Finally did some maintenance.....

I had some fee time today, so I replaced my brake pads and flushed the lines with fresh blue blood. Went with the ole Raybestos QS. I pitched a new set of mintex pads. They had a only about 3,000 miles on them. Man they were shitty pads. The only reason I got them is because they were thrown in on a deal. Now I know why. They had glazed up my rotors. I had terrible braking. I am glad to be rid of them.

The big chore of the day was retiring my ZF steering box. It lasted about 220,000 miles. It was getting sloppy and I had adjusted it all I could. My replacement is out of a 1995 525 with about 120,000 miles. I can honestly say this one of the messy jobs. ATF goes everywhere when you are wrestling to get the old out there. Would have been nice to had some plastic plugs to put in the holes, but that would require thinking ahead. It is a very straight forward remove and replace event. So now my front end is complete, I did center link, tie rods, upper and lower control arms last fall. From what I can tell my old zf unit has no core value, so it is heading for the trash.

I have been so busy lately with the career lately, that it felt nice to turn a wrench for the day.

You talk about adjusting the box. I've seen it explained on bmwe34.net and it appears easy. Do you get good results out of doing it?

Well... you obviously have greater expectations than can be produced ( or at least I did). It does not make the problem go away, it just reduces the slop. You will know when you have made you last adjustment, because when the car is turned off and your turning the wheel left or right it will bearly return to center by itself.

Tightening the big nut at the bottom of the steering shaft has great benefit as well.