Same springs that came on the car.

The tie rods are lemforder from ECS Tuning. JV said the ones on the car were fine but we replaced them anyway based on the age/mileage. JV suggested Meyle HD, but given that they OEM ones lasted 170k miles I said screw it let's get lemforder again.

Shocks: I have double adjustable konis that I could have had rebuilt by TC Klein (I think anyway... Is he even still in business?) but since it's a street car I decided to go with new Koni FSD. The DA's are cool and all but if you're not racing they don't add much value and are on the stiff side on the street.

TCK is still very much around and in business. I'm sure they could rebuild those shocks for you, but it may not be worth the cost. There are much better pimpshock options for these cars than there were fourteen years ago and so the Konis may be a tough sale.

Work has been a bear lately, haven't had much time to work on my own car much less Matt's car. But today is not a work day!

2.93 out of Matt's car. Lame.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psikveu072.jpg

3.15 out of a junkyard 325i... cool.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psymp8l1jh.jpg

Fluid looks fine, as it should.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...pspodot311.jpg

Once you remove the axle seals, these snap rings are the next thing you face in disassembling one of these things.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psek0qavuz.jpg

These snap ring pliers are the only way to get these snap rings out. On an E46 the snap rings double as retainers for the outer bearing races and as the axial locators of the differential unit. They're marked for their thickness (in mm, between around 3.4mm and 4.0mm). Generally, when installing an LSD you can get away with retaining the stock snap rings which is why I write their sizes on the case, but there are still a bunch of measurements that need to be taken to make sure. BMW doesn't sell these, so I keep a collection of about 30 of them to be able to build differentials without resorting to other methods.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psmncdnvve.jpg

The gears inside this diff looked great, and there is no noticeable bearing wear.

Next I got to pulling the driveshaft so I could do the giubo and pull the transmission to do a clutch. This is not the worst giubo I've seen, but it's bad. Very dry rotted.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...pszyvullpe.jpg

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psongebaie.jpg

Looks like it needs a transmission tailshaft seal. Usually things are not this oily.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...pscvvstsda.jpg

Sorry I recorded in portrait mode. Was hard to get a decent angle from under the car.

I'll just pipe in to say "This thread is awesome."

That is all. Carry on.

More bushing replacement today. New versus old front diff bushings.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps1kdvhibh.jpg

The large rear bushing was also pretty dry rotted and cracked.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psjv4v78x8.jpg

I realized I didn't actually have the front bushing tool, so I had to rig something up to remove them. It worked fine.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psckiwguis.jpg

Matt, you sure you don't want me to make you a set of these solid aluminum ones? :)

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psoghkznfd.jpg

Just kidding. Replaced with genuine BMW replacements. I know this picture makes them look a little crooked but I swear they aren't.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...psmfu9ivt0.jpg

I do have the rear bushing tool, so that was easy.

http://i368.photobucket.com/albums/o...pssmnl2f6h.jpg

I agree! :D Very fun.


Is that something you can do? Or is it time to take the new parts back off the car and try to return them. :lol:

Why does the diff have 3.72 written on it?

3.72 is the thickness in mm of the carrier shim on that side of the diff that will receive the Lsd.

Tailshaft seal is easy

Which Matt would have known if he bothered to read the build thread JV is trying to do for Matt's car.

Oh snap

#failing