iX Rebuild

[Chruby99]

So got my beamer just about a year ago. I ran into some problems on an out of town trip and now I have to replace a rod bearing. My iX has been out of commission for a few months and I am now getting into tearing it down and rebuilding the motor. So my plan is to drop the motor out the bottom with the transmission and transfercase attached. I bought a pallet jack to move this thing around on. This should be a very slow moving thread as I have a little on and another on the way. I decided to take lots of pics so mabee i can help a few people out. I have already pulled the rear drive shaft so that it could tow the car on a dolly, Yes it can be done, but it was a pain in the ass to do in my mothers front yard. So I started by pulling the exhaust. I unbolted it from the exhaust manifold, transfercase. I removed the muffler straps and pulled the rubber doughnut hangers. I taped off the manifold flange to keep critters out. As you can see My work shop is not indoors

The heat shields seperate the exhaust from the drive shaft. The drive shaft has a colapsable section. I was going to leave the driveshaft attached to the transfercase for to tow, but feared it would slide out and hit the input flange on the rear end. I unbolted the shaft from the guido, but left the guido bolted to the transfer case rear output flange.

[Chruby99]

Now I will start to remove the front suspension. I will start by removing the front wheels to acces the safety nut/crown nut thingy that secures the axle nuts. Then you throw the wheels back on set the car down and get the big breaker bar out. 30mm thinwall socket works best. I have this old 20 ton jack that I bust out for this. I line up the extension thru the jack to keep square on the nut and not to round off the nut. This thing torqued to 300lb or something really tight. I use my thule rectangular bar cut offs to some extra persuasion on my biggest breaker bar.

[Chruby99]

My plan is to remove the front suspension and pull the axles. I will disconnect the sway bar from the links, remove the brake calliper, rotors, abs sensors, and pull the dust sheild so I can get clearance to use the tie rod puller. I will upbolt the lolipops, inner ball joint and strut bearing plates. I am pulling the assembly as one piece. I am planning to address these later. My struts are shot and the inner balljoints are a little worn.

[Chruby99]

So hang the calipers off to the side so you dont get air in the brakes, It is much easier to bleed the system when you are not trying to get air out of the caliper.Now remove the dust plate so you can pull the tie rod end off the spindle. And then remove the abs sensor

[Chruby99]

I now finish unbolting the inner ball joint.

With the lolipop, inner ball joint and strut bearing unbolted I push the axleshaft into the axle bearing and remove the lower control arm and strut assembly as 1 piece.

Now you can pull the halfshaft. It takes a little tug or I use a flat head screwdriver to pop it from the axle

[Chruby99]

Now this must be done on the other side.

After that I can set the front end on the pallet.

Check out this stance

[Chruby99]

Now with the car set on the pallet. I unbolt the front cross member. Then I unbolt the transmission crossmember. I can now start disconnecting all the wires and hoses. Pull the air meter and intake boot. I disconnect the transmission shifter cable (autotragic) Remove the vacuum line from the brake booster. I drain the radiator. Remove radiator hoses,hearer core hoses. I un plug the oil level sensor, oil pressure sensor, remove the cps. Disconnect wiring from the alternator, starter. Disconnect the power steering resivoir from the strut tower.


Disconnect the steering coupler from the rack and unbolt the grounding strap

[Chruby99]

Now I can start jacking the car off the motor.




Now I can slide the motor out


Man the drive assembly is huge for such a little car

[dogsbark26]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. What interior?

[Chruby99]

My car came with tan interior and blue carpet. Weird iX specific carpet and the tan heated comfort seat was iX due to drivers adjuster. I took my new interior out of an 87i It is a little dirty in the pics, but I scored a clean interior. Rear headrest. and it matches the original carpet

[dogsbark26]

Niiiice.

How are carpet and drivers adjuster different in iX? I was unaware. Mine had sport seats when I bought it but I always felt "offset" (steering wheel was not directly in front of me) so I replaced with comforts out of another iX. I keep thinking someday I'll look at the sliders to see how they are different / if they can be switched. AFAIK sedans always had comfort seats.

I didn't notice yours was a sedan in your post but now I see it in your avatar. Mine is an '89.

[Chruby99]

The only thing that I know of that makes it iX specific is the offset seat adjustment lever. It looks a little longer and is bent with 2 45's to clear the hump for the transfer case. I bent the lever on the i seats with a pair of box end wrenches. It sits a little further back but operates fine. I am hanging on the the iX seats until I figure out how to remove the tracks and swap them on my new seats.

[Chruby99]

Carpet is the same A hump on the drivers side tunnel for the transfer case.

I will post some pictures of the seat lever soon

[95BMWIC]

Just wanted to let you know this is a great post.

I have a 325ix with the front driveshaft sitting in the trunk when I bought it.... Now I am just spending some quality time (and money) getting all the bugs out..

Timing belt was done, now I am working on axle shafts a and axle shaft boot replacement.. next is front drive shaft... to see how the VC is..

Thanks for the pics..

[litu]

Nice project