Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 15:01:56 -0400
From: "Michael Lawrence" <95m3ltw@home.com>
Subject: Re: [E36M3] Re: Rattle from shock tower


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Evans" <jonathanevans@hotmail.com>


>trailing arm bushings , apparently took about 6 hours labor to replace the
> trailing arm bushings.  And that's with a air jack hammer thing.


I wanted to say a word about those damn things.   I had been putting off
changing mine since I had heard it was a royal PIA to do.  Well when I
finally did them, sheesh, a piece of cake.  Almost every write up I have
seen had several steps too many.   I have done 2 M3s now so I cant say all
would be easy, but mine were.

First undo the 3 bolts holding the front of the arm, where the bushing is
at, take bolt out of arm and bushing.   take saw and cut several holes in
the rubber part of the bushing, then cut the metal sleeve of the bushing
carefully with the saw.  Not hard to do at all, just watch to make sure you
are not cutting the arm.   after you cut it, take hand and catch bushing
falling out of the arm,  then laugh and wonder why is was so easy.  Then
wonder what you might have done wrong too, haha.   I used a short 2x4 and
hammered the new bushing back in being careful to get it at the exact same
depth as the old bushing.  It took maybe 2 mins.   repeat for other side.
spent a total of 1.5 maybe 2 hrs with several minutes on the phone with GF.
not the big ordeal that some folks claim.    I also undid the brake line
holder but I dont think I even needed to do that either.   YMMV.   6 hrs
seems like a lot for that job.   I did this on the floor in my garage, with
a lift, I think it could be done in 1 hr.

Mike