Replacing steering gear... some pictures and thoughts

Heat shields?

on the alignment thing, when I did mine i drove the car on ramps for the ultimate safety. Turned the steering gently back and forth just a little to make sure the tires werent putting any force on the componants. I then loosened all the nuts, draglink and tie rod ends, popped it all loose and removed it as an assembly. Compared to the new parts and assembled with appx the same distances end to end. Went under with the new assembly and torqued the steering knucke and idler arm. Now when I went to put the tie rods back on I could easily adjust so that it went in with no force applied to turn the wheels and torqued everything down.

Result? 1 wheel .5 degree off which could have been the same as prior. I didn't need to get an alignment but wanted to see how far it was off... Im a bloody genious! :D

What brand is that red draglink?

When I did this, I couldn't get that idler arm off of there to save my life. My local indy took pity on me and lent me the factory tool. That was smooooth.

What's up with the red center link ??!!

I fiddled with my alignment before I took after all this and took it in the next day for the proper job. I just sighted down the sides of the tires relative to the rears. Results.......off by 1/10th of a degree on one side. Alignment guy said it was hardly worth his time. Just goes to show, all this fancy equipment to do alignments and some nimrod like me can just "eyeball" it to within spec.

Good pics and congrats !

Just changed the steering components over on the 540i/6 and thought I'd pass on a few thoughts about how I did this.

Flying bmw's please! If you attempt this without proper axel stands, you're asking for trouble as some of the steering components can require a hefty amount of force to break free.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...teering/ff.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...eering/ff2.jpg

The v8's have bugger all space underneath them, and this job can very quickly become a complete pain in the arse if you've got a balljoint seized into a fixture.

First things of note:
1) Remove the rear plastic undershield.
2) (see next picture) On the v8's there are heat shields underneath each exhaust manifold - which protect each end of the centre tie-rod ball joints from heat damage. These need to be removed before you're going to get the centre tie-rod out.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...Left-Bolts.jpg
You can see the heat shield above the ball joints here.

3) It's much easier to remove the centre arm with the idler arm attached, as you only have to pull a bolt out of the subframe - rather than splitting a balljoint. You need to attack the points arrowed in the picture above.

The picture below shows that it's possible, just, to wedge a 17mm spanner between the exhaust manifold and the starter so that you can easily undo the lower 17mm nut through the subframe. You then need to drive the bolt out and catch it carefully.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...g/Left-Nut.jpg

4) Next, wind the bolt off the top of the balljoint attached to the steering arm, it's possible to get a 17mm spanner in there again to take the bolt off:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../Right-Nut.jpg
Dont try to separate the balljoint yet - just let it hold in for now.

5) Detatch the outer steering balljoints, best to use a scissor type separator - it seemed completely effortless:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../JS-Closed.jpg

6) The hard bit: Getting the steering arm balljoint to pop off. This is going to be painful whichever way you do it - you could try and get the steering box out I suppose, but I wouldnt advise it.
I had to do this in the end by destroying the rubber on the balljoint, then installing a can/screw type separator over the top. There isnt really space to get a scissor type in place - and once the screw type is in place, there's almost no room for a spanner to slot in. It can be done though with copious amounts of effort, swearing and skinned knuckles.

MAKE SURE YOUR FACE ISNT UNDER THE BAR WHEN YOU DO THIS. I nearly landed this one on the nose when it came off.

When this balljoint pops you can now wiggle the bar around and slide the idler arm out of its home, then manipulate the whole assy free.

Old and new:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ng/Old-New.jpg

I totally buggered up the alignment - the car was massively toe out when I had it checked and subsequently aligned :p

Shot at!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...g/Old-Left.jpg

And finally, some kind soul has put decent bushings in the thrust arms <3 !
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ng/TA-Bush.jpg

Next job: The Exhaust!

Nice pics and notes. Garage did mine for MOT last year. First right turn I nearly put it in a wall - there are no self-centre at all. New arm was apparantly longer than old one and stuffed up the tracking completely. No surprise I went somewhere else this year:)

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Originally Posted by Ferret

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http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...teering/ff.jpg...

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Umm Im no expert but I think there's something wrong with your suspension

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sam-Son

Umm Im no expert but I think there's something wrong with your suspension

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Aren't the front wheels meant to point out like that?

only in an emergancy stop when you need more tire tread on the road.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whiskychaser

Aren't the front wheels meant to point out like that?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by 632 Regal

Heat shields?

What brand is that red draglink?

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The red centre that came off was the original BMW part (stamped up properly as well) - the new one going on was a lemfoerder part :D

Heat shields - yeah on the v8's the exhausts run right over the top of where the centre link balljoints are, so there's thin metal plates that are bolted over the top of the steering components to stop the heat perishing the joints.

In the picture below, it's the steel plate that's right over the knuckle, they're on both sides of the vehicle...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...Left-Bolts.jpg

They come off easy enough, though they're tricky to get out and thin sheet steel... easy to shred fingers on.