Time for an overhaul of my 1.9 '98 BMW Z3 Individual

[Matt Barnes]

Decided to jack her up a bit more.. (no HSE people on here are there ??)

Then soaked everything in dubs

so my plan is..... remove the exhaust; remove the 4 Prop shaft bolts; disconnect the Anti roll bar brackets; disconnect the brake line brackets; cut the handbrake cables; unclip the Diff speed sensor plug; disconnect the shocks; remove the diff mounting bolt, screws of Doom, subframe bolts.... then drop the lot.

 

[Matt Barnes]

so today was actually time to start getting stuff off.....even though it was hoofing it down.....first part was the exhaust... impact wasn't doing it..was starting to round the heads, so I resorted to manual labour..

it did put up a fight but I eventually got it onto the deck

right.....I got the spare wheel carrier off ...but ..stupid Question No.53.... how do you get the bloody thing off the car !?...it's swinging in the breeze at the moment... not sure how you disconnect the cable

spare wheel has definitely had it !!!

Thought I'd start my rust collection !!

quite clean under there considering how bad the components are !!

Diff mounting bolt loosened for later on

Spare wheel carrier bracket...needs a bit of a tidy up !

so all and all not a bad first morning's work on the Zed.......

 

[Jack Ratt]

How To Remove the Spare Tire and Spare Tire Carrier for Better Performance! - YouTube

 

[Matt Barnes]

How To Remove the Spare Tire and Spare Tire Carrier for Better Performance! - YouTube

oooh you absolute life saver!.... it looked for all the world like it was crimped on !.... thank you @Jack Ratt !!

 

[Matt Barnes]

well it's Sunday... wasn't going to do much today as it was/is going to be a guitar playing day.... however !!..

thought I'd pop off the spare wheel carrier... thanks for the tip @Jack Ratt ...took all of 5 minutes !.... then realised I must have the M sport wheel carrier, as that big hole is surely for weight saving ?

so after "storing it away"... I thought to myself... "I wonder".... the Sub frame brackets were just staring at me.... sooooo...

it was time for the "Screws of Doom" !!

I got to work with the Erbauers......... Hammered on a 13mm and on a couple it was enough... but two others wanted me to try again with the 12mm.....one was particularly stubborn, so I employed "the persuader".. otherwise known as a piece of scaffold pole....

and after about 20 minutes I managed to get all four out !... you do really need to hammer them on as deep as they will go as even these removers will slip off.....BUT if it wasn't' for this forum I'd still be under there until Christmas....afterwards I dipped them in copper grease and wound them back in halfway finger tight just to protect the threads until I'm ready for the subframe.... and get recommended replacement bolts

 

[DrWong]

Great progress matey, and chassis looks like it's in really good nick, especially compared to everything else. Keep the updates coming, looking forward to seeing what the Deox does. Might be an idea to move this thread to the progress one?

O/T - What guitar btw? Have a PRS SE for my everyday axe, but also got a Gibson SG that's been 'tastefully' modded hahaha (Seymour Duncans, Fishman piezo bridge, stereo jack)

 

[Matt Barnes]

@DrWong .... which wall ?

 

[DrWong]

Ok you win haha. And def the SG wall (humbucker man)

 

[Matt Barnes]

Ok you win haha. And def the SG wall (humbucker man)

Epiphone SG Les Paul Classic..better than easy outs

 

[Matt Barnes]

Great progress matey, and chassis looks like it's in really good nick, especially compared to everything else. Keep the updates coming, looking forward to seeing what the Deox does. Might be an idea to move this thread to the progress one?

O/T - What guitar btw? Have a PRS SE for my everyday axe, but also got a Gibson SG that's been 'tastefully' modded hahaha (Seymour Duncans, Fishman piezo bridge, stereo jack)

I would move it if I knew how to ...

 

[DrWong]

Moving to progress threads is prob one for @GazHyde

 

[Matt Barnes]

morning...so my attention turned to subframe plate bolt replacements and there's a lot of discussion on tensile strength etc.. came across this on one bimmer forum. chap replaced his with Audi brake caliper M8x22 bolts .. he lists part numbers left to right. I'm wondering why tensile strength is so important given the subframe load is taken mainly by the two main bolts?

 

[DrWong]

Do you know what others on the forum have used?

Annoying (and somewhat baffling) that BMW no longer sells those bolts

 

[Althulas]

I ordered some flanged bolts off eBay, Kay’s I think.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Matt Barnes]

I ordered some flanged bolts off eBay, Kay’s I think.

Pardon our interruption...

what I don't get the importance..surely any M8x22 will do the job...it's not a high stressed joint..all the work is being done by the bolt through the subframe bush..

 

[Synclare]

.

 

[Matt Barnes]

The beam mounting pins take the acceleration and braking forces. Without the pin being secured at the bottom i.e underneath the cross beam, then the mounting pin can flex / bend. Locating the bottom of the pin using what are called by BMW 'Thrust Plates' keeps the pin dead vertical.
If you were to brake heavily the beam and trailing arms will try and slow up naturally, the body however will try and carry on as normal. Those 2 mounting pins hold the body back, located at the top where they screw into the body and at the bottom where the 'thrust plates' are bolted to the body side. The 'thrust plates' taking some of the thrust on acceleration and retardation forces on braking. The forces act laterally putting the bolts under shear plane stress, too weak and they can shear.

aaah interesting!... so they do receive shear force...odd that something only M8 is subject to a shear force of that magnitude..

 

[Matt Barnes]

Do you know what others on the forum have used?

Annoying (and somewhat baffling) that BMW no longer sells those bolts

there have been a few suggestions, I know Mazza ordered his from a place in Scotland..

 

[Jack Ratt]

There's no reason not to get these bolts from a fastener company. Grade 10 bolts are quite common in engineering. Granted, they're not as common as grade 8 but non the less you shouldn't have any problems getting them.

 

[Matt Barnes]

There's no reason not to get these bolts from a fastener company. Grade 10 bolts are quite common in engineering. Granted, they're not as common as grade 8 but non the less you shouldn't have any problems getting them.

cheers mate...I never gave it a thought before, was just going to get M8x22!.. I inherited my Dad's tools and part of that is a box full of "come in handy" bolts....I wonder!