Offical RTAB DIY (WIthout SPecial TOOLS!!)

[sweet e36 pimp]

leedawg... thank you for the excellent write-up. helps me out since ill be tackling this, and a lot more this winter. thanks again.

[leedawg]

leedawg... thank you for the excellent write-up. helps me out since ill be tackling this, and a lot more this winter. thanks again.

No problem buddy glad i could help tha\nks for the feedback makes taking the time and energy to make these things worth it.

[EricP]

Yeah I think I am going to tackle this sometime after I get a good jack. All I have right now is 4 jackstands and nothing to lift with

I figure there's no use in getting an alignment if my RTAB's aren't going to keep the car driving straight, so this will come first. I may also need some front tie rods, but I can't tell what is worn up there. How hard is it to fit a breaker bar up there to do the RTABs? Should I just get a decent little impact wrench?

RTABS + Fresh bushings where needed + alignment should get my car feeling like new! I will definitely be using this guide to help as long as I can dig it up in last year's posts

[leedawg]

Yeah I think I am going to tackle this sometime after I get a good jack. All I have right now is 4 jackstands and nothing to lift with

I figure there's no use in getting an alignment if my RTAB's aren't going to keep the car driving straight, so this will come first. I may also need some front tie rods, but I can't tell what is worn up there. How hard is it to fit a breaker bar up there to do the RTABs? Should I just get a decent little impact wrench?

RTABS + Fresh bushings where needed + alignment should get my car feeling like new! I will definitely be using this guide to help as long as I can dig it up in last year's posts

Why wait till you have a jack? Just bust out the stock jack man and lift up one side at a time. Thats what I used to do before I had a real jack Pop a Jack stand under go to the other side and presto your car is now on the stands and your ready to do the job. Um As far as how to get the bolts off yeah you dont need an impact wrench. It just makes the job easier as every power tool does. A breaker bar will probably fit up there or at least it will fit with a short extension on it and that whould be enough to get the bolts undone. You will need two 18mm sockets though to hold that 18mm bolt in the rear trailing arm while you undo that nut. Thats bout it though, oh its helpful to have an air hammer in getting the bushings out, but you dont even need that if you dont have one, I think you can just use a big ass flat head screwdriver to bend them out enough to get them out.

[EricP]

Why wait till you have a jack? Just bust out the stock jack man and lift up one side at a time. Thats what I used to do before I had a real jack Pop a Jack stand under go to the other side and presto your car is now on the stands and your ready to do the job. Um As far as how to get the bolts off yeah you dont need an impact wrench. It just makes the job easier as every power tool does. A breaker bar will probably fit up there or at least it will fit with a short extension on it and that whould be enough to get the bolts undone. You will need two 18mm sockets though to hold that 18mm bolt in the rear trailing arm while you undo that nut. Thats bout it though, oh its helpful to have an air hammer in getting the bushings out, but you dont even need that if you dont have one, I think you can just use a big ass flat head screwdriver to bend them out enough to get them out.

Are you suggesting I use the stock jack on one side of the car while the other is supported by 1 jackstand? Is it safe to rotate the car even a slight angle to jack up that side while the other is on a jackstand? Furthermore.. will a jackstand fit under the jack pad while the stock jack is so close? Is there enough room for that?

[PJ325i]

Don't you just LOVE the $5-$10 "tools" from Home Depot/Lowes . . .

Kudo man!!

[Storamin]

you only need to jack up one side of the car at a time for the RTAB. the jackstand will find with the stock jack there.

[Zaks]

no i think he's saying lift up one rear side with the stock jack, place a jack stand under it, lower onto the jack stand, take out the jack, go to the other rear side, raise with stock jack, place another jack stand under it, lower onto that jack stand, then i usually just leave the stock jack in one of the holes for the "just in case".
i don't understand what you mean by "is it safe to rotate the car..."?
yes a jackstand should fit under the pad while thestock jack is lifting the car, there should be enough room unless your jack stand is like a foot wide.
my only suggestion with the jacking is this... when you lift the first side of the car and place on the jackstand, set the jackstand to it's lowest height, so that when you lift the other side, there's a lesser chance of the car sliding on top of you (ask me how i know haha). then once both rear ends are up on the lowest height on jackstands, go higher and higher, if you need to, one side then the other. i don't know if i made this clear so feel free to ask again if i confused you with anything. sorry for the long post and good luck

Are you suggesting I use the stock jack on one side of the car while the other is supported by 1 jackstand? Is it safe to rotate the car even a slight angle to jack up that side while the other is on a jackstand? Furthermore.. will a jackstand fit under the jack pad while the stock jack is so close? Is there enough room for that?

