Questions about front suspension

[Hagbard]

I am gearing up to replace tie rods, control arms, rubber ring control arm washers, tie rod bellows, sway bar bushings and steering rack bushings this weekend.

I'm making a list of proper torques and lengths for all the parts but I am confused.

The Haynes manual refers to everything by different names than we normally use. For instance, it calls tie rods "track rods" and it calls the sway bar a "stabiliser bar" and it calls control arms "lower suspension arms."

The thing I'm most confused about is how long the tie rods should be.

In the specifications on page 170, it states that the distance between the "end ball journal pivots" should be 23.35 inches (593 mm).

I measured the new tie rods I bought and at most they are half that long. So what is the manual referring to when it says end ball journal pivots? What are they measuring?

On page 183 they talk about "when refitting the track rods, check that the locking tabs are correctly engaged and adjust the distance between the ball journal pivots to the dimension given in the specifications..."

What does that mean?

[Tom D]

you have to understand that the haynes book was written in great britain and what you're calling a sway bar is first and foremost a radius arm or radius link.

[Hagbard]

Okay, the book was written by redcoats.

What do they mean by "ball journal pivot joints?" I mean I'm guessing that they're talking about the ball joints on the tie rods. But how are we supposed to measure the tie rod lengths? As I stated above, the tie rods aren't anywhere near the 23.35 inches long that is stated in the specifications on page 170 of the haynes manual so what/where are they measuring that 23.35 inches? It would've been very helpful for them to put a diagram of measurements in the book instead of a "ye olde Englisch" word riddle out of a Shakespeare play. I feel like I should be wearing a powdered wig while reading through this manual.

There is also a complicated procedure for aligning the "tyres." I know good and well the knuckleheads at a tire shop wouldn't know how to perform that procedure. They're just going to throw the car on an alignment machine. What are ya'll's thoughts on getting alignments done?

Another thing is the wheel bearings. I'm not planning on replacing them but I do want to adjust them. Is there a good DIY somewhere with pictures? I haven't been able to find one and I'm beginning to see that this "ye olde BMV Codex by Hamish and Haynes est. 1767 Londene" is really only good for torque values and supplemental information--and laughs at the prissy Brits' expense.

"Tyres." That's a riot.

[320iAman]

Track rods or tie rod arms screw into the rack and pinion steering unit, lock tabs are thin metal disk that bend down on to the track rod or tie rod end that screws into the steering unit-like a big thin washer. as too adjustment of the tie rod ends with ball joint these have to be within a 32nd of inch toed in , best to get a front end alignment, since this is just toe in no caster-camber and 4 wheel adjustment--price is a minimum.

To set initial toe in you use two steel tape measures front and back of both tires with a metal flat edge, place across the outside of tire intersecting the steel tapes-against the outside of the tire and adjust toe in from there, then go get alignment. Several u -tube videos on this. The difference between the front and back tape measures is toe in or toe out--adjust just one tire and steel tapes should measure to 32ths,,


Randy

[DougIng]

All you need is a telescoping curtain rod.

[dups]

...and a laser beam.
I'm going to guess that length is the whole ball joint assembly. I'll measure mine later.

You know what the revolutionary war was really about don't ya? All those extra u's, as in "colour".

[Hagbard]

So I need to build a telescoping laser beam curtain rod jig and apply an orienteering compass pointing towards the North Star to the inside of the driver's side wheel while using two tape measures to measure the front and back inner distances between the front two "tyres" maintaining a 32nd of an inch inner toe-in while spinning around on one foot counter clockwise and reciting the pledge of allegiance under a one quarter moon aligned with Uranus. And a chicken will lay an egg, which will roll down a track and hit a line of dominoes that will fall and set off a mouse trap that will light a match, igniting a fuse that will pop a balloon and tip over a basket that dumps out a bowling ball that rolls into the tyres and aligns them.

Got it. /s

[dups]

Heh,heh. He said, Uranus.

[Hagbard]

Am I correct that we wait to tighten the sway bar/ control arm connections until the weight of the car is on the suspension?

