Updates...
First, a little press for my website:
Next, we'll get out of the way that I helped Irish44j snag a new project this weekend. Good news was that all ended well, but the bad news was that the CPS on the truck is not working well and it was a hard-start that morning. Then we got there and one of the tires on the dolly was just about flat (they both have severe dryrot)...and we both forgot to bring compressors. We limped to a gas station and aired up. Time to order new tires to the tune if $170.
1977 320i, manual trans slicktop with manual windows. Looks to me nearly all original (we brought the bottlecaps with us)
Nice little car. It looks way worse than it actually is. All the rust is superficial, solid floor pan, perfect trunk floor. He plans to pulled the tired motor and do an M42 swap, but overall this is a great car.
Now the real stuff.
After dealing with all of the rear suspension over the last 2 weekends it was time to do a little work on the front. I had installed the OE Sports and StopTech SS lines in the back and wanted to match them up with the fronts before next weekend's race and figured that while I was in there I'd replace my worn out front upper strut mounts/bearings. I had bought the replacement parts months ago and just now got around to having an excuse to install them.
One of the biggest headaches during the build of my '88 was the removal of the ball joints from the hub/strut assembly. It took several days and resulted in the destruction of the outer ball joint son the control arms and the replacement of both those and the tie rods. Major $$$ that I did not want to spend.
On this car, the joints are passable on the control arms and were quite solid on the tie rods (though I have replacements for both- just not the time to install right now). For that reason, I wanted to save them, if possible.
I had seen that HF sells a ball joint remover tool that looks promising, so on my last trip there I grabbed one. The concept is simple- attach it to the ball joint and increase tension against the top of the ball joint to press it out of the knuckle, tapping the knuckle as you increase pressure. The tool looks like this:
After 15-20 minutes (combined) on both sides, the results were this:
Worked great, with no damage to the ball joints. This was about a $10 tool that saved a ton of time, money, and headaches. My only complaint is that the threaded portion of the tool has fine threads that are not too solid- they began to strip after 4 applications of load. I plan to buy another one and maybe replacement bolts to use in the forged housing. For the cost, I'll keep a spare on-hand.
Next up was rotor removal. Of course, while the allen head rotor screws on the rear came right out, the fronts were stripped. I dried to drill them all of the way out but it was not happening.
Made one solid shot on each rotor and the material broke off to remove the rotor:
Vicegrips did the rest, so when I replace the rotors I can replace the screws and have them fully functional, if I decide to use the set screws again.
New SS lines:
Painted the dust shields (why not?):
Rusted OEM springs and busted ("perished" as Edd would say) upper mounts:
H&R OE Sports and new upper mounts:
A few shots on the car:
I still need to bleed the brakes but I don't have a Motive and I was without a helper yesterday.
Last thing for yesterday was getting the HVAC control panel back in the car. I broke mine pulling the dash for the cage so I had to snag one off of here.
That is it for now.
First, a little press for my website:
Next, we'll get out of the way that I helped Irish44j snag a new project this weekend. Good news was that all ended well, but the bad news was that the CPS on the truck is not working well and it was a hard-start that morning. Then we got there and one of the tires on the dolly was just about flat (they both have severe dryrot)...and we both forgot to bring compressors. We limped to a gas station and aired up. Time to order new tires to the tune if $170.
1977 320i, manual trans slicktop with manual windows. Looks to me nearly all original (we brought the bottlecaps with us)
Nice little car. It looks way worse than it actually is. All the rust is superficial, solid floor pan, perfect trunk floor. He plans to pulled the tired motor and do an M42 swap, but overall this is a great car.
Now the real stuff.
After dealing with all of the rear suspension over the last 2 weekends it was time to do a little work on the front. I had installed the OE Sports and StopTech SS lines in the back and wanted to match them up with the fronts before next weekend's race and figured that while I was in there I'd replace my worn out front upper strut mounts/bearings. I had bought the replacement parts months ago and just now got around to having an excuse to install them.
One of the biggest headaches during the build of my '88 was the removal of the ball joints from the hub/strut assembly. It took several days and resulted in the destruction of the outer ball joint son the control arms and the replacement of both those and the tie rods. Major $$$ that I did not want to spend.
On this car, the joints are passable on the control arms and were quite solid on the tie rods (though I have replacements for both- just not the time to install right now). For that reason, I wanted to save them, if possible.
I had seen that HF sells a ball joint remover tool that looks promising, so on my last trip there I grabbed one. The concept is simple- attach it to the ball joint and increase tension against the top of the ball joint to press it out of the knuckle, tapping the knuckle as you increase pressure. The tool looks like this:
After 15-20 minutes (combined) on both sides, the results were this:
Worked great, with no damage to the ball joints. This was about a $10 tool that saved a ton of time, money, and headaches. My only complaint is that the threaded portion of the tool has fine threads that are not too solid- they began to strip after 4 applications of load. I plan to buy another one and maybe replacement bolts to use in the forged housing. For the cost, I'll keep a spare on-hand.
Next up was rotor removal. Of course, while the allen head rotor screws on the rear came right out, the fronts were stripped. I dried to drill them all of the way out but it was not happening.
Made one solid shot on each rotor and the material broke off to remove the rotor:
Vicegrips did the rest, so when I replace the rotors I can replace the screws and have them fully functional, if I decide to use the set screws again.
New SS lines:
Painted the dust shields (why not?):
Rusted OEM springs and busted ("perished" as Edd would say) upper mounts:
H&R OE Sports and new upper mounts:
A few shots on the car:
I still need to bleed the brakes but I don't have a Motive and I was without a helper yesterday.
Last thing for yesterday was getting the HVAC control panel back in the car. I broke mine pulling the dash for the cage so I had to snag one off of here.
That is it for now.
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