[EricP]

no i think he's saying lift up one rear side with the stock jack, place a jack stand under it, lower onto the jack stand, take out the jack, go to the other rear side, raise with stock jack, place another jack stand under it, lower onto that jack stand, then i usually just leave the stock jack in one of the holes for the "just in case".
i don't understand what you mean by "is it safe to rotate the car..."?
yes a jackstand should fit under the pad while thestock jack is lifting the car, there should be enough room unless your jack stand is like a foot wide.
my only suggestion with the jacking is this... when you lift the first side of the car and place on the jackstand, set the jackstand to it's lowest height, so that when you lift the other side, there's a lesser chance of the car sliding on top of you (ask me how i know haha). then once both rear ends are up on the lowest height on jackstands, go higher and higher, if you need to, one side then the other. i don't know if i made this clear so feel free to ask again if i confused you with anything. sorry for the long post and good luck

Yeah, I was just worried about what you said.. the car sliding off the jackstand due to the angle being too great. I guess if it's at the lowest setting everything will be fine. I have to stop reading on this before I blow any $$ on it and go do it.. I want to so badly.

[Cwaters]

Just a thought, the Harbor Freight jack is great and cheep. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91039 OR get a Craftsman jack w/2 stands in a box for like $135. I've heard very nasty stories about the stock jack.
Better yet, enlist a friend to help you and ask him to bring his jack over with him.

CW

[Zaks]

you can always go check them and just make sure they're not screwed up. preventative maintenance is much better than the other way haha. oh and the car falling thing... the other day i was raising my front to do coolant flush, fan delete, t-stat. anyway, i raised my pass. side, put it on a jackstand, went to the driver side and as i raised that up, the car slid towards me. it didn't fall just slid a bit and the jack stand was almost off of the rubber pad. this never happened before, so maybe it was because it was wet. no clue. just be careful whatever you do man

Yeah, I was just worried about what you said.. the car sliding off the jackstand due to the angle being too great. I guess if it's at the lowest setting everything will be fine. I have to stop reading on this before I blow any $$ on it and go do it.. I want to so badly.

[Storamin]

you can always go check them and just make sure they're not screwed up. preventative maintenance is much better than the other way haha. oh and the car falling thing... the other day i was raising my front to do coolant flush, fan delete, t-stat. anyway, i raised my pass. side, put it on a jackstand, went to the driver side and as i raised that up, the car slid towards me. it didn't fall just slid a bit and the jack stand was almost off of the rubber pad. this never happened before, so maybe it was because it was wet. no clue. just be careful whatever you do man

this happened to me over the summer. what i do now is remove the jack pads and just set the jack where the jack pads were.

[Zaks]

i would advise against that because the jack stands will scratch the area where the pads were, revealing metal, leading to rust, and rust is bad. i suggest you place the jack stands so that they prevent the car from going side to side instead of front to back, or place one front to back and one side to side. do you get what i'm saying ?

this happened to me over the summer. what i do now is remove the jack pads and just set the jack where the jack pads were.

[Zaks]

the reason i like to use my stock jack is because it goes higher than most "regular" jacks. i have a craftsman but it doesn't raise my car nearly enough. what i do is raise it with the craftsman to some height then keep goign with the stock jack, or place a bunch of wood pieces under my jack.

Just a thought, the Harbor Freight jack is great and cheep. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91039 OR get a Craftsman jack w/2 stands in a box for like $135. I've heard very nasty stories about the stock jack.
Better yet, enlist a friend to help you and ask him to bring his jack over with him.

CW

[catalyst.]

i would advise against that because the jack stands will scratch the area where the pads were, revealing metal, leading to rust, and rust is bad. i suggest you place the jack stands so that they prevent the car from going side to side instead of front to back, or place one front to back and one side to side. do you get what i'm saying ?

Yea you can pull the rubber pads off.. but if you expose the metal on the bottom of the car to the jackstand it will scratch it and it will rust like crazy.. dont ask me how i know

[leedawg]

Are you suggesting I use the stock jack on one side of the car while the other is supported by 1 jackstand? Is it safe to rotate the car even a slight angle to jack up that side while the other is on a jackstand? Furthermore.. will a jackstand fit under the jack pad while the stock jack is so close? Is there enough room for that?

Alright this is how I used to do it before I had my big floor jack. I dont have the littel round jack pads they fell off. I simply put the stock jack in one side lift it all the way up, at the top there is just enough room to fit the jack stand under where the jack pad would have been but now there is only a hole there, I put a bunch of cardboard between the jack stand and the frame and let that side down onto the jack stand. THen I go to the other side opposite the stand I left the car on and jack it up and put the other stand under that side, with the carboard to protect underneat the car. Then I let that side down on the stand and your all done the car is now resting securly on the jack stands. I also leave the stock jack in as a just in case as well. I jack up only one end of the car as well at a time, ie the back or the front and chalk the wheels on the end your not lifting up. Hope this helps clarify things. IF you put plenty of cardboard where the pads used to go its no big deal either mine are scratched at all. The only thing ive noticed is the metal is tearing a little bit around the reinforced area just due to the sharp side of the stand pushing up on that I think. but the main area is fine.

