Starting tomorrow, I will relinquish (possibly forever) the five-day work week. So I spent a little more time in the garage.
Look ma, no engine brace!
Which means, of course, that I reinstalled the subframe. The control arm bushings are a real bear to get onto the control arms when the car is on jack stands. I'm exhausted.
I kind of lost the will to do much more after that, but while I was cleaning up, I took a moment to replace the steering coupler guibo. The old one wasn't in horrible shape, really.
Finally, interesting bit of trivia. The original front control arms were stamped with the ///M logo. The Lemfoerder pieces that I bought don't have them; I wonder if the genuine BMW ones do.
The control arms are actually in good shape after all this time; if I hadn't torn one of the boots I would've just reused them. Can I source some replacement ball joints and refurbish these?
With the subframe back on the car, I can see the end in sight. The rest of the job -- reinstall steering rack, replace tie rods, replace tranny mounts, etc. -- are not going to be huge deals, I don't think. Those stupid metal shavings are really bothering me, though, and I'm thinking about taking off the valve cover to inspect and doing an adjustment. Which, of course, opens the door to doing some VANOS work while I'm in there.