Thrust Arm Bush Replacement Procedure!

[632 Regal]

[whiskychaser]

Yeah that sort of thing would do too

[Jon K]

Hey there - any part number or make/model of the ball joint remover you used? I may be doing control arms shortly.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

Hey there - any part number or make/model of the ball joint remover you used? I may be doing control arms shortly.

Buy the Astro Pneumatic kit, you can find it for under $100, and comes with everything you need to service the front end. part # 7838


http://files.pbepro.com/Astro%20Pneu...es/hi/7838.jpg

And if you're gonna just do bushings, then you'll need this. part # 7865

http://files.pbepro.com/Astro%20Pneu...es/hi/7865.jpg

[e34.535i.sport]

Hey there - any part number or make/model of the ball joint remover you used? I may be doing control arms shortly.

To be honest I got it from our local motor factor Halfords... I think it is their own brand. It was only about £15 (~$28??) and I've replaced everything up front with it, no problems.

[Ferret]

To be honest I got it from our local motor factor Halfords... I think it is their own brand. It was only about £15 (~$28??) and I've replaced everything up front with it, no problems.

Holy tapdancing piglets, my weekends been sh*te!

Not the car mind, but eurocarparts can go take a flying leap... I specifically ordered thrust arms without the bushings on friday afternoon for last collection on saturday before they close for the weekend.

Guess what turned up! Thrust arms with bushings, mislabelled as without.

Fine I thought, I'll just knock the old bushings out... which I managed to do happily, get 3/4 of the way through the work and look at the plainly labelled LEFT and RIGHT lower control arms - then notice they're both the same, peel back the label on the RIGHT one and underneath there's a LEFT label.

ECP just scored -1 customer - I'll be using GSF from now on despite them being slightly more expensive.

My car's still on the axel stands waiting for the correct parts to turn up, wasted weekend. (literally - got to the point where I couldnt go any further with the car and the beer and BBQ came out)

bah!

Like john, I have one of these ball joint separators:


These work excellently with the E34 steering knuckle, though I've found the following:
It'll happily pop the steering balljoint while still on the car - the other arms you'll have to do while off the car.

Mine came out dead easy - the best way to do it is to load up the balljoint with the splitter to the point where the wrench wont turn any further, then give the whole assy a smack with a lump hammer - the ball joints just pop out easily.

Alternatively - the more fun method is to hit the splitter with a rattle gun lightly, it'll just pop the balljoint right out in a second. Dangerous though if you let it spin after the joint has popped, the splitters casting will explode.

Stripping the suspension down on mine went through like a breeze, with the exception of one rusty nut on a drop link - On my 540 there just wasnt space to get a spanner through the subframe - I'm suspecting that there may have been a minor change to the chassis or something as I had to whizz out the subframe bolt to get a spanner onto 'that' nut.

I'll get some photo's sorted out and uploaded - a rattle gun really does make this job a lot easier!

I discovered what was causing my suspension to shift around - one of the old poly bushes had been put in backwards, allowing it to slide along the mount with about 0.5-0.75" play.

(Though I was finding copper grease everywhere when I pulled it apart which stopped everything seizing up - thank you PO!)

[anonymous1]

Hi,

Ha ha on the piglets... Not good on Euro! Unfortunately myself and e34.sport have had them mess up in the past as well. Personally avoid using them wherever possible now due to having to drive over to Manchester just to find it's a wasted trip.

Although I've had the dealer mess up a few times as well, same as you only with the control arm bushes, they order 2 drivers side ones, noticed just before I started taking the passenger one off luckily.

Hope you manage to swap the parts over smoothly and get the job finished.

[e34.535i.sport]

Holy tapdancing piglets, my weekends been sh*te!

Not the car mind, but eurocarparts can go take a flying leap... I specifically ordered thrust arms without the bushings on friday afternoon for last collection on saturday before they close for the weekend.

Guess what turned up! Thrust arms with bushings, mislabelled as without.

Fine I thought, I'll just knock the old bushings out... which I managed to do happily, get 3/4 of the way through the work and look at the plainly labelled LEFT and RIGHT lower control arms - then notice they're both the same, peel back the label on the RIGHT one and underneath there's a LEFT label.

ECP just scored -1 customer - I'll be using GSF from now on despite them being slightly more expensive.

My car's still on the axel stands waiting for the correct parts to turn up, wasted weekend. (literally - got to the point where I couldnt go any further with the car and the beer and BBQ came out)

bah!

Like john, I have one of these ball joint separators:


These work excellently with the E34 steering knuckle, though I've found the following:
It'll happily pop the steering balljoint while still on the car - the other arms you'll have to do while off the car.

Mine came out dead easy - the best way to do it is to load up the balljoint with the splitter to the point where the wrench wont turn any further, then give the whole assy a smack with a lump hammer - the ball joints just pop out easily.

Alternatively - the more fun method is to hit the splitter with a rattle gun lightly, it'll just pop the balljoint right out in a second. Dangerous though if you let it spin after the joint has popped, the splitters casting will explode.

Stripping the suspension down on mine went through like a breeze, with the exception of one rusty nut on a drop link - On my 540 there just wasnt space to get a spanner through the subframe - I'm suspecting that there may have been a minor change to the chassis or something as I had to whizz out the subframe bolt to get a spanner onto 'that' nut.

I'll get some photo's sorted out and uploaded - a rattle gun really does make this job a lot easier!

I discovered what was causing my suspension to shift around - one of the old poly bushes had been put in backwards, allowing it to slide along the mount with about 0.5-0.75" play.

(Though I was finding copper grease everywhere when I pulled it apart which stopped everything seizing up - thank you PO!)

I'm sorry to hear about your weekend Andy - I've been in the same position with those muppets before! I hate having it up in the air for long periods too, makes me nervous... Hope GSF sort you out sooner rather than later.

Hahaha - I've never had the pleasure of finding a copper greased part on mine unless it's something I've done before!!!!

Yes those balljoint seperators are the business, but I have been able to use it on the car for all balljoints, it's just a bit awkward at first. IIRC the Thrust arm balljoint is the worst for getting it into the right position but it can be done...

[sal_park]

ECP just scored -1 customer - I'll be using GSF from now on despite them being slightly more expensive.

I've just done the thrust / control arms and got all my bits from GSF (very helpful people btw). The thrust arms (listed as BQ (best quailty) on GSFs website) and were cheaper in the shop (Hemel hempstead) than online (ymmv) and they were OEM parts (lemforder) without thrust bushes

[Ferret]

I'm sorry to hear about your weekend Andy - I've been in the same position with those muppets before! I hate having it up in the air for long periods too, makes me nervous... Hope GSF sort you out sooner rather than later.

Hahaha - I've never had the pleasure of finding a copper greased part on mine unless it's something I've done before!!!!

Yes those balljoint seperators are the business, but I have been able to use it on the car for all balljoints, it's just a bit awkward at first. IIRC the Thrust arm balljoint is the worst for getting it into the right position but it can be done...

Hallelujah etc, she's done finally!

Well, mostly

She's all back together and buttoned up now - though she's running majorly duck footed (read: toe out) and is prone to drifting all over the place!

Been out running her around at speed and she feels like a new car again - and the change over to alu arms can be felt in the sure-footedness over the rough junk we call roads here.

Just got to do up the bolt under the steering column, and get her tracking done on my lunch break tomorrow and she's sorted! Then I can get back to replacing the headlight and other MOT prep work.

Cack, I've just remembered I owe MarkD an email with my ECU details for an EAT chip!