Arghhh!!!! HElp needed with front suspension on 87 E30

["Scott R. Olson" <scottolson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well,  today started extremely well.  Got up on time for work, got to drive
for a couple hours on the clock in my Recently lowered 87 325.  Air
condition does work, (I didn't know that one of the air paths had to be
fully selected).  I return to work to find my package from Bav Auto on my
desk.  New control arms, bushings, sway bars, and bilsteins.  Leave work
early and refreshed for a fun day in the garage.    Then everything went to
s**t.

The previous experience last weekend with the lowering springs allowed me to
breeze through the struts, off the car left with the apearance of a simple
task.  Remove the sway bars and the control arms.  I can see all the bolts
and there aren't too many of them.
Well, first The sway bar bushing clasp nut is so rusted on that all bolts
are rounded off now,  no big deal, I grab the grinder and set forth to cut
the bolt and replace with shiny new one,  no prob.  Except in my ignornace
in the use of power tools on my Beemer, I nick the vapor return line.  So I
temporarily patch the vapor return line, I'll fix htat later, and continue
on my task of sway bars.  Well,  a long story short,  four hours later there
is a totally mangled head of a bolt, no closer to removing itself, all the
main control arm bolts are spinning now, one of the control arm bushing
bolts busted (leaving about 3/4" of thread in the hole, and the darn sway
bar bushing is still not out.  (I won't mention what I did to the sway bar
to get it out of the way)  I finally gave up.  Score:  BMW 3, Scott 0.

So now the question.  The bolts and whatnot that aren't coming out is mearly
a job for a sawzall in the hands of Brennan my experienced Grinder/powerr
tool friend (his tools, he own a jeep and uses them all the time).  The
biggest problems now are

1.  The vapor return line.  Do I NEED to replace the whole line or is there
some sort of patching method that will suffice for a non-critical line such
as that (I imagine it is low pressure gas fumes so the only critical part is
htat it doesn't leak, and I don't set my car on fire.

2.  The busted control arm bushing bolt.  There are sleeves for the two
bolts that hold the control arm bushing in place.  If one of the bolts is
secure, how secure would the control arm be for minimal temporary driving?
(My guess is not at all)  Second, What is the preferred method of removing
something like that.  I imagine the first step is trying an easy-out.  The
second would be to drill-tap.  Any suggestions or ideas I may not know
about?

3.  This appears to be a bit down the road now, but putting bilsteins in the
front stut casings.  Is there a special tool to remove the old locking ring?
Is there a trick to getting the strut out of the casing (will it be a force
fit or rusted in place or should it slip out)?  What is the white plastic
piece supplied by Bilstein?  The bilstein instructions say to remove the old
bumper stop because the bilsteins have one built-in.  What are they
referring to there?

I guess my first indication of failure should have been when I decided it
was a good idea to use a grinder on an 87 BMW.  Thats what I get for hanging
around Jeep owners.

BTW I now have a used front sway bar for sale (In two pieces) $0.50 plus
shipping

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End of bmw-digest V9 #1151
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