E30 Zone

Gents,

Has anyone fitted an E46 rack in to an E36?

Is it a direct swap? Any pitfalls?

Thanks in advance.

Andrew

I'll let you know as I'm hopefully doin mine this weekend!

From the quick look underneath, they look pretty much identical, so I'm hoping its just a case of swapping them over...

Thanks matie!

My only concern is the pinion output angle and the splines on the E36 rack pinion not being the same as the E46.

Also I think one of the hoses needs to be bent to shape?

Andrew

Straight swap, you might need to open up the slot in the lower UJ with a grinder to pass over the plastic dust shield but the splines are all the same

Seems to be going ok so far.

Had to bend the lower rack mounting tabs so the old one would come out past the sump, the proper way would probably be to lift the engine off its mouts by a couple of inches. and have trimmed the extended plastic bit on the splines as the upper uj joint is being awkward.

Main problems have been access.

A higher lift jack, and completely removing the bumper and undertrays would probably have been quicker than trying to work around them.

The actual castings look identical so everything else should just bolt straight up.

In, working, test driven.

All went ok, trimmed off part of the plastic spline protector, other than that it was a straight fit. Had to drop the front of the main undertray and remove the aux air pump pipes.

Also, there's no slot in the rack for the lock washer tab, so I just did them up very tight!

Every guide I've read says use vice grips to remove the rods from the rack, but a viscous fan spanner fits perfectly. I did have to extend it for a bit more leverage though.

Just swapped the entire rods over. Centred the rack, centered the wheel and pushed it in place. Wheel is sitting straight, not had a chance to get the tracking checked, but looks like it might be toeing out a fraction. Feels a little heavier, but a lot more direct, plus more lock than it had with the standard evo rack. Feels fine at high speed too, not at all twitchy.

Definitely a worthwhile mod.

Thanks Harry/Dan!

I will go ahead and order a purple rack and crack on!

Both the engine mounts have collapsed on the turd so I its a great time to upgrade the rack at the same time.

Andrew

Just to confirm the above. Did this on the M3 compact on Friday and it took about 1.5 hours, No issues at all.
The rack was a touch narrower so tracking did have to be adjusted, think that was down to having to remove the lock tabs. The e46 rack has no slots for the lock tabs, not sure how I feel about that.

HairyScreech wrote:Just to confirm the above. Did this on the M3 compact on Friday and it took about 1.5 hours, No issues at all.
The rack was a touch narrower so tracking did have to be adjusted, think that was down to having to remove the lock tabs. The e46 rack has no slots for the lock tabs, not sure how I feel about that.

I have used a good thread lock and haven't had any issues.

HairyScreech wrote:Just to confirm the above. Did this on the M3 compact on Friday and it took about 1.5 hours, No issues at all.
The rack was a touch narrower so tracking did have to be adjusted, think that was down to having to remove the lock tabs. The e46 rack has no slots for the lock tabs, not sure how I feel about that.

when i put z3m rack on my e30 i kept to the e30 steering arms i found the same issue no slots for the lock tabs,so to be 100% sure nothing would come undone at any time,i used a fresh(squared edge) grinding disk in a grinder and put a 'nick' in each end nice and square,(just seal off the ends so no grinding dust gets inside the main rack itself)then their was something for the lock tab to locate on to.

^^ That's something I have been considering doing.

I dont think there has been a single failure on E46's which do not have any locking mechanism on the inner tie rod.

I just bolted them up with some loctite and no issues.

As above, if you can think of any forces that would cause the joints to unscrew im all ears

There's also a decent amount if thread holding them to the rack, if they had started coming undone far enough to be at risk of falling out the tracking would be miles out, the wheel well off centre, and the handling would probably be pretty horrible too!

Demlotcrew wrote:I dont think there has been a single failure on E46's which do not have any locking mechanism on the inner tie rod.

I just bolted them up with some loctite and no issues.

theres always a first so in my veiw prevention is beter than a cure and a piece of mind.

They're cheap too. We're doing them for £35 plus P&P.