I guess enough stuff has happened to where I could make an update.
Parts have been coming in from BMW. Most everything I order is in Germany, but nothing in the last couple batches is Euro-specific. Not everything I've ordered has been available and some things are somewhat surprising, but I have to keep reminding myself that no one likes E12s.
I decided to work on getting certain things I know need doing sorted. I had been trying to find a brake booster for a long time and I had posted recently about reman boosters. I ended up going to a local brake and clutch supply house and they had a supplier which had a reman booster available on an exchange basis. $250 plus $100 core and tax. They will be getting my original booster back and I did try to clean it up some.
It looks like an old rebuild and that's fine. I have a 1-year warranty, so once the car is up and running, likely no warranty. Oh well. It looks like it works.
I got all of the rust off of these:
I think I'm going to throw them in with the latches and other crap and get them plated so they will stay somewhat nice.
Today, Scott (scarey013) came over and watched me get really upset while we installed this absolutely ridiculous contraption designed by a sadist. I thought the bar on the early cars was stupid. This takes it to a whole new level, but at least the hood stays up.
After he left, I had several work-related things to do, so I got back to it a couple hours later and got my Motorsport radius-rod bushings pressed in.
Then, I decided to work on the trailing arms. I bought two sets of Lemförder trailing arm bushings. I decided to have a look at the instructions.
After I put some clothes and a hat on and holding my 32mm/36mm combination wrench, I tried to get them in, but only having one hand was difficult. So, I put the wrench down and grabbed a 32mm socket.
Always lubricate before insertion.
I mentioned before that I had ordered some FAGs and they came in some other Taiwanese manufacturer's box with the wrong size grease seals, no locking ring and a cotter pin with an o-ring. I sent them back and ordered the bearings from BMW. RealOEM showed that I'd be getting two bearings, grease-seals for front and rear and the lock ring. I received two double-sealed SKF bearings and two different lock rings. Interesting. I had considered reusing the old grease seals to just have something in there, but it probably didn't matter. Of course, I kinda felt that instead of paying the $65 for the BMW parts, I could have just ordered my own double-sealed bearings, but I'm sure whatever I bought wouldn't have been factory tested and approved.
I'm sure they'd also cause one helluva fire.
So, the key here is to install the outer bearing first.
Then, the inner bearing, which I didn't take any photos of. I assure you it's in there. There's a conical spacer and a shim as well. Fortunately the outer races of the bearings were the same width as the old ones, so I didn't have to calculate to a tenth of a milimeter a new shim size and then have some guy laugh at me in Germany that I needed one only to tell me the size I need is NLA. The conical spacer is conical because it sits between the inner races of the bearings to keep them from moving inward when the drive flange and stub axle assembly are torqued.
So, until crap comes back from the plater and more parts arrive, I'm not sure what to do. I'm in desperate need of the insulation that goes under the carpet at the very front of the car, so, if anyone has any just laying around...