Is that correct or is it another connection that we wait to tighten?

Thanks, working on car today so help is appreciated

[charter21p5]

Correct. I leave about a half of a turn, then put weight on the vehicle and then tighten to spec.

[DougIng]

So I need to build a telescoping laser beam curtain rod jig and apply an orienteering compass pointing towards...

Such a Rube.

[Hagbard]

Whew! I completed the job over the weekend and it made a huge difference. My shimmy is gone and the car drives super smoothly. It took two days and lots of cursing and tears.

I replaced steering rack bushings, tie rods, sway bar bushings and control arms as well as most of the nuts/bolts hardware, which I picked up at Ace (they have the best hardware selection if you've never experienced the glory of an Ace hardware selection).

I did the job with a fellow denizen of bimmerforums: big thanks to jlups. I owe him a couple weekends of wrenching.

We ran into a couple of snags but overall the job wasn't that bad and the supposedly "hardest part," the steering rack "clamshell," wasn't that bad with two people. We were both new to the job but I think now we could probably do the same job in about five hours. I have a good list of parts I used, which I'll post here in a bit.

I also bought new tires. My old tires were 170/70R13s and my new ones are 185/70R13s. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 185s are what our cars are supposed to run correct? They have a slightly taller profile. I ran on those 170s for a while and I always thought they looked dinky.

I didn't bother with the toe-in. We tried to match the tie rods up with the old ones but it ended up pretty splayed out in front anyway. I took the car to a local shop, Gran Turismo East, and they did a great job with the alignment.

All in all, this wasn't a cheap project but I think it'll end up being well worth it. No more horrid shimmy shaking my car apart, no more tiny tires--I'm assuming I'll get better gas mileage too with the taller 185 tires.

Also Amazon/UPS screwed up my tire order so I ended up getting two tires for free (score!). Due to that Amazon/UPS bungle my car is over at Goodyear getting the final two tires put on. I haven't driven it yet with all four new tires but I know it's going to be awesome.

[Hagbard]

Suspension Refurb Project Parts List:

1. Rubber Ringed Washers (2) - 31351123140 - $8.00 x 2 = $16.00 +
$7.84 shipping = $23.84 - https://www.ecstuning.com/ES51003/

2. Tie Rods (2) - 32111115229 - $24.27 x 2 = $48.54 + $8.49 tax =
$57.03 - (I have withheld the link here because the Uro tie rods I got from Rockauto did not fit my car properly. I ended up going to O'reilly's and getting tie rod ends with M12 ball joint ends and they fit perfectly).

3. Sway Bar Bushings (2) - 31351126577 - $16.89 x 2 = $33.78 -
http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-313511...ilpage_o00_s00

4. Steering Rack Bushings (2) - xxx - $11.43 x 2 = $22.86 + $9.48
shipping/tax = $32.33 -
http://www.amazon.com/Meyle-W0133-16...ilpage_o01_s00

5. Control Arm (Left) - 31121123025 - $43.23 + (shipping unknown) -
https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/mor...nid=508&jpid=1

6. Control Arm (Right) - 31121123026 - $43.23 + (shipping unknown) -
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...011531&jsn=498

7. BMW Rack and Pinion Bellow Front Left (320i) - (2) - Febi
32111118688 - $4.99 + $5.49 shipping = $10.48 -
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...0i-32111118688

8. Ti Rod Lock Washers - (2) - $3.93 * 2 = $7.86 + shipping -
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...e/32111116563/

This doesn't include nuts/bolts hardware.

I replaced the nuts and washers on the sway bar clamps with nylock nuts and lock washers (M12, 1.5 [4 each]), the control arm to chassis bolts and nylocks (M14, 1.5 [2 each]) and the sway bar/control arm nuts (M16, 1.5 [2]). I reused the sway bar bolts (4), the outside sway bar washers (2) and the control arm/chassis washers (4) as well as the steering rack "clamshell" hardware.

[jaredmac11]

Thanks for taking the time on the write up and parts list. I think Im going to do the exact same. Pretty sure all this should work on the 78..

