Just completed swap!! but front wheel not centered, what´s wrong ?? Please help!

[goarmy]

anyone figure out the lolipop bushings? or just moving it 10mm up top will do it all? while running e30 m3 lower bushing ( lolipop ) im running e36 bilsteins coil overs e36 m3 controll arm from a 96- up... and e36 hubs. with a e36 rackk.


i cut the towers out.. and moved them 1cm forward seemd to fix the problem..

There are these options

UUC:

http://store.uucmotorwerks.com/e30e36-conversion-fcab-brackets-pair-left--right-p1329.aspx

OR

EBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E30-Z3-3...RV1bb-&vxp=mtr

[b1gturbo]

anyone figure out the lolipop bushings? or just moving it 10mm up top will do it all? while running e30 m3 lower bushing ( lolipop ) im running e36 bilsteins coil overs e36 m3 controll arm from a 96- up... and e36 hubs. with a e36 rackk.


i cut the towers out.. and moved them 1cm forward seemd to fix the problem..

[SA E30]

I took them off a E36 328i Group N car. It was running 900lbs front springs.





I have checked the valving on them and they are spot on for a 800-1100lbs spring range.



Don't mind the roll centre spacer it was just a mock up version... Actually don't mind anything as most of it has been changed since then.

[Aptyp]

i think South Africa saw a lot of different variants of BMWs. Post up pics of what you got.

[SA E30]

Just out of interest those front damper's looks like the exact same housing as my BMW E36 328i Group N BMW Motorsport/Sachs Dampers.

Do you have the part no. from them by any chance?

[Fair!]

The only problem is that this will screw up your caster even more. The wheel will be more centered, but caster will suck.

Yea, we will try to adjust out some of the massive positive caster at the top.

[Aptyp]

that's the way BMW engineers took care of the issue on all e36s. They moved strut tower forward on otherwise identical design to e30. So I feel like caster is perfectly fine, but I understand what you mean.

[2002maniac]

Moving strut mount forward make surprisingly a big difference. Moving up top by 10mm still move wheel hub about 6mm forward. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it really does look much better. This is because you're pivoting entire strut assembly over the outer ball joint. I also imagine that it would help reduce bump steer, because tie-rod also moves lower (but only by 1-2mm).

The only problem is that this will screw up your caster even more. The wheel will be more centered, but caster will suck.

[Aptyp]

We are looking at making new Lower Control Arms to fix this without the need to go to M3 spindles/rotors/calipers. For our project, which has a strict budget ($2010 GRM Challenge), we cannot afford to buy the M3 spindle or brakes.

Great pics, first of all. I was wondering how e46 control arms compared to the rest and was looking for one in scrap bins for almost a year.


Moving strut mount forward make surprisingly a big difference. Moving up top by 10mm still move wheel hub about 6mm forward. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it really does look much better. This is because you're pivoting entire strut assembly over the outer ball joint. I also imagine that it would help reduce bump steer, because tie-rod also moves lower (but only by 1-2mm).

Any ideas on what will you guys do about control arms? Going group-A sounded excessive to me. I was thinking of modifying spindle itself by welding ball joint connection 10mm further out, but I don't have a lot of faith in my welding abilities on forged spindles. What do you have in mind?

[Fair!]

Just wanted to thank Aptyp for spreading good tech about this swap. We were doing an E36 front suspension swap onto an E30, following bad tech from elsewhere, and thankfully found his threads here on R3vlimited and in his tech article.


All of the E30 and E36 non-M LCAs were identical. Only the '96-99 M3 LCA has any more spindle offset

The '96-99 M3 LCAs do indeed have more forward offset to the spindle mount, but its not enough to fix what's wrong with the E36 spindle/strut on an E30. You do need the E36 M3 spindles, too.


Left: E36 non-M spindles, E30 LCAs, offset LCA bushings. Right: With the addition of '96 M3 LCAs its better...

