Powerflex Bushes for the e30

Powerflex Bushes for the e30. Finally going to get the back end sorted on the Beamer! After King of the Ring Chapter 4 were I thought my welded Diff had broke because my cousin Dwayne was so convinced that only 1 of my wheels were spinning up?

Think you need to visit Specsavers  Dwayne. 😉

I didn’t want to risk the Diff locking up if the welding had broke so had to retire from King of the Ring after my 3rd run…… 🙁

The back end had been making strange noises but I had put it down to the subframe and trailing arm bushes. Which is what them noises were and not the Diff!

Anyhow the time had come to fit the polyurethane bushes from Powerflex. Now remember the Beamer is 25 years old with over 160,000 miles on her and I don’t think these bushes have ever been changed before!

Put her up on the ramp and gave the nuts, bolts and bushes a good soaking in Wd40 before stripping it down. There are a few different methods of doing this job but as I would be changing all the bushes, the best way was to remove the diff and subframe.

I wont go into to much detail about the job but lets just say it was a f’ing nightmare! Problems with seized brake pipes, handbrake cable and bolts shearing and rounding of made a big job even bigger.

After getting the diff and subframe of it was time to remove the shagged bushes. Thank god for oxy & acetylene. After heating the bushes up with the gas bottles and a few good whacks with a big hammer and big chisel,  the old bushes were out.

Cleaned up where the new poly bushes were to be fitted and got them in. This is fairly easy but now it was getting late and time to get home. Had to use a cab to get home but ended up taking an hour to find it as the cab had been parked a long way away and I couldn’t find the keys to a cab I moved earlier??

Came back the next day. It was Sunday and I could watch the Singapore Formula 1 race later on as this well equipped garage even has a big TV 😉

I started lining up and fitting the subframe which was a little awkward doing it by yourself, especially with a real painful shoulder joint but I struggled on…… 😉

Got the main subframe bolts in and reassembled every thing else. Put a new powerflex bush in the Diff and put the diff back on & connected the drive shafts. Nearly finished and just had to bleed up the brakes and fit the exhaust.

E30 Diff with new bush

Time for a nice Tea break. Gave the bleed nipples a good soaking in penetrating oil first, to let it soak in there.

Watched the end of the F1 and that tosser Vettel won it, its looking like he has won another championship this year. His only threat been my Favourite Alonso but he is 60 points behind and only 6 races left!

Anyway, back to the Beamer. Soaked the bleed nipples again with plenty Wd40 but they were not budging! Had to grind the top of the nipple so I could get a socket on them. Bled up the drivers side and then onto the passenger side. Gently applying pressure and then the f`ing nipple broke of! Had to loosen the brake pipe and after a while got it bled up!

Just had to connect the speed sensor on the diff as the connectors broke of and re-fit the exhaust system with new nuts and bolts as the originals had broken of.

Nearly finished now 🙂 So had a look in the Beamer for the missing cab keys. No luck there! Had a good look around the garage and no luck there! Got a horrible gut feeling that they may of dropped down the toilet yesterday as my sweets had dropped out of my top pocket and I was sure I had the cab keys in the same pocket!

Had another search around the garage and down the f`ing bins. Still no keys! I though there was nothing for it, time to roll up my sleeves & do some plumbing. Checked around the U bend, nope! Got the probe out and put it down another pipe, nope! Went outside to lift the big drain cover. Had to use 3 screw drivers to leaver the cover of. Ah ha, a big clump of tissue, could that be the keys?

The drain was about 3 foot deep, reached down it was just a lump of shit!!! Damn it!! Called Sean & told him I couldn’t find the keys and told him I had checked everywhere even down the toilet and drainage.

I could hear him pissing himself laughing…… he said it just came to him, someone had put the wrong registration on the key tab for that cab? I checked the rack & sure enough a big bunch of keys with a different reg were the missing f`ing keys!!!

Well Job done, time to go home and get some rest…..

 

 

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