Steering linkages. Update to UJ build page 5

[beardymat]

just paid mine Dan

[stonesie]

Payment sent

[si-]

Payment sent, pm'd also dude

cheers
Si.

[Muli]

Payment sent,

Thanks Dan

[DanThe]

Thanks guys,

pm sent muli

1. Daf - paid
2. ImysE30 - paid
3. Richis - deposit paid
4. hammoj28 - paid
5. Bob_S - paid
6. Pikanibbles - paid
7. Beardymat - paid
8. mike_sayer - deposit paid
9. gcs325i - paid
10. nickso - paid
11. Goosiegander - deposit paid
12. lloydp - paid
13. tomson x2 - paid
14. irish320i - paid
15. Winx - paid
16. Simon13 - paid
17. Stonesie - paid
18. si- - paid
19. e21jason - paid
20. boomer - paid
21. cplagz - paid
22. Muli - paid

[cplagz]

Payment sent ;)

[hammoj28]

Payment sent.

[tomson]

Payment for 2 sent Dan

[DanThe]

Thanks

Would you all please include zone username and postage address with your paypal payments

My pm box is too small and soon sh*ts itself of all your info

[winx]

paid

[lloydp]

paid. though I'm probably the slowest/last one...

[Simon13]

no i am

edit just paid thanking yourself kindly

Dan ya got any E21 323i clutch release bearings?!

[DanThe]

No, they are too expensive, id rather mod the fork
M20 clutch for the touring? Standard M20 stuff works fine

[mike_sayer]

All paid Dan

[DanThe]

Thanks Mike, order has been made and hopefully we will have some produce by the end of next week

1. Daf - paid
2. ImysE30 - paid
3. Richis - paid
4. hammoj28 - paid
5. Bob_S - paid
6. Pikanibbles - paid
7. Beardymat - paid
8. mike_sayer - paid
9. gcs325i - paid
10. nickso - paid
11. Goosiegander - deposit paid
12. lloydp - paid
13. tomson x2 - paid
14. irish320i - paid
15. Winx - paid
16. Simon13 - paid
17. Stonesie - paid
18. si- - paid
19. e21jason - paid
20. boomer - paid
21. cplagz - paid
22. Muli - paid

[cplagz]

So I'm sitting here looking at an E34 uni joint thinking to myself - what the hell does Dan want me to do with this thing.... ?

[DanThe]

Theyre not that bad! Will get some pics of the procedure later on today

[DanThe]

Ok, here are a few pics of a UJ I knocked up earlier

The UJ consists of a cross shaped centre and 4 caps containing roller bearings, as you can see the caps are crimped into the alloy outer



So to separate the caps need to be removed, this one was easy, the dimple in the centre meant a hammer/punch could be used to push the caps out







Some dont have this dimple which makes it a bit more difficult, easiest way I found was to hold the UJ in the vice 'by hand' like so and hammer the alloy outer carefully until the cap moves out





The problem with all this hammering is the roller bearings tend to drop out, which is a PITA so make sure you either have something underneath to catch them or you have some spare UJ bits

Once the caps are out or nearly out you can remove the centre piece.

To refit the needed parts simply press the caps back in with the vice, to secure them I used a centre punch in 4 places on the edges of the alloy outer, you can just see it in this pic. The caps are held firmly enough anyway so you dont need to go mad trying to crimp then back in



This procedure needs to be carried out as the E30 column spline is different to the E34 UJ spline, so you will need to sacrifice an E30 steering linkage.
If you look at the UJ you will notice one half is longer than the other, I designed the linkage so the short halfs of the UJ's are clamped to the splined shaft to give maximum clearance, seen below, so keep this in mind when rebuilding your UJ's



You only need to rebuild the upper UJ, only other thing you need to do is put a 10mm drill through the bolt hole on the rack half to enable the bolt to pass

UPDATE

To add to this, ive been cutting the bearing caps out which is a lot easier, hammering them out can deform the caps, lose the rollers etc

The long half of your UJ will be unused anyway, so cut the caps out of this half like so -



Which ends in -


Next to the E30 top half -



And pressing back in -



If you are using second hand UJ's dont be tempted to chuck a load of grease in, this will cause the bearing to hydraulic and usually feel notchy, just a tiny amount is needed, put it on the rollers then put the cap back on the centre and turn it by hand to spread the grease out and stop the rollers dropping out when you refit

[cplagz]

Shaft arrived all ok, thanks Dan.

Will take pics of it installed with a 666Fabrication manifold and dump soon

[DanThe]

Great stuff

[booomer]

For those of us using the standard e30 rack, will we need to do this modification to both the e34 uj's?

[DanThe]

No, just the upper one, the rack splines are all the same apart from the manual racks

[booomer]

Ah cool, i had a quick go at banging the caps out earlier and they would not budge is it a case of banging them towards the centre of the UJ or try and extract them away from the UJ?

[cplagz]

Ah cool, i had a quick go at banging the caps out earlier and they would not budge is it a case of banging them towards the centre of the UJ or try and extract them away from the UJ?

I was trying to work out what to do also, so here's what I did.

Close the vice jaws enough to lay the top half flat, put a socket over the UJ (make sure its bigger then the cap), slap a block of wood over the top of the socket and belt away.

[DanThe]

The caps need to come outwards, I used a small hammer on this area

[irish320i]

Hi Dan when do you reckon these will be ready for delivery

Cheers Alan

[DanThe]

I will have them in the next couple of days

[gareth]

is there likely to be any 'spares' on this batch?
only i've just decided that i should get myself a Z3 rack. at present i have a few mm of clearance so it'll be, err, tight

[DanThe]

I will have a few for myself, but I can still add to the total as they are being produced today and tomorrow

[gareth]

put me down for one then
pm on it's way

[booomer]

Ok, so i have got the relevant parts all in pieces but they are filthy dirty so i'm going to give them a good de-grease and scrub. any recomendations on which grease to put in the bearings when i re-build them? does it even matter?

cheers

[DanThe]

LM grease is best for bearings

Just collected a very expensive box of steel



Will get them posted out over the next few days

[gareth]

ooooh, goodies from santa, you must have been a good boy this year!

[winx]

excellent arrived this morning thank you.

[booomer]

Just finished re-building the Uj and what a PITA it was. Did anyone else have difficulty with "notchyness" when the bearing caps were pressed back in? i found the only thing i could do was re-build it with less of the roller bearings inside. Its still not 100% but its staying like it!