Z3 rack is in!!

[nickmp0wer]

I just got done installing the z3 steering rack into my 91 318is. I kept the airbag column and everything. While i cannot drive it becasue im in the middle of replacing some gaskets and stuff, i am still excited. here are some pics

linkage isnt in for the final time becasue im going to repalce the plastic ring that goes around the column, but trust me, i've test fitted it eleventybillion times



here is the new adapter plate that has to me made, this one was just a mockup



here is some of the firewall grinding thats nessary



here is the linkage im using, though a stock airbag linkage will work just as well. I modified it for the reasons seen here http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=62167

[Digitalwave]

Hey ballsack, I thought you had to sell your cars. That was such a tease.

[parkerbink]

Is he still here?

[DEV0 E30]

Test it driving already.

And where did you get your rack?

[nickmp0wer]

I got the rack off some place from car-part.com. $110 shipped for one with like 60k and one bent inner tie rod

[Jordan]

You know BMW completely does not recommend you reuse a rack that has been involved in any front end accident right?

You can't test drive it because you are a hack, and the engine doesn't run anymore lol.

[nickmp0wer]

why is that? do they also recomend that a new almost thousand dollar one is purchased from them? I understand that it could be harmed, but i checked it out and it is very nice and tight, and it didnt have a drop of fluid in the boots.

And i would call your way of doing the install by taking mismatched splines and hammering them together and hoping that it holds in a customers car pretty hackish

[Jordan]

I didn't say thats what I did on the customers car.

Thats what I told YOU to do.

[nickmp0wer]

well, how did you do it then?

edit: i just remembered this thread

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=55088&highlight=airbag+steering+rack

[2002maniac]

Jordan's the hack!

[nickmp0wer]

and the moment you've been waiting for...

yes i saftey wired everything. I dont think its possible to be too careful when dealing with things like steering. Although the wire around the joints was definatly not nessary, it can hurt.





the z3 rack was a was a little wider then the e30 one, but i should be able to do that at home, by simply adjusting the tie rods the same number of turns in, until toe in of 1/8 or whatever is achieved

[CarsSuck]

Test Drive!!!

[Digitalwave]

You ARE getting it aligning at a shop, right?

[nickmp0wer]

the car was perfetly alighened before. The Z3 rack is just a little wider. It has a boot on the spines that tells where the center is. I locked the steering wheel perfectly straight, so now it just has the same amount of toe out on both sides. If I move the tie rods an equal number of turns in, until the desired toe in is achieved, then it should be perfect, or at least close to it. If its not i will get it alighened. Im going to do it sometime soon anyways when i get suspension and some new tie rods

[nickmp0wer]

oh, and if anyone wants to buy an adapter plate for the firewall with step by step insturctions let me know