Trailing link install question

[Pablo M]

1 hour ago, uai said:

It looks as if you have the "offset" Sandwich plate. You could just use 1 original screw each side at that place and avoid interference with the radius arm.

And usually the sandwich plates go together with a lowered car with shorter / shortened dampers.

Interesting. Didn’t think the original hardware was long enough. I’ll check that out. And correct, my car is lowered on IE stage 2 springs and Bilstein shocks. 
 

 

2 hours ago, tech71 said:

Hope so, that balljoint is nasty, seems pointless to do the other work and leave that in the car.

Not too expensive unless you insist on OE BMW.

$60 will buy two 2 Delphi (an oem) brand on Ebay.

I would call that "mission creep" worth dealing with now.

Ok, point taken lol. The tie rods can come later and are easy to install. I’ll wait till car is running so I can take it for alignment at that time lol. 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Pablo M

['76mintgrün'02]

15 minutes ago, Pablo M said:

The tie rods can come later and are easy to install. I’ll wait till car is running so I can take it for alignment at that time lol. 

 

The only adjustable aspect of the alignment is toe-in and you can do that yourself.  It's easy and quite satisfying.

 

 

 

 

[uai]

45 minutes ago, Pablo M said:

Interesting. Didn’t think the original hardware was long enough. I’ll check that out. And correct, my car is lowered on IE stage 2 springs and Bilstein shocks. 

These won't work with original screws

These will work with original screws where you're having the contact problem

 

And springs don't change the daper length or rebound

[Pablo M]

1 hour ago, uai said:

These won't work with original screws

These will work with original screws where you're having the contact problem

 

And springs don't change the daper length or rebound

Gotcha. I have the offset ones and I see your point about why that one bolt location will work with original. I’ll replace it. 
 

And you mentioned these were for lowered cars and I was simply confirming the car was lowered. 

[uai]

7 hours ago, Pablo M said:

And you mentioned these were for lowered cars and I was simply confirming the car was lowered. 

I still think there will be contact.
I mentioned lowered with shorter dampers. So when you're off the ground and your dampers are not shorter your strut will be effectively longer by the thickness of the sandwich plate thus reducing the angle between radius arm and the strut.

[Pablo M]

On 10/17/2023 at 9:41 AM, tech71 said:

please do, I'm still trying to figure out what a "trailing link" is

Also, have you tried  rotating the front end through its steering travel with those non stock allen bolts installed at lower strut attach to make sure they clear the control arms? Pretty tight in there.

Do it with weight on wheels and off. 

Sorry for the delay. Been dealing with other things on this car. Got it back up in the air to install a sway bar and do the washers on those arms. Here are photos of the ends. 
My concern is that the right side has excess at the control arm end, so the cotter pin holes are too far out to work, and the left side is the opposite, with the chassis mounted end having this condition. 

Does this mess up the alignment? 
 

Left/driver side

chassis mount/control arm mount. 

 

Right side:

control arm/chassis mount. 

 

these are the trailing links I’m referring to:

[TobyB]

what we're missing is the other side ("inside")of each 'tension rod' end connection. 

All 4 of them should have sleeves in them

for the nuts to clamp down on.  And all 4 of them get big fat washers on both sides.

In the rubber world, that sleeve's part of the bushing, and the washers are limiters.

In the plastic world, the sleeve is removable, and the washers are beefy and provide all the 

longitundinal location.

 

Hate to say it, but you're probably going to have to take things at least partially apart and measure

them to see what's different.  You're either missing an inner washer, sleeve, or one of the sleeves are too short.

(assuming you're using plastic, which it looks like you are)

 

t

elastically yours.

[Pablo M]

2 hours ago, TobyB said:

what we're missing is the other side ("inside")of each 'tension rod' end connection. 

All 4 of them should have sleeves in them

for the nuts to clamp down on.  And all 4 of them get big fat washers on both sides.

In the rubber world, that sleeve's part of the bushing, and the washers are limiters.

In the plastic world, the sleeve is removable, and the washers are beefy and provide all the 

longitundinal location.

 

Hate to say it, but you're probably going to have to take things at least partially apart and measure

them to see what's different.  You're either missing an inner washer, sleeve, or one of the sleeves are too short.

(assuming you're using plastic, which it looks like you are)

 

t

elastically yours.

Yes, these are all urethane bushings and the metal sleeves are installed inside them. I have all the big washers installed, per parts diagram and how they came out. 
I’ll take it back apart as I think one or two of the cupped washers are in backwards. That might be enough to mess it up. 
Thanks.