Change rear suspension arms and rear axle

[Brinkland]

Hi E30zone

I need to change the rear suspension arms and rear axle. I have not tried it before.
Is there anything I should be aware of?

I have bought some new (better condition) than the old
I have changed my bushings in the new,

so I should "only" replace the old arms and rear axle with the new

Its a 1987 E30 320i

I'm not a mechanic, but has very reasonable technical skill. Is this something I can do

[bmw9818]

removing the drivers side arm is a pain! make sure the fuel is very low as you might need to remove the rubber filler pipe to pull out the bolt,

get a flare spanner and soak the brake connections in wd40 overnight going back and spraying every few hours, to avoid rounding the unions,

when removing the driveshafts get a flathead and poke around to remove the dirt inside and outside and give it a good spray with wd, a long allen bit is preferred but i did it with a short one, make sure you tap the bit into the allen bolts with a hammer a good few times to avoid rounding, same goes with the plate bolts on the subframe,

if your removing the diff iirc its 17mm bolts, the bolts will be caked in shit so give them a good clean and remove all the dirt before you use a 19 and wonder why its not working!
prop to diff bolts will be bloody tight! so try undoing those first with it in gear and handbrake on,

rest is fairly straight forward, handbrake cables i just cut them off, i got a hacksaw blade found where it seated and cut away the corrosion, got a pair or pliers and tugged away it soon fell out,

subframe well good luck is all i can say! its a pain,

if you have a clutter or airgun the process is very simple!

[BenHar]

It is VERY likely that the subframe bushes will be in a bad state and need replacing.

If you want to do all the bushes it is probably easiest to drop the whole subframe out and do the trailing arm bushes with it off the car.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... #Rear_Beam

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... ame_Bushes

Ben

[Grrrmachine]

Ben, he's already got a second beam and fitted new bushes.

Brinkland, I'd suggest doing it in stages. You need to get the rear section of your exhaust off and out of the way. After that, remove the diff. It's mounted to the beam and will make the whole assembly try to pivot if you leave it connected, so for both convenience and safety, get that removed.

At this point remove the discs or drums on your car, and disconnect the handbrake cables. Also disconnect the ARB and rear shocks.

Now you should have just the beam and trailing arms fitted. Taking the passenger arm off will be fairly easy, the driver's will be a pain, so you might want to leave them connected.

The bushes themselves can be seriously stubborn. You need to undo the main beam bolt on each side, and also the two bolts each side (allen key head) that hold the beam support plates - they bolt through the sill. With those off and out, you'll still find you need a crowbar and big hammer to batter the old beam out, as the aluminium core of the bushes will have welded themselves in place. The easiest solution is to drill out the rubber inside the bush so that the beam drops, and then use a small hammer and chisel to remove the rest of the aluminium core before fitting the new beam.

Factor in a whole weekend for this if it's your first time, and prepare to replace every single bolt in case you have to cut/grind off the heads of the existing ones.

[BenHar]

Ben, he's already got a second beam and fitted new bushes.

Doh! Sorry. Must read full post.

Edit> I've reread it and it's not clear to me that he ahs a new beam'

It could be just new arms that he has got.

Ben

[Brinkland]

Thank you so much for everybodys help. It's nice to get some tips.

I will try to fix it soon

Thank you!

[Brinkland]

Now it is done

I spent the whole day yesterday, and a few hours today.

came also into a little trouble with subframe bushings that were stuck in the body. had to be cut and tapped out.

but now it looks a little better