Bav Auto Anti Shimmy Kit - WOW!

[onedroppr]

That's what happened to me when do that same repair, until balance and alignment was done.

I think wheel balance is a key part of the problem. Alignment too, but wheel balance is critical.

[DougIng]

I would prefer to have the least amount of polyurethane as possible for a variety of reasons, all of which are based on having other cars with them in the past. I would never do that again.

Best of luck finding something. I, too, am not a big fan of urethane. But it seems like E21 owners don't have much to choose from these days.

I don't fully understand the motions this suspension goes through. I have to imagine anything stiffer than the stock rubber is going to be an improvement. The only urethane bushing I liked was the Rogue Engineering front control arm bushings on my E46 M3 - a large aluminum housing with a small playable urethane insert.

[charter21p5]

wally509,
This might be something as simple as a tire balance issue. I posted the bavauto article, in a previous response to this thread, explaining what are the common causes for the 55mph shimmy. You might want to call bavauto and ask them what they had in their kit. There are several folks that work at bavauto that know the E21s.

I had a recent discussion with a few mechanic friends on this 55mph shimmy topic since I have the same issue. They believe there is a high probability balancing the tires will fix the issue.

I haven't replaced all the items yet that could cause this issue. I replaced all the front end rubber, control arms, tie rod ends and aligned the front end. The shimmy remained... I did not replace the swaybar washer that has a small ring of rubber on it which is located on the side of the swaybar end which faces towards doors of the vehicle. I also have more work to do on the front end and then I will be performing another alignment.

I assume you want to know what was in the bavauto kit however your real goal is to just fix the issue. I have heard from a friend of mine that works at BMW they used to balance the E21 wheels to the hub and if everything else was correct, this would resolve the issue. I plan on doing this as well when the alignment is performed on my e21.

Today I ordered the lower chassis brace from ireland engineering. I may or may not install depending if I fix the issue without required the brace: https://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/E21...1alpnabar.html

I am determined to fix this issue.

I will report back when I fix the shimmy and what I did to fix it.

[John Adkins]

I doubt that the brace will fix the shimmy, but it will make the steering a bit more responsive. My experience anyway.

[wally509]

wally509,
This might be something as simple as a tire balance issue. I posted the bavauto article, in a previous response to this thread, explaining what are the common causes for the 55mph shimmy. You might want to call bavauto and ask them what they had in their kit. There are several folks that work at bavauto that know the E21s.

I had a recent discussion with a few mechanic friends on this 55mph shimmy topic since I have the same issue. They believe there is a high probability balancing the tires will fix the issue.

I haven't replaced all the items yet that could cause this issue. I replaced all the front end rubber, control arms, tie rod ends and aligned the front end. The shimmy remained... I did not replace the swaybar washer that has a small ring of rubber on it which is located on the side of the swaybar end which faces towards doors of the vehicle. I also have more work to do on the front end and then I will be performing another alignment.

I assume you want to know what was in the bavauto kit however your real goal is to just fix the issue. I have heard from a friend of mine that works at BMW they used to balance the E21 wheels to the hub and if everything else was correct, this would resolve the issue. I plan on doing this as well when the alignment is performed on my e21.

Today I ordered the lower chassis brace from ireland engineering. I may or may not install depending if I fix the issue without required the brace: https://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/E21...1alpnabar.html

I am determined to fix this issue.

I will report back when I fix the shimmy and what I did to fix it.

Wheels are brand new Panasport 14 x 6, checked for runout (perfect) before mounting the brand new BF Goodrich tires. They were road force variance balanced by Tire Rack themselves TWICE making zero, zilch, nada difference in the shimmy. They said they were "in spec" but never gave me any numbers. I should have been a bigger jerk about that, meaning getting the variance force numbers from them. But in the end, I have rotated the tires all over the place, no combination making ANY difference so the odds of all of them being high but in spec is pretty slim IMO.

While we're here, I have done wheel bearings, brake rotors, control arms, steering rack bushings, strut inserts, bavauto springs. NONE of these items made ANY difference. I was planning on replacing the front anti-roll bar bushings and having it professionally aligned, which had not been done yet.