With E36 non-M spindles, '95 M3 offset LCA bushings, and '96 M3 LCAs this is where we're at. We still need to move the wheel forward, so we are looking at alternatives to the E36 M3 spindles.

drill new holes for your strut mounts 10mm in front of stock holes. Nothing really complicated. Measure enough times to be damn sure to drill once.

Are you talking about in the strut tower itself? That won't move the wheel forward by much, will it?

We are looking at making new Lower Control Arms to fix this without the need to go to M3 spindles/rotors/calipers. For our project, which has a strict budget ($2010 GRM Challenge), we cannot afford to buy the M3 spindle or brakes.

[Aptyp]

Yep VERY good price on the spindles ^ !!

Been thinking about it, but I would also need a long list of items... M3 rotors, calipers, brackets, struts, springs.... $$ !

I´m considering Aptyp´s advice about moving the strut mounts forward 10mm.. will take a look this weekend... if my kids allow time....

If you follow my advice and you have a strut bar, make sure it will all work together. I ran into that problem and had to shave part of tower's rim to still have strut bar mount.

[BigD]

You're right but you could also consider it a brake upgrade. ;)

[atmosferas]

Yep VERY good price on the spindles ^ !!

Been thinking about it, but I would also need a long list of items... M3 rotors, calipers, brackets, struts, springs.... $$ !

I´m considering Aptyp´s advice about moving the strut mounts forward 10mm.. will take a look this weekend... if my kids allow time....

[BigD]

For the OP with the wheel set back, you need 1996-1999 e36M3 lower control arms ONLY. Nothing else will work.

I did everything I read, E30M3 offset bushings, E36M3 96+ control arms

Clearly not. Get E36 M3 spindles too like Aptyp said and stop guessing. He's tried every combination, unlike some others. His information is confirmed by a local E30 racecar builder here, who uses 96+ M3 control arms AND spindles and his cars come out with the wheels centered. You can get the spindles new from Bimmerworld right now for 70 bucks for the pair.

[Aptyp]

http://r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=114635
you're a moron. take it down a notch. MY THREAD actually.

used an e30 Koni insert without taking any travel away or elongating the strut. I hate people that think there is one way to do things.

In the interest of not seeing blind following Ray Charles. I read that thread, I posted in it, I had EXACTLY the same plan and there's a reason I made my own thread instead of bumping and crapping on that one:

A. in that thread, video shows how to install e36 koni into e36 housing. Nothing special. Every shop that has ever installed konis into an e36 has done exactly that. Look at that Koni sliding in and being held by the bolt, because it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of that clown's thread.

B. As I was saying after doing a lot of research:

taken from e30tech member, illustrates difference in height between stock e30 strut insert (long one) and IX/Corrado/Camaro insert (short one). Look at this joker's thread and decide for your self whether he used stock-height Koni e30 inserts or Koni's from GC kit that are in fact short ones.

To reiterate what I am saying... Stock height e30 strut inserts are TOO LONG to install into e36 housings. I used iX ones, part number P36-0251. As I welded my struts together, I used as little of a spacer I could to give shock the most travel and still have H&R Race slightly compressed when bolted down. With all that my spacer was 2.25" that is 57mm. If I would have installed a 92mm spacer, my billies would ride on bump stops at all times.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=139412

So the only response I'd take to all this would be a pic of length of his strut insert, or pic of the part number on the insert, or pic of the shock travel from grand nut to mount. Either one of those 3 options would deduce an answer.


I still want to see GC's (Jay's) solution, but since I haven't seen it, I can't say anything about it. I keep hearing about a miracle fix, but just haven't seen it. It's possible they figured something out that I haven't tried.


I'll have side shot of my car up shortly, I need to put control arms back on. I had a few things to redo. Been working on clearing shop space to work inside and NC's mild winter is turning out to be not so mild. But I have been adding updates to my thread with pics whenever I get a chance.