Any other pointers you can share or other things you'd do differently? About $300 for a whole new front end? Not bad my man.

[Hagbard]

Make sure you have 24mm, 19mm and 17mm socket wrenches.

It goes without saying that I jacked the car up and put the front end on jack stands. Chock your back wheels for safety and engage the e-brake.

To remove the inner tie rods from the steering rack, I did not particularly like my solution of using an adjustable crescent wrench to remove/install those. The flat parts on either side of the inner tie rod ball joints are really narrow so my crescent barely fit them anyway. The perfect tool in my opinion would be a spanner cut out of flat steel, like a cone wrench. The tie rods that came off were smaller than the ones I put on so measure both (the flat part where a wrench goes) with calipers so you know what wrench sizes to get. I'd guess they're going to be 32 to 34mm but that's just a guess. Measure them before hand. The most cost-efficient thing to get might be a thin crow-foot or open ended socket instead of a full spanner.

They make special socket wrenches for those connections but I think a thin spanner (cone wrench) would work just as well if not better.

Also, huge tip for getting the inner tie rods off the steering rack: there's a small channel on the steering rack right next to where the tie rod butts up to it that the lock washer tab folds down into. You should fold up the tab with a flat head screwdriver before you attempt to unscrew the inner tie rod.

Make sure you order new tie rod lock washers in addition to your new tie rods. You'll mangle the old ones getting them off and new ones cost pocket change.

I recommend doing this job with a buddy. I had to do a lot of pushing hard on things to line up holes while my buddy put bolts in. And the steering "clam shell" would be pretty impossible without an extra set of hands. So get a six pack and bribe a friend to help you.

After I took all the old stuff (tie rods, control arms, sway bar) off the car, I replaced the steering rack bushings first. I took off the heat shield on the passenger side and undid all four bolts holding the clam shell together around the steering rack. I put a closed spanner on the top nut and used a socket on the bottom to unscrew the bolt. The front and back are two different sizes.

Pay attention: the steering rack clam shell is identical on both sides except the top has a tab welded to it for the heat shield. This should be on the top, rear-pointing passenger side of the steering rack when you put it back together. I cleaned my steering rack clam shell pieces thoroughly before I reassembled them. They had 33 years of road grime on them.

I put the sway bar ends into the control arms first and put the bolt on hand tight, then I inserted the control arm ball joints into the steering strut, screwed the castle nuts on hand tight and then I pushed super hard and shoved sporadically to line up the control arm/chassis connection while my buddy inserted the bolts. We tightened those to spec on the spot. I left the sway bar clamps in the front connected with the new bolts but loose to allow flex while installing the control arms. I tightened these second to last.

(***When you put your new sway bar bushings on you'll have to spread them a bit with a pair of needle nose so they slide over the sway bar into place. You should see two clear, clean black spots where the old ones were that will be your guides for the new ones. Also, don't panic when your new bushings don't look exactly like your old ones. The old ones will have a profile like a bell curve because they've been squished and torqued, which makes the rubber pinch out at the edges. The new ones will have a U-shaped profile because they're fresh but once you torque them down in the brackets they'll pinch out too. Also, the fitment in the brackets is super tight and you probably won't be able to fit them all the way in by hand. I sprayed a bit of WD-40 on them for lubrication and got them as close as I could, then I bolted them in hand tight. They'll fit in the brackets fine once you torque them down at the end of the project.)

Next I connected the inner tie rods to the steering rack, screwed the outer tie rods onto them and jacked the steering strut up just high enough to slip the tie rod ball joint under and into the tie rod stud hole in the steering strut. I firmly popped the tie rod stud up into the hole with my palm and screwed the stud nut on hand tight, then I released the jack. When I jacked up the steering strut, I had to push inward on it (toward the center of the car) to keep it from bowing outward.

(Don't forget to put your new tie rod boots on before you screw on the outer tie rods. Otherwise you'll have to pull them on over the L-shaped tie rod ends and you'll be mad at yourself, mad at the world, mad at ze Germans.)

