E36 M3 upper strut bearings

[bimmer630]

Does the offset upper strut bearing for an E36 M3/Mcoupe fit on an E30?
I just did a 5 lug swap and i used M3 struts with my E30 drop springs and factory E30 strut bearings. I didnt even try to use the E36 m3 upper bearing because i didnt even think it would fit.. but looking around on Ireland engineerings' site, they offer an upper camber plate similar to the factory E36 m3 unit http://store.nexternal.com/shared/St...unt2=379142403

right now i am running -.01 camber up front and 8 degrees caster, i would like to be able to adjust both of these angles but adjustable upper plates are $$$$$$ and i have these M3 units just sitting around

[Aptyp]

they don't fit, bolt pattern is different. You could drill new holes in strut tower or relocate studs in the strut mount. Your choice.

[bimmer630]

yeah looks like its gonna be tough to drill the strut mounts in a way to make them useful.
if anybody on the board has done this can you post some info?


there is one guy with a 5 lug convertible, its got black motorsport rims, hes got the strut towers re-drilled, but i dunno if its a good idea to redrill the strut towers.. could cause cracks

[Mossman]

Yeah that's me. Don't have that many miles on them but no cracks so far, if they crack I'll weld it. I just eyeballed it to be honest and got pretty close, there isn't that big of a range it can go in, I went for max caster that wouldn't hit anything up under the strut tower. Also by the way use the R mount on the L and vice versa, get more negative camber that way.

I'm gonna make my own strut bar that will reinforce the strut tower sheet metal someday. Let me see if I can find a pic of the drill job though...

http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p256/mrmoskowitz/e30%20vert/?action=view&current=underhood.jpg

Note that one says L, it's before I swapped the plates right to left and put washers between the knuckle and the strut to get more camber. Caster was in spec but I had like 0 camber, looks like about 2* now. Car is off the road though, getting an S52 before I'll be able to drive it to firestone to make use of lifetime alignment