Kristuphir
02-28-2006, 10:25 PM
Didn't want to hijack the other thread that's going on about this since it's more anecdotal.
My new-to-me 535i had the Dread Shimmy. I had been pretty much planning a rebuild since I decided I wanted one of these cars...
I did it with all the Lemforder parts that BMA would sell me. There's one or two pieces that Patrick said they actually do subcontract out - I think the center link was one of them - so he said to not bother with paying the Lemforder premium on those pieces. No matter with that center link, though, since that's the one piece I ran out of time for due to issues that seem pretty common with, you know, not being able to knock the old one out of there. Next weekend perhaps...
This job took a lot longer than I expected, mostly because of how it was done last time. I was not aware that King Kong actually survived the under-edited fall from the Empire State Building ('twas Peter Jackson's ego killed the beast), but apparently he went on to become a mechanic, though I use that term loosely.
Also, I was lacking some tools that I thought I had. I got really tired of parking my '59 Ford truck with no power steering at the local Autozone (shudder). And Sears. And...but I digress. A sledgehammer is absolutely essential for this job, as has been noted. Also, a short length of pipe or a big ol' breaker bar is all but required. And if you don't have air, this will be no fun for you, although a couple of the biggest bitches are not reachable with an impact wrench (standard impact socket in the case of the main lower control arm bolt).
Wanna know what took me half a bloody hour? Getting the front wheels off. WITH AIR. Whoever put them on last broke the cardinal rule of putting on wheels...DON'T USE A DAMN IMPACT WRENCH TO TIGHTEN THE LUGS. Those 9 bolts could've held an aircraft carrier to a parking lot if you turned the Earth upside down and flipped off the Gravity switch.
9, you say? Why, yes. To my unending pleasure, the driver's side of this car came with the "4 Lug Bolts of Two Different Types and One FUBAR'ed Lug Hole with No Threads" option, straight from the factory I'm sure.
For the control arms, I went with BillR's (I think) method of taking the whole steering knuckle and both arms off the car and whacking on them with a BFH until they suddenly popped out like they'd have just fallen out if I'd only poked them with my finger. The curb in front of my house, which was used as support for said method, will never be the same.
Oh, speaking of the steering knuckles, those three bolts? That hold each one onto the strut? Yeah. They had to sit overnight in PB Blaster before my impact wrench would touch 'em.
Guess what else took forever? The freaking SWAY BAR LINKS. If you've ever done this you know it's not hard. You also know that there's supposed to be a washer between the upper nut and that funny triangular piece of metal on the strut that it sits in. Now, it turns out that if King Kong puts these nuts on, and the Big Guy forgets to put in the washers, and then time and water and road grime all play their part, you can no longer get a wrench or socket enough of the way over the nut to get any leverage on it at all. You can get enough leverage to strip the nut head and skin your knuckles, though. Thankfully, there's just enough space in there for a nice burly Dremel cutting wheel, a pointed drift, and the aforementioned BFH.
So after some rocky times, it all went back together much easier and really paid off. What they say about having a set of ramps - yes. Don't even try to torque the bushing bolts without them. I had ramps and so didn't try, but it was fairly obvious that it would be No Fun, edging up to Impossible, to do it without.
The payoff, of course, came with the test drive. Even with my special "Eyeball Alignment" and the aforementioned lug issue, everything feels so tight and nice, and my classic shimmy is about 5% of what it used to be. I expect a pro alignment, the correct size hole tap, and a handful of lugnuts that are all the same size should alleviate what's left. If not, then a wheel balancing and then suicide. The as-of-yet unreplaced center link has no play in it at all.
This was my first time with this project and it would take far less time if I had to do it again (Lemforder, please help me not have to prove that). I'm a reasonably competent, reasonably logical amateur but not a pro mechanic by any means. The job ended up being very satisfying in the difference it made to the car and the money saved in not going to a shop (not that I really ever do).
