steering and suspension Stuck strut and a big shout out to South Austin's Vintage Bimmers !!

[zinz]

I spent several days off working on the '75's front suspension...ball joints, new lower control arms, new bushings, center link, ST springs, ST bar, brakes...am I forgetting something?? ...oh yeah, while it was in the air, I put in Blunt's shifter rebuild kit.  All in the crisp Texas summer chill of 104...masochist, right??

 

Anyways...everything went about as good as could be.  A few hiccups, but nothing serious.  Even the ball joint castle nuts spun right off and fell apart with two whacks of a BFH. ...it was allllll too easy.  

 

I pulled the old KYB strut cartridges and cleaned out the tubes.  I drop in a Bilstein HD and "thunk"...doesn't bottom out. Hmmm... clean some more, still no-go. Try the other side... same issue.  "Must be grungy at the bottom", I think.  I soaked them for a couple hours and scraped the insides with a metal pipe.  Bingo.. right side drops right in. Move to the left strut.   Drop the Bilstein and "THUNK"... doesn't bottom out, but it's closer... but it's stuck.  I'm about 6 hours in the heat at this point and was short on patience.  I give it a good whack thinking it will go on down.  WRONG.  Now it's REALLY STUCK and at least an inch or two short of where it needs to be.  Super.

 

 

I text some pictures around to folks like Daron, Ray and my local go-to, Brandon at Terry Sayther's Vintage Bimmers. Lots of helpful hints but this Bilstein is home to stay. Brandon says bring it down in the morning and they'll see what they can do.

 

Bright and early, I trudge through a gritty, cross-city commute to South Austin in morning rush hour to Terry's shop. We vice up the strut and tweak it this way and that... Brandon grabs a straight edge and lays it across the back of the spindle housing and over the tube...the tube was bent...hence the reason it got stuck. We hash it over and I left it to them to do what they could to salvage the Bilstein, but the strut was not worth saving.

 

Later that afternoon Brandon text's me a picture of some precision die-grinder work which freed the Bilstein to live another day. Only a little yellow paint was scratched.  Nice work!!

 

 

I just made the trip back to their shop at lunch and they had a couple used replacement strut housings for me to choose from.  We picked the one with the best looking spindle and I was back in business.  

 

These guys are great.. Seriously good folks, who appreciate hard work and understand the troubles that can befall a weekend, garage wrencher.  Brandon has always been there with a helpful hint and time-saving tip for whatever '02 fix I'm dealing with.  

 

Here's the Vintage Bimmers' crew... Riah, Paul, and Brandon with one of probably 1/2 dozen '02s being serviced... two M20 swap cars are just about to hit the road!

 

 

Thanks again, guys.  Y'all got my project back on-line and I can finally get this Squaretail off the jack stands.

 

If you FAQers are in Austin, you really need to stop by and talk with Terry, Brandon, and the whole Vintage Bimmer crew.  Heck, sign up for their newsletter... http://vintagebimmers.com/  Terry sponsors a couple of drives per year, too....

 

Have a Blessed day, y'all,

 

Ed Z

 

 

 

[rgiles675]

Getting ready to tackle a similar situation. Glad you got it resolved! Let me know how she handles after all the upgrades!

[zinz]

I just replied to your thread!

 

Yep, except for the one stumbling block, my project went pretty well.  Good luck with yours!  PM me if you get stuck...since it's all fresh on my mind.

 

Note... the ball joints don't come with bolts/nuts.  Try to find the best grade hardware you can.  I used Home Depot bolts and nyloc nuts...I went to torque one down and stripped the bolt. Cheap crap...

 

Ed

[skipsfcr]

Ed, you are a glutton for punishment...building a suspension on the surface of the sun. Glad the guys at Terry's were able to help you save your strut cartridge. Great folks for sure!

[rgiles675]

Ed I just ordered those bushings and I think Blunt will have them to me by Saturday. If not I have a lot of other projects I can tackle. One thing I will do in the near future is Sprints and struts. Let me know how yours ride when you get it on the road.

[creede]

Yeah, those guys are all the best. Glad you were able to get it all sorted out!