How To Guide - E36 Steering Rack Swap

[RobertK]

If you are innovative enough I believe it's been mentioned before that you can reuse the old E30 HP hose instead of buying the E36 one.

[japspecvr6]

yea i think imma try that........i got a lil binding but imma grind it out.....

[japspecvr6]

:(

If you are innovative enough I believe it's been mentioned before that you can reuse the old E30 HP hose instead of buying the E36 one.

Damn........i alreay bought a e36 one..........

[japspecvr6]

........my shit looks jacked up......i used the e36 line but i didnt it at all......and the lines for my bottle i have to shorten.......I will Post pics Soon.....

[HST]

Shortening the bottle lines are no big deal, just be careful with the HP line.

[Zeoffry]

cool ...thanks for the write-up, I'm thinking while I have the engine out I might as well swap the rack to the e-36

[K V N]

Got one stupid question from a noobie. What is the purpose and advantage of doing this mod? Thanks

[mazur]

Got one stupid question from a noobie. What is the purpose and advantage of doing this mod? Thanks

Less turns lock-to-lock. Meaning better steering response.

[RobertK]

Less turns lock-to-lock. Meaning better steering response.

IMO it also gives the car the feel of what you would expect newer small cars to feel like instead of feeling like you're driving a 1980 Buick Regal.

[Erick]

Are the inner tie rods interchangeable in between the e30 and e36 (z3) racks??? I dont want to put my Z3 rack in if I am going to have less steering angle. :p

[backtrail69]

Are the inner tie rods interchangeable in between the e30 and e36 (z3) racks??? I dont want to put my Z3 rack in if I am going to have less steering angle. :p

You are going to want a 95 M3 rack, not a Z3 rack.... There is less travel on the z3 rack, but the same on the m3 rack.

[Erick]

Guess I gotta sell my z3 rack then.

[backtrail69]

Yea, there is 3 turns lock to lock on a M3 rack instead of 2.7..because that .3 of a turn is less travel, not a tighter ratio.

[Cm50]

Dammit! I already bought a Z3 rack.. Also, the spacers I bought from BMA using Ritalin Kid's parts list are too small, methinks. So are the mounts on the Z3 rack smaller than the mounts on the M3 rack?

[Cm50]

I just measured the difference and sure enough, the Z3 rack has approximately 0.5 inches less travel than the original E30 rack. ~5 5/8" vs 6 1/8".

Does anyone know how much of a turn radius difference this translates into? If it isn't too much I'll keep the Z3 rack, it isn't installed yet...

Colin