Front end complete replacement

[SergeBMW]

I have yet to replace all the front end suspension components. My question is what is the best way to go about it? If possible I think the best way to do this would be to just remove all the old parts completely and leave the struts and wheel assembly in place (weight on jack stands). After removing all the old parts id just go in one by one. Could this be possible?

[CroughtonE32]

Hey Serge. Peter had Hernia Surgery, but he's back to work. Buy the Lemforder set up. Upper control arms, Lower control arms. Stabilizer links, Center Link, Idler Arm and both tie rod ends. Pete can do that work in two hours, and you're set for life. Hope you're doing well my man. How'd you do during the Hurricane? I lost power for four days, but we made it through alright. Ninety Six degrees in the house. Thank god for portable generators. Long-ass Shell lines, but people were pretty nice to each other. Everyone going through the same thing. Regards
Jeff

[unity]

You can do that. Careful with strut mounted cables of course. Once they can move around they can pull on wiring for EDC or ABS, pad wear sensor, etc. But I have let the struts hang without issue.

The front end is actually pretty easy to do. The only area that can be a problem is maybe the center link with pitman arm, tie-rod ends, etc. You can drop it nearly complete as I did then build the new one to put in. I tried very hard to get the adjustments for the tie-rods the same by having the old and new side by side. Worked good and no alignment was needed amazingly.

You probably know, but don't forget you need a shaved 22mm (at least I think it was 22mm, been a while) open end wrench to secure the bolt holding the back end of the rear arms. That was probably the only difficult thing on the project. I had a bench grinder so it was not hard to crash the tool. And as you probably have read a few times too, use good parts.

[SergeBMW]

Hey Serge. Peter had Hernia Surgery, but he's back to work. Buy the Lemforder set up. Upper control arms, Lower control arms. Stabilizer links, Center Link, Idler Arm and both tie rod ends. Pete can do that work in two hours, and you're set for life. Hope you're doing well my man. How'd you do during the Hurricane? I lost power for four days, but we made it through alright. Ninety Six degrees in the house. Thank god for portable generators. Long-ass Shell lines, but people were pretty nice to each other. Everyone going through the same thing. Regards
Jeff

Hey Jeff, wow I had no idea! Hope he is doing much better now. I've been meaning to give him a call for this job but have been thinking I should save up to have him do the rear bushings which I hear are an absolute pain without the right tools. I actually purchased the Meyle 16 piece kit about 6 months ago and still is in the box. Gotta give him a call to find out how much he would charge for this. I may have to bring the car to him just for the rear bushings.
Irma was an experience for sure, glad to hear you are doing ok. It was interesting this time around because many people living here have never experience a hurricane since Wilma was nearly 12 years ago . It was HOT for sure, we're not much for using a generator here but after the house temps reached 87-88 it was too much. 3 days later our neighbor brought his out and gave us his spare to us (funny enough it needed work so I got it running), wired up some 6/3 cable from the generator to the breaker box of the house and powered the entire house with it, essentials of course. Fridge, central A/C and minimal power in the rooms. I kept the E32 in storage during the storm.

You can do that. Careful with strut mounted cables of course. Once they can move around they can pull on wiring for EDC or ABS, pad wear sensor, etc. But I have let the struts hang without issue.

The front end is actually pretty easy to do. The only area that can be a problem is maybe the center link with pitman arm, tie-rod ends, etc. You can drop it nearly complete as I did then build the new one to put in. I tried very hard to get the adjustments for the tie-rods the same by having the old and new side by side. Worked good and no alignment was needed amazingly.

You probably know, but don't forget you need a shaved 22mm (at least I think it was 22mm, been a while) open end wrench to secure the bolt holding the back end of the rear arms. That was probably the only difficult thing on the project. I had a bench grinder so it was not hard to crash the tool. And as you probably have read a few times too, use good parts.

Good to hear that it is do-able this way. I was hurting my brain trying to figure out in what order would be the best remove/add while going through the whole front end. Then I remembered the strut/wheel assembly should theoretically just hang there. I believe it is a 22mm wrench. Somehow I got away with it years ago on my old 735i but no clue as to how I managed to do that

Going to give Peter a call tomorrow and see what he says. Thanks for the help!

[shogun]

Tightening torques are here for all parts front axle http://www.e32-schrauber.de/bmw/s-vorderachse.htm
Idler and Pitman arm alignment and heights https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ring+link+tool

[SergeBMW]

Thank you Erich! This is perfect, all condensed. I will print this out!