Apologies for the epic post, but it seemed like good closure for a project that was more harrowing than expected. But man, what a difference...
My new-to-me 535i had the Dread Shimmy. I had been pretty much planning a rebuild since I decided I wanted one of these cars...
I did it with all the Lemforder parts that BMA would sell me. There's one or two pieces that Patrick said they actually do subcontract out - I think the center link was one of them - so he said to not bother with paying the Lemforder premium on those pieces. No matter with that center link, though, since that's the one piece I ran out of time for due to issues that seem pretty common with, you know, not being able to knock the old one out of there. Next weekend perhaps...
This job took a lot longer than I expected, mostly because of how it was done last time. I was not aware that King Kong actually survived the under-edited fall from the Empire State Building ('twas Peter Jackson's ego killed the beast), but apparently he went on to become a mechanic, though I use that term loosely.
Also, I was lacking some tools that I thought I had. I got really tired of parking my '59 Ford truck with no power steering at the local Autozone (shudder). And Sears. And...but I digress. A sledgehammer is absolutely essential for this job, as has been noted. Also, a short length of pipe or a big ol' breaker bar is all but required. And if you don't have air, this will be no fun for you, although a couple of the biggest bitches are not reachable with an impact wrench (standard impact socket in the case of the main lower control arm bolt).
Wanna know what took me half a bloody hour? Getting the front wheels off. WITH AIR. Whoever put them on last broke the cardinal rule of putting on wheels...DON'T USE A DAMN IMPACT WRENCH TO TIGHTEN THE LUGS. Those 9 bolts could've held an aircraft carrier to a parking lot if you turned the Earth upside down and flipped off the Gravity switch.
9, you say? Why, yes. To my unending pleasure, the driver's side of this car came with the "4 Lug Bolts of Two Different Types and One FUBAR'ed Lug Hole with No Threads" option, straight from the factory I'm sure.
For the control arms, I went with BillR's (I think) method of taking the whole steering knuckle and both arms off the car and whacking on them with a BFH until they suddenly popped out like they'd have just fallen out if I'd only poked them with my finger. The curb in front of my house, which was used as support for said method, will never be the same.
Oh, speaking of the steering knuckles, those three bolts? That hold each one onto the strut? Yeah. They had to sit overnight in PB Blaster before my impact wrench would touch 'em.
Guess what else took forever? The freaking SWAY BAR LINKS. If you've ever done this you know it's not hard. You also know that there's supposed to be a washer between the upper nut and that funny triangular piece of metal on the strut that it sits in. Now, it turns out that if King Kong puts these nuts on, and the Big Guy forgets to put in the washers, and then time and water and road grime all play their part, you can no longer get a wrench or socket enough of the way over the nut to get any leverage on it at all. You can get enough leverage to strip the nut head and skin your knuckles, though. Thankfully, there's just enough space in there for a nice burly Dremel cutting wheel, a pointed drift, and the aforementioned BFH.
So after some rocky times, it all went back together much easier and really paid off. What they say about having a set of ramps - yes. Don't even try to torque the bushing bolts without them. I had ramps and so didn't try, but it was fairly obvious that it would be No Fun, edging up to Impossible, to do it without.
The payoff, of course, came with the test drive. Even with my special "Eyeball Alignment" and the aforementioned lug issue, everything feels so tight and nice, and my classic shimmy is about 5% of what it used to be. I expect a pro alignment, the correct size hole tap, and a handful of lugnuts that are all the same size should alleviate what's left. If not, then a wheel balancing and then suicide. The as-of-yet unreplaced center link has no play in it at all.
This was my first time with this project and it would take far less time if I had to do it again (Lemforder, please help me not have to prove that). I'm a reasonably competent, reasonably logical amateur but not a pro mechanic by any means. The job ended up being very satisfying in the difference it made to the car and the money saved in not going to a shop (not that I really ever do).
Apologies for the epic post, but it seemed like good closure for a project that was more harrowing than expected. But man, what a difference...