playing with the m6 when i put on my favorite upgrade e32 740/750 trailing arms and vented big rotors, the bearings instead of bushings make them move smoothly so its easier to show the motion of the bone and its effect http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08LWgK01GzM
bearing
ya gotta swap these if ya want abs to work
and tweak the sensor mounting to use the cars sensors (may or may not be able to use the sensors that go with the arms, probably not) you need to drill and tap a hole to line it up and make a spacer to set the depth
armses, bottom is cool one
rotorses
i have at least 2 sets and can set one aside fer ya, i had these on my e34 and have them on the 633, this is the first time i adapted the abs for the early car, direct swap on the e34 and the old gray mare only the autometer speedo is hooked to the sensor, should be a direct swap on the 533
Kyle in NO wrote:I should do this to my 533i, but it doesn't actually run or anything.
That's funny. They both should have cross bracing unless Winfred is using an early 635. The benefit is that its tighter with the spherical bearings than the bushings. I've never had a bad set of trailing arm bushings, but these will certainly never wear out.
E28s and E24s did not change over to the reinforced trailing arms until very late in production. Late '86 or Early '87 if I remember correctly. The benefits are that under hard load the trailing arms to do flex as much. As for the bushings, the spherical type out of the E34s and E32s are much nicer and last a lot longer. As for the ABS sensor spacer, just order the correct parts from an E28 M5 or late E24. They bolt up without spacers as they were designed for these trailing arms. This then prevents the dirt, water and future corrosion problems.
stock squishy suspension cycles pretty good in turns, the system was used from 82 to 95 unchanged so they must've been satisfied with the design, also gives you an idea why the car wiggles around when the bones are wasted
euro635gas wrote:Cool but I can't see a control arm ever moving that much unless you went air born and landed hard.
6/86 on this one. i do it for the brakes but the bushings are a nice cherry on top. didn't know they changed the sensors on the later e28/24 so i may look into that but these outta be ok as i treated the holes before i stuck them in
m535is wrote:E28s and E24s did not change over to the reinforced trailing arms until very late in production. Late '86 or Early '87 if I remember correctly. The benefits are that under hard load the trailing arms to do flex as much. As for the bushings, the spherical type out of the E34s and E32s are much nicer and last a lot longer. As for the ABS sensor spacer, just order the correct parts from an E28 M5 or late E24. They bolt up without spacers as they were designed for these trailing arms. This then prevents the dirt, water and future corrosion problems.
m535is wrote:E28s and E24s did not change over to the reinforced trailing arms until very late in production. Late '86 or Early '87 if I remember correctly. The benefits are that under hard load the trailing arms to do flex as much. As for the bushings, the spherical type out of the E34s and E32s are much nicer and last a lot longer. As for the ABS sensor spacer, just order the correct parts from an E28 M5 or late E24. They bolt up without spacers as they were designed for these trailing arms. This then prevents the dirt, water and future corrosion problems.
My 7/86 build '87 535is had reinforced arms. Blue Shadow has them now.
I was close to putting in new trailing arm bushings to go with a modded adjustable rear subframe for my turbo 533i before reading this. Now it seems a no-brainer to take the time to upgrade.
Couple questions if I may.
Roughly how much can I expect to pay for a set of e32 trailing arms & does the e34 have the same bearing function?
Also, since I don't have abs is this just a direct bolt in with no changes?
Are the trailing arm bushings normally in pretty good shape on a used unit & don't need to be replaced?
It all depends on which trailing arms you get. If you get normal E32 or E34 or late E24 or E28 arms I would say you can pick up a good non-rusty set for $100-$150. I got mine with a subframe for $150. I then made it into an adjustable subframe and stripped and powder coated everything. Make sure if you do something like that to get cavity wax and spray the inside of the arms and subframe with it to prevent the inside from rusting too.
As for the E34 M5 and E32 750i arms which have the nice spherical bearing bushings those are harder to come by and much more expensive because the E34 guys want them too. I saw a set of those go for over $250 and I was concerned about the amount of rust on them. My personal feeling is to buy the E34 M5 bushings and put them into the regular reinforced arms.
Oh yeah and if you get them from a late E24 or E28 you won't need to change the ABS ring over and it should have the correct wheel speed sensors.
v8/v12 e32s have them with the big brakes, 735s have rubber bushings and solid rotors of the same diameter, i have not seen a bearing that didn't move smoothly but i am also not in yankee land and eaten up with salt so i don't know how effective the boots are at keeping out winters crap. for cars without abs they won't need anything done to work
I'd like to add another dimension to the conversation if I may. Today I scored a set of these, but was thinking would this be a good thing or bad thing in a high HP car? With the additional HP/torque, would it be better to have solid bushing so as to resist any undue lateral movement under max acceleration? OTOH, since the force applied is in a rotational direction is there no tendency for a lateral vector?
Thoughts???
In my mind this upgrade should do nothing but benefit the suspension by reducing wear on other parts, but I could be mistaken given my turbo circumstances.
You want in an high HP vehicle the spherical bearings because you always have reactionary forces that have to be taken care of. To illustrate this, look a the Z3 guys and the suspension ripping out of the body. It always begins on one side because of the fact that there is a twisting motion created because the translation of torque 90 degrees in the differential.
The bearings are actually linear bearings, not spherical.
Harder bearings/bushings will always transmit more shock to the body, but having them keeps the suspension moving in a more well defined path, which helps keep the wheels on the ground. Because of this, you want them on higher horsepower cars (which is why they were stock on the 750iL.)
The 540 comes with rubber bushings, but the M5 had sphericals, which I have on my wagon. Me likey.
Prepping to install a set of used e32 trailing arms this weekend. How hard is it to remove the drive flange & the outer wheel hub? Is there anything I should be on the lookout for?
mine came right out from the m635 parts car and it was a barnacle, you just need the inners that have the tone rings on them, you will need to shim the abs sensors out with washers to get the required clearance. if you don't care about abs then you don't need to even change the flanges, personally i like it but it offends some people
edit, i see you wanna pull the outer hub too, gonna likely need new bearings as the race will likely ride the shaft out, i usually use a shop press
I read that if you use the e32 hub it extends about 2mm further than the e28. Is that correct? My wheels are close enough to the outter fender already.
I was able to score a set of these from a 750iL a few months back, with attached half shafts-mainly because I couldnt get them removed in the yard since the diff was alrelady gone and the ebrake wouldnt hold it well enough.
I paid <$100 for both arms w/axles at the Pick-n-Pull.
These will be for my 735 though. Luckily the e32 axles are the exact same length as my e23 units.
I think its more complicated than that.
Factor the relative position of the diff, where the trailing arms mount to the subframe, etc.
There are enough potential differences that the longer halfshaft is easily accounted for.
The 7 series are just wider, so the trailing arms are going to mount just a bit further out on the subframe.
edit: and I didnt say ANYTHING about the hubs yet.
Just that the halfshafts for the 750iL and the e23 were the same length, about 1" longer than an e28 halfshaft.
