How To Guide - E36 Steering Rack Swap

[JGood]

Use heat. Tie rods always get MEGA rusted, but they look like they might yield to MAPP gas and a pipe wrench.

Yeah, normally I would. Unfortunately, the guy I split my garage with moved out, and took his torch with him. So now I need to purchase my own :???:

I figured it's easier/quicker to just swap tie rods. Then I don't need to worry about alignment either. My 87 tie rods are newer anyway.

[Wh33lhop]

If my tie rod is seized I'm just going to take it to an alignment shop. :p Is the E36 rack the same length as the E30 rack? I figured they'd be slightly different, so you couldn't just swap the tie rods and retain alignment. Bet you couldn't with the Z3 1.9 rack.

[TurboFox93]

I planning on doing my rack swap with an M50 engine swap.

Any idea on how to confirm what rack I have? Here are some pictures:








I was told the rack was a "M-Coupe/Roadster Steering rack (3.0 turns lock to lock).

I am just concerned about:

Which hoses will fit this rack and the power steering componets of a 92 NV M50?

Which tie rods would be ideal?

Are the rack/subframe spacers necessary for the M50?

Thanks for any input.

[JGood]

I had my e36 rack in before I did my m50 swap. I think all I had to do was reroute the lines slightly from the pump. Nothing you won't be able to figure out when you are installing them.

You can use e30 or e36 tie rods. If I were you, I'd use whichever set is in better condition. If you are ordering new, get whichever ones are cheaper. If they are the same, I guess get e36 tie rods, since from what I've seen, they look a little beefier.

Nothing changes as far as the rack mounting spacers. The rack bolts to the subframe. This has nothing to do with the engine. The subframe has 2 tabs, and the rack slides in between these tabs. A bolt goes through the rack and both tabs. The e36 rack is smaller, so the spacer takes up that room.

[JGood]

Turn the splined input shaft with your hand the whole way to one side, then count rotations while turning to the other side, until it stops. That's your "lock-to-lock" measurement.

Fluid will probably come out when you do this, BTW.

[TurboFox93]

Hey JGood, Thanks for Keeping It Simple :)

[arch4ngel]

Thanks for the write up Robert!

Installed a 99 m3 rack into an airbag car.
Ended up using 7 3/8" washers on each side, 3 below and 4 above.
Had to grind a small amount out of the firewall and loosen the mega nut under the pedals AND mess with the shaft for awhile before I could get it to move. (it's 32mm btw, I used the wrench for my fan clutch to get it off).
No bump steer or other steering weirdness.

Car feels amazing now, I can actually make u-turns plus the steering response is amazing.
It makes me wonder why BMW decided to use a 4.0 LTL rack in the first place...

This job would have been a major headache without this write up plus the comments about flipping the high pressure line 180 degrees and the washers. No bending needed.

[RobertK]

Wow..

I never imagined that this thread would still alive and kicking 3 years after I created it.

Good news is that I plan on making more spacers and start modifying pre-90 steering knuckles once I have my workshop finished. Right now my dad is living with me and I had to sacrifice my garage to build him a handicap accessible efficiency apartment.

[motorsports_3]

I have a few questions, sorry if they have been asked, but they may be lost somewhere in the 30pages of this thread.


Most of those nuts and bolts are just to replace the old ones, with the excepton of the bolt to hold the knuckle together, right?'


Edit: I just read all 30 pages and I feel like I know a lot more. I have two questions though.

What locking plates do you use, really what they?

Second, on an M50 swap from an e34 using e30 lines do I need to turn them 180 degrees, or mount them like stock.

[der affe]

i did the swap with a 95 M-3rack and one of silence's P/S delete blocks on my airbaged (removed) 91 325i.
it was a COMPLETE bolt in, NO knuckle mod at all, no firewall mod, no binding, stacked 7 washers on top of the rack inbetween the tabs and that was it.

set the toe at 1/16th in, tracks fine, it took a few days to get used to the no P/S but i can still turn it with one hand standing still.

i DID notice a big increase in power without the P/S pump, i don't know why because it does not rob THAT much power??? i did notice a big improvement though.

[Wh33lhop]

i did the swap with a 95 M-3rack and one of silence's P/S delete blocks on my airbaged (removed) 91 325i.
it was a COMPLETE bolt in, NO knuckle mod at all, no firewall mod, no binding, stacked 7 washers on top of the rack inbetween the tabs and that was it.

set the toe at 1/16th in, tracks fine, it took a few days to get used to the no P/S but i can still turn it with one hand standing still.

I did a '96 328i rack on an '87, just a little dremeling to fix very minor binding towards the top, no knuckle modifications beyond that.

I was thinking if you spaced the rack up instead of down it would possibly help combat bump steer, but I'm not sure how much clearance you have between the rack and the oil pan.

i DID notice a big increase in power without the P/S pump, i don't know why because it does not rob THAT much power??? i did notice a big improvement though.

Seriously? Maybe your fluid was just really old and shitty, making the pump have to work really hard?

It'd be interesting to see a before/after dyno, but I doubt there would be much of a difference if you had good fluid.

[der affe]

i doubt it was the fluid, it was leaking so bad that i had refill it once a week! (the rack was leaking not the lines or the pump).
maybe it works harder when there was low fluid or air present in the system.

it was a factory remanned rack from the dealer, installed by the po who worked at the dealer.

the power gain was weird though.

[Wh33lhop]

i doubt it was the fluid, it was leaking so bad that i had refill it once a week! (the rack was leaking not the lines or the pump).
maybe it works harder when there was low fluid or air present in the system.

it was a factory remanned rack from the dealer, installed by the po who worked at the dealer.

the power gain was weird though.

Regardless, I don't think the power gain would be that great. You may have had a fucked up pump or something.

[der affe]

i know, just one man's experence.

i though it was more interesting that i did not have to modify anything except the spacers on the top of the rack. no binding, no fire wall clearencing, nothing else.
if i had known it was going to be that easy, i would have done it months ago before it started to puke it's guts out!

[tjts1]

i DID notice a big increase in power without the P/S pump, i don't know why because it does not rob THAT much power??? i did notice a big improvement though.

+1
The power gain and throttle response is very noticeable especially at low RPMs where we do 90% of the driving. Also picked up an MPG or 2. I woudn't have a problem with PS if it was powered by an electric motor at 600 or 700rpm with a switch to turn it off when its not needed. But spinning the PS pump to 3000 or 6000rpm is totally unnecessary and just robs power. Most new cars have electric PS.