B.I. Official e34 lowering, new suspension, wheels, and thrust arms!

[HDhandyman]

OK guys, time for a late night installment.

Again we're dealing with front end suspension at the moment. We've heared from our panel of experts, even the distributor himself, and it looks like the choice is totally up to you on bushings. Time for you to make your decision and me to move on.

So, there's a couple more things that we're gonna need in terms of front end suspension, the first of which are Sway Bar Links. Again, Lemfoerder would be best, but do what ya gotta do. These little buggers make a faint click sound when you go over bumps and they're fairly cheap to replace while we're down there. Next is the idler arm; I don't need one, but you could replace it during this install if your Indy said "looks bad", you have more miles than me, or you just wanna spend the money.

Here's a snapshot from the Bentley manual...



OK, my current total is $450.00, and it's time for me to start thinking about struts, shocks, and springs. There are several options for me to choose from. BMA carries almost all of them. Amoung those, some of the preffered leaders apear to be Billstein (strut and shock towers), Koni (strut and shock towers) which are adjustable, Eibach (lowering springs applicable for the front and the back), H&R (lowering springs applicable for the front and the back), and Sachs (a German engineered combo of strut and shock towers, and lowering springs. Their most inherrent value is the fact that all eight major components are designed to work together. Unlike other "sweet" combos between strut/shock and spring, these probably put less stress on other suspension related components due to the nature of shared design.) These are only a few of the available options. Do the research and talk to the perveor about which combo is right for you.

My first instinct tells me to go with the Sachs. I've read several positive testimonials about them from members of this board, I like the fact that all the strut/spring compenents come in the kit, and I like the idea that these components are designed to work together. Unfortunately BMA, the largest distrubutor of Sachs in the continental US, is out of them at the moment. BMA was expecting a shipment of Sachs to arrive in DEC/2005, but they were ultimately told by the German manufactuer that the old design had been discontinued and that a "new and improved" design of the hugely successful first product would be shipped to them in March. I don't know if I can wait until "sometime" in March since I need to make repairs, so I've asked Yves to provide me with additional quotes for some of the "sweet" combos listed above.

Here's the mail...

Yves Bright
<yves@bmaparts.com>to me
More options Feb 13
Hello Steven,

Per our conversation, here are the prices for the suspension parts.

Bilstein Sports with H & R springs - $746.00

or

Koni with H & R springs - $913.00

Let me know if you have any questions or would like to place an order.

Yves Bright
www.bmaparts.com
(888) 262-3911


That about wraps it up in terms of shopping for suspension related parts for me. I'll let you know next time what I decided about parts selection and how much it cost me. For now, here are a few photos of some of the tools I'm gonna need for this job!

A torque wrench is absolutely essential, not just for this job, for lots of em. I got this one at Harbor Freight Tools on sale for $18.00 last weekend. It's not a Snap-On, but it's cheap and it's gonna suit my needs plenty well. Get what you want. Remember that 80ft./lbs. that Jon K. talked about applying to the polyurethane bushings? This is what I need.


Forced air is a luxury that I learned I couldn't do without some time ago! This is an air compressor (blue). You can see that it sits next to a smaller (red) air compressor. The red one travels with me if somebody in the family gets a flat, or I just need air--the motor is no longer functioning, so it can only be filled with air by using another air compressor. The blue boy is the big guns that powers the air wrench and many other tools (attachments). I think I got this one at Harbor Freight for $220.00.




In this photo, you can see the air wrench (looks like a silver gun) attached to a yellow hose, and ultimately the air compressor. This thing isn't nessecary, but it will make parts of this job tremendously easier. Next to it, you can see two jack stands (these are truck/suv rated for 6,000lbs. I'm not taking any chances) and two Rhino ramps. Again, the ramps are truck/suv rated for 6,000 lbs. I could just use four jack stands, but I like being able to just back the car up onto the ramps and check out the rear end from time to time. They also make it a lot easier for me to remove the enigne from the VW Bug, since the engine is in the back and has to be removed by jacking it out from underneath the car. Also in the photo, one of my hydraulic jacks (green).




Next time, I'll talk More Tools, More Photos, New Wheels, and New Tires!