andyman32
10-30-2004, 06:17 PM
I just went down to Bret's BMW Farm today (if you're in the Raleigh region and you haven't seen it, you really should... he really does grow an entire field of BMWs) for help with a few things. Some brief notes about thrust arms (since almost all of us have done ours, but ALL E34s seem to need them and more folks ask about it every day).
1) To get a wrench on the nut holding the through-bolt on the back of the thrust arm, you have to remove the sway bar mounting bracket and pry it out of place. The nut is tucked up against the frame pretty tight, so you have to remove that mounting bracket and get it out of the way to get a 22mm wrench in there to hold the nut.
2) Almost everybody seems to be having amazing trouble with the ball joints. They are a TOTAL bitch... UNLESS YOU UNSEAT THE STRUT ASSEMBLY. There are 3 bolts holding the bottom of the strut housing to a cast metal piece that mounts it to all of the steering/control components. Take off the 3 nuts on these bolts and just swivel the strut aside. Then, you can take a pickle fork from the outside and just attack it with the biggest hammer you can find. They DO pop out; but not if you're trying to wiggle in from the inside or the bottom to do it. It goes from super-hard/impossible to super-easy in NO time. Taking off those 3 bottom strut mounting bolts takes all of 3 minutes, but it'll save you an hour+ of sheer frustration getting the ball joint out.
And: the car is AWESOME! Handles almost like new. Totally different animal now. Thanks for the help Bret! Next time more of you guys should come out!
1) To get a wrench on the nut holding the through-bolt on the back of the thrust arm, you have to remove the sway bar mounting bracket and pry it out of place. The nut is tucked up against the frame pretty tight, so you have to remove that mounting bracket and get it out of the way to get a 22mm wrench in there to hold the nut.
2) Almost everybody seems to be having amazing trouble with the ball joints. They are a TOTAL bitch... UNLESS YOU UNSEAT THE STRUT ASSEMBLY. There are 3 bolts holding the bottom of the strut housing to a cast metal piece that mounts it to all of the steering/control components. Take off the 3 nuts on these bolts and just swivel the strut aside. Then, you can take a pickle fork from the outside and just attack it with the biggest hammer you can find. They DO pop out; but not if you're trying to wiggle in from the inside or the bottom to do it. It goes from super-hard/impossible to super-easy in NO time. Taking off those 3 bottom strut mounting bolts takes all of 3 minutes, but it'll save you an hour+ of sheer frustration getting the ball joint out.
And: the car is AWESOME! Handles almost like new. Totally different animal now. Thanks for the help Bret! Next time more of you guys should come out!