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Thread: Suspension Overhaul for S54 Swap! [Pic Heavy!]

  1. #26
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    Needs bigger pictures lol.
    Dave
    '18 RAM 2500 Laramie Cummins
    '15 Pure White VW Touareg TDI
    ///'95 Avus M3 S54B32 Race car -- 2022 ProAutoSports PS1 Champion
    ///'72 Chamonix 2002 (Restoration project)

  2. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by MPWRCPE View Post
    Needs bigger pictures lol.
    Haha yea, I wish they'd display a bit smaller till you click on them but atleast they scale with the browser Any BBcode to do that?

    Disassembled the front suspension. Started by removing brakes etc and then the wheel bearings with a slide hammer. The drivers side left the inner bearing race so I'll be doing the score, cut and chisel method again to remove that one later.


    But the passengers side didn't which helps!


    Got all the suspension pieces out. The control arm inner ball joints where they mate to the subframe put up quite a fight to get them out.


    Torn boots on both arms ball joints



    I used the hydraulic press to press the "innards" of the ball joints directly out, they end up ejecting out of the back and onto the floor



    Once the innards are pressed out remove the boot completely and you're left with the actual ball joint socket. If you've ever wondered why it's important to "clock" these at the correct angle when reinstalling notice the oblong/oval shape which is where most of the suspension movement is at when it articulates up/down, neat!


    I used the press driver directly on this part to push it out. Coincidentally it was the perfect OD for this




    The inner ball joints are a little trickier since the area around them is mostly non-flat. I used my tried and true method of "stacking large sockets and adapters" again.




    One of the inner ball joints actually came out as one piece.


    To press the FCAB's out of their carriers I modified one of the rear wheel bearing races to about 60mm OD which is a bit smaller than the 60.18mm ID of the carrier.


    Tapered edge





    Bushings OD if you're wondering


    After that I cleaned and painted all the bare parts


    And also modified the stock strut housings to get them ready for the koni struts to be installed into them.


  3. #28
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    Good stuff. Save all the bearing races you come across. I have a whole box that are excellent for the press. The two sockets holding the arm level is sketch for me.

  4. #29
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    Nice job. You got stones pressing out those ball joints the way you did. It takes a lot of force to pop them out and putting that much force on a shaft that pivots, ummm, risky. The one with the long shaft, all you have to do is cut the shaft off and then press out using a socket slight smaller than the diameter of the ball joint. Anyway, you got it done. Hope you marked the ball joint position. There is a specific orientation. Good luck!

  5. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Braymond141 View Post
    Good stuff. Save all the bearing races you come across. I have a whole box that are excellent for the press. The two sockets holding the arm level is sketch for me.
    I've pressed a lot of stuff and agree it is a bit sketchy. At the moment I didn't have any other options and it went surprisingly smooth compared to what the picture may lead you to believe!

    Quote Originally Posted by JitteryJoe View Post
    Nice job. You got stones pressing out those ball joints the way you did. It takes a lot of force to pop them out and putting that much force on a shaft that pivots, ummm, risky. The one with the long shaft, all you have to do is cut the shaft off and then press out using a socket slight smaller than the diameter of the ball joint. Anyway, you got it done. Hope you marked the ball joint position. There is a specific orientation. Good luck!
    Yup all the new ball joints were 100% reinstalled in the correct orientation.

    Pressed new FCAB's in


    Outer ball joint orientation


    Pressed outer and inners




    Cut and chiseled the one inner bearing race to remove it


    Then I found this...


    And did this...


    Transferred the Koni stickers to the strut bodies and installed



    All the front parts ready to go in


    Didn't get any more pics of install but it was pretty straightforward. Got everything aligned close enough to drive and snapped a pic at midnight


    I did a quick drive around the block to see how everything was. Surprisingly my quick and dirty alignment job by literally eyeballing it produced perfect hands off straight tracking and decent handling! I can already tell that it rides SO MUCH better. Today I am going to have the car professionally aligned by my friend at the stealer.

