E30 Zone

was gonna get some old ones and referb is there a wiki page on this or is it a case of removing replace and refit

There's no Wiki article, as it's only five nuts and a ball-joint splitter you need to get the control arm off. But you won't be refitting the ball joints to the arms yourself - my garage had to send mine elsewhere, as their 20-tonne press wasn't up to the job

Your better off buying whole new arms which are already built up, they are not expensive can be had for £50 a side but as the old saying goes you get what you pay for so i would spend a tad more and get some good quality ones around £75 a side should see you right.

by the time you have purchased new parts to refurb old arms and paid someone to press the new ball joints in you wont be far off that price anyway

If you have an arm with a one still good ball joint and an as new control arm bush fitted, then it may be worth replacing one duff joint, but as pac1982 says, little profit in replacing both if it also needs a control arm bush.
A pair of Lemforder arms (OE quality) will cost you £99 from CP4L.

Is it possible to remove and refit a good condition control arm bush from one arm to another?

Grrrmachine wrote:There's no Wiki article, as it's only five nuts and a ball-joint splitter you need to get the control arm off. But you won't be refitting the ball joints to the arms yourself - my garage had to send mine elsewhere, as their 20-tonne press wasn't up to the job

Can be done fine without a press, just takes some alternative thinking and careful hammer wielding.

Not really worth it on an e30 though as the joints alone will set you back £50 or so, so I'd probably just pay £100 for a pair of new complete arms. Wasn't an option with e36 m3 evo arms which are bmw only and £180 each.

TheDutch wrote:Is it possible to remove and refit a good condition control arm bush from one arm to another?

I've developed my own technique for this. I take a small well worn screwdriver, whose tip is well rounded off at the corners, and force it between the pin and the bush. I then push the extension tube on an aerosol can of silicon grease in beside the screwdriver and squirt a burst of grease in. Repeat the procedure at several points around the pin, and you will have unstuck the rubber from the metal, and introduced a lubricant between the two, enabling the bush to be pulled and twisted off.
It's important that all traces of the silicon grease are removed before reusing either part, otherwise the pin bush might slide on the pin when put back into use, instead of the rubber twisting.

ok new Lemforder arms order 50 pound a side sweet

Brianmoooore wrote:

TheDutch wrote:Is it possible to remove and refit a good condition control arm bush from one arm to another?

I've developed my own technique for this. I take a small well worn screwdriver, whose tip is well rounded off at the corners, and force it between the pin and the bush. I then push the extension tube on an aerosol can of silicon grease in beside the screwdriver and squirt a burst of grease in. Repeat the procedure at several points around the pin, and you will have unstuck the rubber from the metal, and introduced a lubricant between the two, enabling the bush to be pulled and twisted off.
It's important that all traces of the silicon grease are removed before reusing either part, otherwise the pin bush might slide on the pin when put back into use, instead of the rubber twisting.

If you price your time at, say £50 ph, how cost effective is your technique?

The fastest way I have seen control arm bushing removed and reinstalled was with spring clamps, a rattle gun, and a pry bar. there where some sockets and ratchet extensions involved but in general a two, three man job

I managed to buy lemforder offset bushings for an e36 M3 for under £30 locally (maybe try ebay.de with cheap shipping)

hennared323i wrote:

Brianmoooore wrote:

TheDutch wrote:Is it possible to remove and refit a good condition control arm bush from one arm to another?

I've developed my own technique for this. I take a small well worn screwdriver, whose tip is well rounded off at the corners, and force it between the pin and the bush. I then push the extension tube on an aerosol can of silicon grease in beside the screwdriver and squirt a burst of grease in. Repeat the procedure at several points around the pin, and you will have unstuck the rubber from the metal, and introduced a lubricant between the two, enabling the bush to be pulled and twisted off.
It's important that all traces of the silicon grease are removed before reusing either part, otherwise the pin bush might slide on the pin when put back into use, instead of the rubber twisting.

If you price your time at, say £50 ph, how cost effective is your technique?

If the arm and bush/lollipop are off of the car, it takes just a couple of minutes with the arm in a vice to get the bushes off.

I removed some bushes the other way. Held the lollipop in a vice and used the arm as a lever and basically 'unscrewed' the arm from the bush.

They were solid m3 bushes though, not sure normal ones with voids would like that sort of treatment.