Z4 non powered steering rack fits e30

[Wanganstyle]

I think reman'd units are fine. Especially for a manual rack.

I got the Z4 steering shaft in today and decided to chop it up. Heres what I found.

Outer plastic shield removed


Quickly learned it doesn't come apart unless you make this cut. There are little tangs crimped over the hole holding the ball bearings inside from falling out. Cutting the female part of the shaft here allowed me to see what was going on inside.



Here is what is inside



The male section also has a small clip holding the bearings from sliding off that end



The clip is easily removed to give access to the ball bearing assembly.



Ball bearing size in case you decide to fill the grooves with solid rod like wanganstyle



Depending on how short the shaft needs to be will determine what I do with mine. Either keep the telescoping ability or weld it together. I think keeping the bearing assembly inside is just fine. Whether the shaft is 8" long or 3" long, the same amount of bearings are holding the shaft together.

Thanks for discussing this.
I am not a welder; I cut it apart similar to you and then had a local fabrication shop handle the shortening.

With 215mm front tyres it's ok around town


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[89325iturbo]

Ordered my rack and steering shaft. Should be able to do some work on it this weekend. By the looks of it the steering shafts seems to be cut down to only a couple inches plus the length of the u joints

[89325iturbo]

Got my rack, and fitted it up today. Pretty straight forward, went with e36 tierod ends.
Few pics

[89325iturbo]

Cut the plastic cover down and zip tied it back over.

[jwal]

Where did you order your rack and steering shaft from?

[89325iturbo]

3

[89325iturbo]

Sorry for the upside down pics. I haven't put it back on the ground to get a fee, also will need an alignment.
The rack I ordered from LKQ. The steering shaft from ebay.

[jwal]

I'll have to check with LKQ and other dismantlers in my neck of the woods to see what I can find. Did LKQ not sell the steering shaft?

[89325iturbo]

They might sell it by calling, and checking. By just looking it up they didn't have it listed. But might just be one of those things they don't list.

[jwal]

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. Either way I need to do some more research seeing as I have an airbag car and the spline count and location of the joint is different. Might just end up swapping the steering column.

[jwal]

Just to err on the side of caution, I will ask: Has anyone with an airbag column performed this swap yet?

[jwal]

I have done some research and using the Z4 steering shaft is not an ideal choice for airbag cars, as this would result in 3 u-joints being present in the steering system. This would add unnecessary and undesirable degrees of freedom to the system.

[jwal]

I have located a rack that is semi-local and will be picking that up as soon as possible. Once I have the rack I can throw it in the bay and see how much space is available and what options are available for airbag cars.

[jph]

I have located a rack that is semi-local and will be picking that up as soon as possible. Once I have the rack I can throw it in the bay and see how much space is available and what options are available for airbag cars.

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Awesome. I just picked up an airbag car and already had a Z4 rack that I was planning to use in my non-airbag sedan but never got around to installing. Interested to hear about your findings with the airbag steering column. Thanks for taking the plunge :)

[Brian7]

3

DRIVE IT!! I haven't had a chance to get mine in yet but I'm curious how it feels around town.