    Here are my alignment specs I plan on using:

    Front
    Toe: 1/16 toe in
    Camber: -2.5
    Caster: Maximum setting on vorshlag camber plates
    Front shock damper 1 turn from soft

    Rear
    Toe: 1/8 toe in
    Camber: -1.5
    Rear shock damper 0.5 turn from soft

  6. #31
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    What's the part number on the inner balljoints and where did you source them? I wonder if they're the same diameter as the e46 ones. I know the stud is the same
    Check out the 8legs Racing page: https://www.facebook.com/8legsRacing/


  7. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by ScotcH View Post
    What's the part number on the inner balljoints and where did you source them? I wonder if they're the same diameter as the e46 ones. I know the stud is the same
    You can get at Amazon. They are the same as the E30. Not sure about E46.
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

  8. #33
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    Check my first post, has a link to all part numbers used. I've read that the ball joint pressed OD size is the same E30, E36, E46 but not 100%

  9. #34
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    Cool, thanks! Great work on the overhaul!
    Check out the 8legs Racing page: https://www.facebook.com/8legsRacing/


  10. #35
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    Alignment time!!!





    Loving the new ride height


    Underside of the car looking pretty good


    Sweet, yellow koni struts on a E36 M3!?


    Final Front and Rear settings



    Couple daytime shots




    The car rides great! Not overly bumpy at all, even the wife said it's very comfortable. Very similar to stock. I have had 500/600# spring rate coilovers on an E36 before and the bumpy ride gets old fast.
    Handling and predictability is MUCH better. Before, the shocks were inconsistent in controlling spring rate mid-turn giving you all kinds of random handling effects. The car now has a bit less body roll but it also feels like it's "biting into" the corners now instead of wallowing through ha. Turn in response is much improved and nearly instantaneous feeling. I still haven't installed the new steering flex disc as I plan on doing that when the engine is out for S54 swap. The car tracks nice and straight and so far seems resistant to tram-lining, likely due to all the new zero-play bushings IMO.

    Overall I am extremely happy with how everything came out! The only thing I might do is add a rear wheel spacer, I'm thinking 7.5mm to match the look of the fronts 12.5mm spacer. Setting the rear damper to 0.5 turn from soft and the front to 1 turn from soft is working really well so far.

  11. #36
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    Looks a lot like mine, except mine has fewer doors and hyper black wheels:

    1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy


  12. #37
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    Thanks for the ball joint pictures. Does the inner have a specific orientation or just the outer?

    Is this a track only car? The reason I ask is I believe your front camber setting is way too aggressive for good tire wear. I've run -2.0 front and -1.5 front. -1.5 front is almost perfect wear but -2.0 was wearing the inside of the tire very bad. I can upload a pic for you of the tire wear with -2.0 but for me the wear was unacceptable.

    Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

  13. #38
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    Great work!
    Joe

  14. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vitaliy View Post
    Thanks for the ball joint pictures. Does the inner have a specific orientation or just the outer?

    Is this a track only car? The reason I ask is I believe your front camber setting is way too aggressive for good tire wear. I've run -2.0 front and -1.5 front. -1.5 front is almost perfect wear but -2.0 was wearing the inside of the tire very bad. I can upload a pic for you of the tire wear with -2.0 but for me the wear was unacceptable.

    Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
    He's running very little toe in front so he'll probably be ok. You can run up to around -2.5 degrees of camber in front with minimal or no toe and be ok on tire wear. I run around the same alignment on my front end on the street, slightly less camber (around -2.5deg camber and .08deg total toe-in). I dial in more camber for the track. If he has problems he can either reduce camber slightly or zero out the toe.

    People get into trouble with aggressive camber in the front when they keep the factory toe settings, which have a similar amount of toe-in to the rear which is WAY too much.
    1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy


  15. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vitaliy View Post
    Thanks for the ball joint pictures. Does the inner have a specific orientation or just the outer?

    Is this a track only car? The reason I ask is I believe your front camber setting is way too aggressive for good tire wear. I've run -2.0 front and -1.5 front. -1.5 front is almost perfect wear but -2.0 was wearing the inside of the tire very bad. I can upload a pic for you of the tire wear with -2.0 but for me the wear was unacceptable.

    Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
    Yes the inner has the same orientation.

