BMW Forums : BimmerForums banner

2000 E46 318i - wishbone fitting problem

2K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  Millssta 
#1 ·
I recently replaced my o/s wishbone and rear bushes when i tried to tight up the inner ball joint stem i threated it by hand until the plastic insert in the nut started to bite I put the 21 mm socket on with the flex socket wrench and started to crank the nut down, i noticed when the nut was fully tighted it did so at an angle and there was sight gap in between the stem and the inner taper hole the stem goes through i lightly tapped the bottom on the outer ball joint to move the stem up to the inner hole taper but it wouldnt move any further due to the angle of the stem i decided to tighted it up untill the nut was tight. the lower arm and rear bushes are fitted now but am worried because the inner stem was tighted at an angle and does sit flush on the inner hole the stem goes through would this cause over time any damage to my car
 
#3 ·
I bought a standard o/s and n/s wishbone from Europarts it cost me £60 and the rear bushes cost £40
The wishbone does seem like the thread is crossed because i can un do the nut and do it up again without any problem, I fitted the ball joint to the suspension knucker first and than put the inner ball joint stem second into the taper hole and than fitted the rear bushes last , i noticed than that the inner stem was at an angle i than attempted to adjust it to get the inner stem in at the right angle but it wouldnt go in fully i than tapped the inner stem with a mallett to see how far it would go in.
the inner stem is at at the wrong angle and the bush isnt sat flush with the taper hole on the car i was just concerned that over time the inner stem may damage the taper hole and cause damage
 
#5 ·
I suspected evenually the ball joint would break, if i now try and remove the wishbone and rear bush and try and reset the inner stem striaght i would have to use a ball joint spillter to separate the knucker from the ball joint in turn i would damage the ball joint bush i would than have to buy a new wishbone and rear bush
 
#6 ·
Wishbone

Hi Bimmerman
Sorry to hear about your wishbone problem...i replaced my front wish rear bushes last week,i was tempted to replace the wishbones/balljoints while i was at it.How did you get the balljoint back into the subframe?,did you use a jack to push it in?Just curious because i want to do that job soon as well as replacing the rear bushes too...

Cheers

Simon
 
#11 ·
Hi Bimmerman
Sorry to hear about your wishbone problem...i replaced my front wish rear bushes last week,i was tempted to replace the wishbones/balljoints while i was at it.How did you get the balljoint back into the subframe?,did you use a jack to push it in?Just curious because i want to do that job soon as well as replacing the rear bushes too...

Cheers

Simon
You'l need a specailist tool thats shaped like a folk to seperate the wishbone from the car if doing the front wishbones you can get them from halfords for 5.50.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top