Last weekend I decided to check the lateral and radial runout of the tires on the car to see if maybe a hub was bent. Lateral runout at the lip of the rim was .002" on one side and .003" on the other (total). Radial at the tread was .018" on LF and .028" on the RF. I also checked the toe with my old school gage and found it had OVER 1/2" of toe in! I thought I found it! So I went out to as best as I can measure .100-.125" of toe in and guess what? ZERO, ZILCH, NADA difference in the shimmy. This is why I posted here about the kit, I wanted to stick it in there and see if it made ANY difference because nothing else has.

Maybe someone with more experience with the shimmy can tell me if this sounds right. BTW, my old 320i never shimmied more than a tiny bit on a few occasions in ~250k miles of use through all sorts of cheapo tires and suspension/bearing/brake neglect. But in this car, one can see the steering wheel moving back and forth by the time you hit 35mph on occasion but always by 40mph, it's pretty nasty by 45-50, sometimes it's gone by 50-55 and other times it lingers all the way to 60mph.

ANY help on this is appreciated. Thanks guys!

Wally

p.s. I called bavauto about it and finally got through to someone there who had been there long enough to know about this kit. He insisted they did not make those parts, the individual components including the special washer with the rubber/polyurethane were purchased from BMW, they put them into a "kit" and sold that as their own deal. He said they no longer offer the kit because the components became NLA from BMW. I searched realoem for the special washer to no avail. So who knows.

[sbcrockett]

are you installing the wheels? or did the shop do it? I'm talking about the actual tightening of the lug bolts.

if they're installing them with the impact wrench instead of tightening sequentially with more equal torque to center the wheel on the hub, you could have one or more wheels out of balance on the hub.

another thought I've had that might contribute to our tendency to shimmy at speed: I have new Falken Sincera's installed. not the worst tire, but decent given our limited options. when I go over certain road surfaces, I swear I can feel the tread of each tire pulling or wanting to pull in different directions. for example, I drive over a grated surface on a bridge and the car has a slight side to side motion that was not there with the previous tires. maybe it has something to do with the new Falkens being softer? I don't know, but there are a lot of variables to solve each shimmy issue. and once you get there, it'll still likely creep in over time.

I guess I've learned to accept that as normal and only pay attention when I know something is getting worse.

btw, forgive me for being lazy and not re-reading all the posts, but I don't recall seeing tie rods mentioned in any recent parts of this thread.

[tinkwithanr]

Any one have any pics of he bav auto magic washers? Can't be that hard to reproduce, and it would let you keep the rubber bushings.

[wally509]

sbcrockett,

I've been mounting the wheels. I use a torque wrench and tighten in a cross pattern, with the wheel in the air and don't go to full torque in one go around (step torqueing). Again, they've been on and off this car sooo many times, the odds of me hosing it up each and every time seem pretty slim. Plus I measured the runout with the wheel mounted.

You do bring up a good point, it could be this car just does not like these particular tires. I bought the car about a year ago. It is a rust-free 52K mile car and it still had the original Uniroyal Rallye 170 tires on it at that time! 1981 date coded. They were completely dry rotted as you can imagine. I did drive it a few miles on them and holy crap did the wheel move back and forth with those on and pretty much from anything above 10mph. Little did I know all this money and countless hours later it would still be...

Thanks,
Wally

[82eye]

the guy who bought ken's jigs was bruce and unfortunately he died earlier this year.

sorry to hear. meant no disrespect. i don't get here much since i got the e30.

iirc the bavauto kits had a mixed bag of results. if you could make one up i'd suggest using it in concert with an oem bushing refresh for the best outcome

[DougIng]

Are the Panasports the correct center bore for the E21? Or is a centering ring required?

[wally509]

They are the correct center bore, no rings. They are the 2002 spec, so the offset is a little off (+25mm) but they clear w/o spacers.

[mxl556]

Back to basics... I'd spin the wheels and look at the tire thread... How many times I have seen tires that are not round but would balance fine... Quality of rubber is not the same anymore and its not limited to the bushings and hoses...

Good luck
Max

[wally509]

Max,

Checked twice by TireRack on their Hunter machine for runout as well as by me on the car. The worst one was .028" total. Less than half of the spec in the BMW TIS of .060".

Thanks for the tip,

Walt

[tinkwithanr]

Sorry if I missed it before, but have you ever got it aligned professionally? Not that there is that much adjustment aside from toe, but maybe the chassis got tweaked earlier in its life enough to throw it out of whack. If nothing else it would confirm that your toe is correct and everything else is where it should be.