    Street primarily, but also track car here and there. Actually during alignment we discovered that the strut reinforcement plates were interfering with the camber plates and limiting camber to -2.6 on the drivers side. Like tostito mentions below, since I have almost zero toe in front (likely zero once rolling is underway due to friction) I am hoping to greatly minimize tire wear. I will be monitoring it as well as rotating tires front to rear with every oil change (7k or so).

    Quote Originally Posted by TostitoBandito View Post
    He's running very little toe in front so he'll probably be ok. You can run up to around -2.5 degrees of camber in front with minimal or no toe and be ok on tire wear. I run around the same alignment on my front end on the street, slightly less camber (around -2.5deg camber and .08deg total toe-in). I dial in more camber for the track. If he has problems he can either reduce camber slightly or zero out the toe.

    People get into trouble with aggressive camber in the front when they keep the factory toe settings, which have a similar amount of toe-in to the rear which is WAY too much.

  16. #41
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    solid work.. looks great..
    98 Estoril ///M3 4/6
    S54 swap CSL

  17. #42
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    I die a little every time I see this; https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/a...5&d=1497557454

    You can avoid wheel damage in the future by using Sears (seems they all are up to date on touchless machines, they listen to exactly what you want, and they do a decent job for little money) or any company that uses reflectors that grab off the tire and not the edge of your wheel.

    Great work. I'm sure it's nice to have it back.

  18. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Braymond141 View Post
    I die a little every time I see this; https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/a...5&d=1497557454

    You can avoid wheel damage in the future by using Sears (seems they all are up to date on touchless machines, they listen to exactly what you want, and they do a decent job for little money) or any company that uses reflectors that grab off the tire and not the edge of your wheel.

    Great work. I'm sure it's nice to have it back.
    Yea if they grab the wheel wrong then insta-gouge! The guy that does my alignment is a friend and I let him know to be ultra careful! Still with lots of tires now using the edge protector it's hard to get it on without damaging them!

  19. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by M52 POWER! View Post
    What kind of adapter are you using here? I'm on the lookout for something like this.

    Great work so far, looking forward to reading about your swap.

  20. #45
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    I just found both of these threads and read through them in one sitting. I laughed out loud when I saw that you moved the Koni stickers. Just awesome work, really inspiring. I am also looking forward to more developments on the S54 wiring / cluster side of the equation.

  21. #46
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    Excellent thread! Very helpful images...kudos for doing it yourself. Must feel like a new ride...

  22. #47
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    Great thread. Enjoyed following your thorough and methodical process. I'm the same way. I never would have pegged you for an angel-eyes-on-older-car fan! lol

    All jokes aside though, really really enjoyed this thread as well as your engine swap thread.

  23. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Evtron View Post
    What kind of adapter are you using here? I'm on the lookout for something like this.

    Great work so far, looking forward to reading about your swap.
    Honestly it's a random part I found in the shop, I think it may have been an old bike mechanic tool.

    Quote Originally Posted by cohny View Post
    I just found both of these threads and read through them in one sitting. I laughed out loud when I saw that you moved the Koni stickers. Just awesome work, really inspiring. I am also looking forward to more developments on the S54 wiring / cluster side of the equation.
    I'm glad somebody caught that haha, gotta make it look complete!

    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Mc View Post
    Excellent thread! Very helpful images...kudos for doing it yourself. Must feel like a new ride...
    It does, it's amazing what new OE bushings everywhere can do.

    Quote Originally Posted by techno yosi View Post
    Great thread. Enjoyed following your thorough and methodical process. I'm the same way. I never would have pegged you for an angel-eyes-on-older-car fan! lol

    All jokes aside though, really really enjoyed this thread as well as your engine swap thread.
    You know those headlights are from my teenage years and lately I've been eyeing them to convert back to remove the angle eyes! The older I get the more I enjoy the classic looks of these cars, probably because you never see that anymore it becomes the exception... It's far on the to-do list

  24. #49
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    Absolutely incredible. Great work man. I have been thinking about doing some of the stuff you have and you've inspired me. Its too bad you cant inspire my wallet
    1999 M3/2/5 Arctic Silver
    2013 GSXR-600

  25. #50
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    Awesome stuff


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    “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
    ― George Orwell

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