Gabriel's 86 325es

[rightcoastbias]

Thank you for the help.

Well, i know for a fact that I had the exact same issue as you and when I did the mess under the intake and replaced all the crapped out vacuum hoses (there are alot more than you can see) I now idle great, and has no restart issues.
Sounds like this will be next on my list.

Be extremely careful when pressing the ball joints. Do your best to make a proper shaped tool for this job, and try to align the balljoints properly so they grab "new meat" when pressed in.
Planning to use a BJ press set and some sockets. What do you mean "New meat?"

Know anyone who can put a tack weld on them to hold it?
Sounds like a good idea, except if they fail.
I was going to go this way until I really studied them and found the FCP arms at their price (remember I have a 40,000 sq ft machine shop at my disposal)...Also a word to caution, any FCP branded item with splines (aka your ball joints) will likely fail..haha Hooray, we will see how these splines hold up. I found the $80/CA pair after I ordered the $60 in BJ's. I assume the BJ's are the same. My understanding is strength of the splines will only be important in tightening the selflocking nut and daily cycles. Prepressed or DIY, they should fail the same.their strut tops are garbage and I had to go back to stock up front as the studs failed and started spinning as i was bolting them into the car...

I assume the Control Arm's bore for the ball joints are out of round from wear and removal. I plan to burn and press out the old BJs. Heat the control arm again for expansion before pressing the new BJs. I hope the heat cycles don't ruin em.

I have heard loose ball joints may wiggle out of the Control Arm after loaded. I hope mine install snug.

Also, the car came with a receipt indicating the timing chain was replaced in the last 100k. The chain is loud while the car is warming up. Does this indicate the tensioner cylinder needs to be replaced? Is the tensioner actuated by oil pressure?

[JoeyBones]

truthfully for the effort and risk involved, i'd return the bj's and pick up the arms... if you're going cheap, 80 is still REALLY cheap..lol. the ball joints are not all the same, the inners are different from the outer... you'll need a total of 4.

when i refer to new meet, the outside of the balljoint will have some splines on it to dig into the arm...i hope they are of higher quality than the crap that was on the strut tops. They are basically the only thing holding the ball joint in...

Either way, hang in there as I hope to start working on a solution for us all with this problem!

Your chain is noisy? How'd you diagnose it? You sure it's not your valves? You may need an adjustment. If someone changed the chain and left the tensioner they were a complete moron.

[freeride53]

Wait, who owns this car now? It says sold in your sig gabe?

[rightcoastbias]

truthfully for the effort and risk involved, i'd return the bj's and pick up the arms... if you're going cheap, 80 is still REALLY cheap..lol. Considering it. the ball joints are not all the same, the inners are different from the outer... you'll need a total of 4.
Yes, 2 inner, 2 outer. I was referring to the $80 CA's having the same brand BJ's I have sitting in a box in my garage.

when i refer to new meet, the outside of the balljoint will have some splines on it to dig into the arm...i hope they are of higher quality than the crap that was on the strut tops. They are basically the only thing holding the ball joint in...
Few automotive friends say they haven't had a problem with URO ball joint and other URO parts.

Either way, hang in there as I hope to start working on a solution for us all with this problem!

Your chain is noisy? How'd you diagnose it? You sure it's not your valves? You may need an adjustment. M42 lifters are hydraulic. Hydraulic lifters are not adjustable. This indicates:
A: Something is wrong with tensioner/chain/guides.
B: 5w-40 is not the correct oil for the M42?
If someone changed the chain and left the tensioner they were a complete moron.

Wait, who owns this car now? It says sold in your sig gabe?

My younger brother currently owns the 1986 325es.

I need to create a new thread or get the title changed.

I installed the new wheel bearing tonight. The noise is gone.

I've heard people complaining about the difficulty of installing the bearing on to the spindle. An hour before starting the install, set an ice pack on the front spindle a set the bearing in front of a ceramic space heater. My infrared thermometer indicated my spindle was ~77deg and inner race was ~160deg. Cooling shrinks the spindle and heating expands the bearing.

[rightcoastbias]

:D Cheap dirty car gets cheap dirty paint.