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Re: More E30 control arm hoo-hah

TJ Noto wrote:

> Apparently you need to brush some turpentine on to the INSIDE of the
> rear control arm bushing and then push the control arm in to it?  The
> turp melts the rubber and it suages itself on to the control arm.  Has
> anyone done this?  The workshop manual says to use BMW's special lube,
> the dealer said to use turpentine.  It looks like I should bolt the
> mount to the chassis and then insert the control arm?  Anyone ever
> done this?

TJ,

I did the rear bushings, with the control arms on the car. It was 
tough
to remove them from the arms, but it was _much_ tougher to get 
the new
ones on. I used some silicone (safe for rubber the label says) 
grease
and pushed like h*** until it finally slipped on. It would be a 
_lot_
easier with the control off the car, but Bentley says to put it 
all 
back together within 20-30 min and put the car on the ground so 
that
the bushing/control arm relationship is correct when the rubber 
suages
to the arm. That's a little hard to do with the arm off the car. 
It
should be done after the arm is connected to the sub-frame and 
the
strut to get this done under 30 mins.

in another post you wrote:

> While the sway bar is off I thought I'd replace the bushings that
> clamp the sway bar to the body...the vertical links are fine, but
> it appears the bushes are a little "perished".
>
> Anyone have any recommendations on what I should install here?  Seems
> like an easy thing to do, and the time is right.

I don't know of any aftermarket replacement bushings you can use 
with
the stock bar. There may some available - I'm just not aware of 
them.
The bushings are relatively easy to replace with the rest of the 
front
end back together. Just remove the bolts that got through the 
rear of
the bushing clamps on both sides and the bar will drop away from 
the
mounting points and rest on the control arms. Putting it back 
together
(especially with new bushings) takes a little force, but is stil
do-able with the front end together and the car on the ground.

If, hovever, you are planning on replacing the front bar with a 
larger
aftermarket one, now is the time with both control arms off.

Hope this helps,
Evan '87 325