[wally509]

Not yet. That is the next step after installing the last of the old bushings, which are the front anti-roll bar bushings. Thank you for the input.

There is nothing to indicate this car has been hit hard enough to tweak. It is all original paint except for the LR quarter panel. There are no wrinkles or weld marks or anything underneath in that (or any other) area on the car. But yes, it need to go on a rack to verify.

[bflan2001]

So you haven't done the sway bar bushings yet? If not that is absolutely at least part of your shimmy. The sway bar is an integral part of the front suspension. Worn bushings will definitely cause a shimmy. Honestly I would have started there.

[jrcook320]

yeah, even poly front "D" bushings really tighten things up since the sway bar acts as a radius arm. I'd guess if your sway bar/control arm bushings are shot the ball joints are too. I've never seen [aftermarket] ball joints outlast those bushings on an e21.

[wally509]

So far every ~50k mile, stored in a heated garage since new, only seen salt and rain only a handful of times, still firm (no jelly), no oil leaking on, no dry-rot without so much as a surface crack O.E. BMW bushing I've sh-tcanned has been in excellent condition. I have a durometer but am afraid to check them as I really don't want to know. The O.E. ~50k mile tie rod ends have no play in them. Sorry...wasn't meant to be a rant...this car's kinda beating me down here, dude.

I will be replacing the front sway bar bushings today. Any tips on doing them? I'd prefer not to tear the whole front suspension apart AGAIN.

[bflan2001]

If you're just doing the inner bushings it's a pretty easy, straight-forward job. The outers require more work but aren't too bad if you're running a stock sway bar. Big sways make it much more difficult, ratchet straps to cinch down the sway bar will help get the ends in and out of the control arms.

[wally509]

I already put in complete new control arms. I was talking about the D bushings at the front of the sway bar. These new ones seem pretty stiff and don't want to open up to go over the bar. Wondering if there was some trick to it.

Thanks in advance.
Wally

[bflan2001]

Make sure to use urethane grease if you're upgrading to urethane bushings, they'll prevent squeaking and make install a little easier. You can also heat up the bushings to soften them a little. And when you go to press them onto the sway bar, it's a little bit easier to start at the bend of the sway bar so that you're only pushing on a small section at a time.

[dspulv1]

I have a new old stock Bavarian Auto Anti-Shimmy kit at home.
Complete with directions etc.

Was going to save for my 323i but the car is now sold.

One of the few things I kept (had bought two sets years and years back) after getting rid of all my E21 parts...that, a BMW factory E21 replacement radio and some NOS spare tire covers.

Will dig out the BAS kit, take pictures and post when I am back home next week. Also will measure the bushings and/or washers and post the dimensions.

Had the kit installed many years back on my 83'is and it does make a difference....provided the rest of the suspension is fresh. Cannot remember if the kit made everything 100% perfect but it was pretty damn close.

Was never made as a work around to solve suspension issues due to worn out parts and improper alignment.

Forget what was included in the kit but it was not much. Also, they pop up on EBay periodically as well....

[charter21p5]

I have a new old stock Bavarian Auto Anti-Shimmy kit at home.
Complete with directions etc.

Was going to save for my 323i but the car is now sold.

One of the few things I kept (had bought two sets years and years back) after getting rid of all my E21 parts...that, a BMW factory E21 replacement radio and some NOS spare tire covers.

Will dig out the BAS kit, take pictures and post when I am back home next week. Also will measure the bushings and/or washers and post the dimensions.

Had the kit installed many years back on my 83'is and it does make a difference....provided the rest of the suspension is fresh. Cannot remember if the kit made everything 100% perfect but it was pretty damn close.

Was never made as a work around to solve suspension issues due to worn out parts and improper alignment.

Forget what was included in the kit but it was not much. Also, they pop up on EBay periodically as well....

If you want to sell the kit and Wally doesn't want it I am definitely interested...

Please do post pictures and more information when you have time.

[tinkwithanr]

I'd love to see good dimensions on the parts. I'd be interested in reproducing it for my car and others if there was interest. Not a fan of poly bushings everywhere

[bflan2001]

I could also help reproduce these if needed.