New Thrust arms are Amazing

[BennyM]

With a little help from Triton540i, I pressed M5 bushings into the Meyle HD arms and installed my worn out arms yesterday. The highway shimmy is 95% gone and the brake shimmy and low speed clunk are gone. BTW, my impact hammer and tie rod puller kit are the best $160 bucks I ever spent. The toughest bolts and ball joints have no chance against my wrath.

QUESTION: I understand the critical load factor, but how significant is the torque? My only concern is that I wasn't able to torque the bushings to the full 94 ft/lbs as I didn't have enough room under the car for proper leverage. I got them torqued (yes under load) to 80 ft/lbs. I'm a stickler for following spec, but I just couldn't get them any tighter and had to get to a meeting.


BennyM

[glen-sj]

How long did it take for you to remove and install the new thrust arms? I'm getting ready to do the same on my 95 530. Already have the M5 bushings installed onto the Lemforder arms. I've read that to get the ball joint out of the steering plate can be troublesome. Any advice and tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[BennyM]

I spent a full day on it. I ran into two complications:
1. I didn't have a 22mm wrench or the proper socket joints for my impact wrench. So I had to go get those.
2. I wasn't able to place the vehicle on ramps when it came time to torque the bushings under load, so I had to find and stack a bunch of wood under the wheels (place safety jack stands as well) and then lower the car onto those stacks. I also didn't have any helper around who could sit in the car to simulate the fully loaded weight (nor did I have a full tank of gas), so I had to pile in a bunch of random junk (half a bag of quickcrete, some 2x4s, socket sets, etc). This took a lot of time.

Like I said, a proper tie rod puller and an impact wrench makes all the difference in the world. The ball joints just popped right out. I had done it before with a pickle fork, and a BF Hammer, and it took twice as long and, at various moments, I nearly gave up. Don't put yourself through that hell if you can avoid it.

PB Blaster or Liquid Wrench is muy helpful too. I still can't say which does a better job.

Plenty of people have written about this job already though, so search the archives.

How long did it take for you to remove and install the new thrust arms? I'm getting ready to do the same on my 95 530. Already have the M5 bushings installed onto the Lemforder arms. I've read that to get the ball joint out of the steering plate can be troublesome. Any advice and tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Tiger]

I wouldn't worry about 94 pound... it is not that much tighter than 80... 80 is what we put on the lugbolts but if we use the lugwrench and tighten with all our might, it will easily be 150...

I gotta do mine too... only mine I have to reuse my lemforder arm... so I have to use the scissor ball joint separator.

[glen-sj]

Thanks for the helpful tips.

[632 Regal]

With a little help from Triton540i, I pressed M5 bushings into the Meyle HD arms and installed my worn out arms yesterday. The highway shimmy is 95% gone and the brake shimmy and low speed clunk are gone. BTW, my impact hammer and tie rod puller kit are the best $160 bucks I ever spent. The toughest bolts and ball joints have no chance against my wrath.

QUESTION: I understand the critical load factor, but how significant is the torque? My only concern is that I wasn't able to torque the bushings to the full 94 ft/lbs as I didn't have enough room under the car for proper leverage. I got them torqued (yes under load) to 80 ft/lbs. I'm a stickler for following spec, but I just couldn't get them any tighter and had to get to a meeting.


BennyM

Benny, go in and re-torque them soon as you can. They are tight right now but as time goes on there is a big chance that the interference fit will get loose. You can get play between the bolt and the hole which will result in a small amount of play. As this goes on there will be wear in the taper fit of the hole and for one you wont be able to unscrew the nut and also a new arm bolt will never tighten correctly because the taper is wasted.

[BennyM]

Doh. Thanks for confirming my fears, Regal. I'll give it another try this weekend.

BennyM

Benny, go in and re-torque them soon as you can. They are tight right now but as time goes on there is a big chance that the interference fit will get loose. You can get play between the bolt and the hole which will result in a small amount of play. As this goes on there will be wear in the taper fit of the hole and for one you wont be able to unscrew the nut and also a new arm bolt will never tighten correctly because the taper is wasted.