[EricP]

Just a thought, the Harbor Freight jack is great and cheep. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91039 OR get a Craftsman jack w/2 stands in a box for like $135. I've heard very nasty stories about the stock jack.
Better yet, enlist a friend to help you and ask him to bring his jack over with him.

CW

Found something with a much better lifting height... here


Thanks for the help! I think that will go on ze birthday list

[leedawg]

NO Problem, Id go check it out in person first though, I find a lot of harbor freights stuff is kinda well.. Crappy.

[DRIFTART]

About how long did it take you to do each side? Did the shims give you any trouble during install?
Thanks man and good write up

[Storamin]

The shims are very easy to install, they just take a little of force and moving around to fit. They are probaly the easiest part.

[DRIFTART]

Sounds good, thanks

[leedawg]

About how long did it take you to do each side? Did the shims give you any trouble during install?
Thanks man and good write up

Um The shims, as already mentioned are the least of your worries in this job, hence very little mention of them. All you do is put themin the bracket the way they are supposed to be and slip the bracket over the arm. Its a tight fit but if you put the new bushing in the right way it will slide right over the arm and bushing. Its supposed to be a snug fit though. OH I greased mine up to cause I dident want them squeaking by chance. This also made it a lot easier to push the bracket onto the arm. The first side took me almost 3 hours hence my reason for writing this up because I had to figure out my own way of getting those damn bushings out. The second side about 20 minute from start to finish. Its really pretty easy after you have a good plan of how to tackle getting the bushings out of the arm. So hopefully this will cut your time down a bit, but id say you can easily do the whole job in about 2 hours if you are intuitive and work out a good system to get the bushings out. Gettting the old ones out is the hardest part. It can be done though! Good luck any questions feel free to ask as usual.

[Jester4176]

Hate to bring back a month old thread, but I'm trying to do mine right now and having some difficulty. Those of you who have done this...How the hell did you get the 3-18mm bolts off to drop the RTAB bracket? I have an impact wrench working at 120psi and have been banging away at BOTH sides (Thats right....ALL 6 bolts) for half an hour and they won't budge. So far I've also used a 6 foot cheater bar and snapped a socket in half also. WTF??? Anyone else have this problem??

[DSrugis]

Leedawg, I just completed my install. Awesome write up. The homemade tool works so well it almost seems like the pieces were designed with this in mind. The first side took me about 2 hours and the 2nd side like 30 minutes. The hardest part for me was getting the middle of the old RTAB out but after fooling with it I finally got through. Thanks again.

Also, what are the benefit of the shims? I didn't buy any but they are easy enough to install that I may still.

Jester, I didn't have any problems getting mine off. When all else fails, try penetrating oil and if that doesn't work try adding some heat. The penetrating oil always works great for me whenever I do anything on my car.

Dave

[leedawg]

Leedawg, I just completed my install. Awesome write up. The homemade tool works so well it almost seems like the pieces were designed with this in mind. The first side took me about 2 hours and the 2nd side like 30 minutes. The hardest part for me was getting the middle of the old RTAB out but after fooling with it I finally got through. Thanks again.

Also, what are the benefit of the shims? I didn't buy any but they are easy enough to install that I may still.

Jester, I didn't have any problems getting mine off. When all else fails, try penetrating oil and if that doesn't work try adding some heat. The penetrating oil always works great for me whenever I do anything on my car.



Dave

Dsrugis thanks for the feedback its great to hear from ppl that use this. Im glad it helped you out and that it went well. Thats fantastic. to answer your question about the shims all they really do is make it so that the trailing arm cant felx at all hardly in that bracket which just makes it even stiff in the back as far as side to side motion is concerned. They are not a necesiity and new RTAB's feel great compared to the old ones. you can install them later if you really wanted to but id say since its all together now and you got an alignment not to worry bout it. They just make it a bit stiffer.

I to did not have a problem getting the bolts out that hold the bracket ot the body of the car. My suggestion would be to use a breaker bar with a good quality socket. If that dosent work then id step up to an impact wrench that has at least 200 ft/lbs of torque. My guess is that guys impact wrench isent a very big one and air pressure wouldent really makea differnence, what really matters is how much torque your impact wrench is capable of delivering. i have a small one that cant even get the lug bolts off my wheels it only puts out 70 ft lbs. Any way again glad to hear it went well congrats. Dosent it feel great ?