe for this job. I started the job with the intention of using a sawzaw to cut out the bushings, however I discovered that everything under the car was virtually immaculate. What I mean to say is NO RUST!. What a pleasure to work on. Anyway, a typical Michigan car is usually a mess after 10 years.

This method would have been a lot more difficult if the exhaust were still on the car. The exhaust is project #2 once this suspension is out of the way. I’m thinking the MIG welder is going to get a good work out… I’m not paying $1000.00 for a new exhaust!

As you can see from my user id this car has 277 thousand miles!

The list of things to do:
Rear suspension.
Exhaust.
Capacitors in the IPC.
Air conditioning R134 conversion.
Front suspension. (ouch!)
Trailer hitch.

All by august 1st!

I can’t imagine actually paying to have this stuff done.