After everything was together and hand tight I tightened everything to spec. I waited until the car's weight was on its wheels to tighten the sway bar/control arm connection to spec.

I spent zero time on the toe-in. My alignment shop was relatively close so I just drove it over there at a slow speed and made it fine. But if you have to drive any length to get to the alignment shop after this job, spend some time adjusting the tie rods to get the toe-in relatively close, otherwise it'll be a pain in the ass to drive super slow and listen to the tires squealing because they're splayed out like goofy's feet (I may or may not have direct experience with this).

All the torque specs can be found in the hayne's manual on page 180 if I recall correctly.

One more thing: the Uro brand tie rods I ordered from Rockauto did not fit my car. I bought the full tie rod inner and outer. I used the inners, (they were bigger than the oem ones that came off) but the ball joint studs on the outers had too wide of a taper to fit into my steering strut. I ended up stripping the lock nuts and the studs on them and had to trash them. I bought new (size M10) tie rod ends at o'reilly's that fit perfectly. So pay attention to what you have already and try to buy as close to that as possible to avoid a long stream of profanity and tears.

[MortyCrock]

Nice write up, Luke! This will be super helpful in the future.

[jaredmac11]

Jeez, that's a hell of a post. Thank you so much. Im looking forward to the result of doing this job.

[chaique]

Hello everyone!

I hope this could help you. I've tried it last night and it solved my problem.
You can insert the wishbone without help from other person.
I used a cargo/lashing belt to compress the stabilizer.

DSC_0001.jpg

Best regards from Portugal

[dwilsonfl]

So 36 years is a long time for bolts and nuts. And PB Blaster's smell - do you ever get used to that?

I'm doing control arms, sway bar bushings, tie rods (and asst. items), springs, struts, steering rack bushings and coupler, brake rotors, pads, and hoses.

Caliper bolts are hell. Maybe today...

Special tools... do you need the inner tie rod special tool? Based on the excellent help in the thread, I just ordered the right stuff to do bellows, and the nuts and washers. But looking at the official service manual - thanks for that! - it shows the inner rod is taken off by a special tool. If you don't have that, what do you use? I'll be flat on my back so I tend to want to minimize movements if I can.

Thanks everyone.

David Wilson 1981 e21 ascot grauinprocess.jpg

[Hagbard]

I'd use an appropriately sized cone wrench to work the inner tie rod ends. That's the only thing that is thin enough. I can't remember what size those tie-rod ends are. Maybe 32mm? Measure your tie rod ends with calipers before you buy your cone wrench.

Also make sure you order new lock washers for those connections as well. I reused my old ones, which I sort of mangled while getting them off. They're working fine as far as I know, but I wish I'd just bought new ones and never had to think about it again.

[dwilsonfl]

Looks like a trip to Harbor Freight today. Never heard of a "cone wrench." I ordered the washers too. I have time so I'm trying to use your wisdom and experience along with the others who contributed to do this right.

[Hagbard]

A cone wrench is just a very thin wrench usually cut out of a sheet of steel. They're mainly used in bicycle maintenance but in the case of the E21 tie rods, the ball joint end that screws into the rack and pinion is too narrow to get a regular wrench around. So a cone wrench is about the only thing that'll fit there. I actually used an adjustable crescent--hence one of the reasons why I mangled my lock washers--but cone wrench is the ideal tool.

[dwilsonfl]

Bought a set of cone wrenches yesterday. Got the sway bar off with the tow strap idea. Right now doing the strut and new springs and hope to replace tie rods, steering coupler, and steering rack bushings tomorrow.

What did we ever do before the internet?

Thanks all

[dwilsonfl]

Okay, got everything apart with the exception of the strut insert which will not come out of the tube. I'm PB Blaster -ing it right now, but what are my options? I'm ready to start putting all the new parts on and feeling like I've done something and this sucker is robbing my joy.

[dwilsonfl]

Oh, and the front struts do not have a "bumper" on top. I'm assuming that's correct since they are original and the SACHS replacements didn't have them, or mention it.