Don tells me he has never seen rears that needed replacing. And apparently the job is a bear.. I think I may just re-pack mine.
How do you remove the backing plates without disassembling the hubs?
What did you do to your E9 today?
- Thread starter adawil2002
- Start date
How do you remove the backing plates without disassembling the hubs?
Yes, well, you were one step ahead of me. I guess you can't. When I was inspecting the area last week it looked like the setup could be removed like the front, in which you can pull the hub off with the rotor to access the plate, but then could decide not to actually rebuild the full hub. Upon further review, yes, looks like that isn't the case.
I'll inspect the hub/plate area a bit more tonight and read through some of the threads to decide how I want to go. What I have discovered thus far is that some jobs sounds very intimidating to me, like dropping the subframe a bit to add the sway bar, but then in practice are annoying and slightly back-breaking but are not overly technical. Hoping that this is the same...what I am reading in threads is that this is the PITA but fairly straightforward. We shall see - I'll post results here. Thanks to all before me who have posted very thorough pictures which I can follow.
And yeah, I saw Don's comment and he would be the guy that knows. I'll see if he calls me in the next week to tell me not to do it - that's how my brake calipers went from home rebuild to professional rebuild
i had to replace the rear bearing on my e3 - it had 220k on it at the time. just had to replace the drivers side as it was making noise. back in the day (late 80s), i was only able to buy sealed rears, the good news is that expedited the R+R. i remember buying some tools from snap-on to remove and drive the bearings in / out - a big plate with a bolt on handle that allowed you to drive everything in or take them out. bought different sizes for the inner / outer bearings and seals. removing the collar nut was fun, but an air tool did the trick
I happen to have the wheel bearing removal/installation kit borrowed from autozone sitting on my workbench since I thought I might need it for the fronts. Did not - that job only required the smaller bearing installation kit for putting in the races. So while I have the tools maybe I’ll give it a shot. Also have a massive 400lbs torque wrench borrowed to install the crankshaft nut. That will be fun. The engine is on a stand and I have it counter-supported by my floor jack.
ROTFLMAO....Yes, well, you were one step ahead of me. I guess you can't. When I was inspecting the area last week it looked like the setup could be removed like the front, in which you can pull the hub off with the rotor to access the plate, but then could decide not to actually rebuild the full hub. Upon further review, yes, looks like that isn't the case.
I'll inspect the hub/plate area a bit more tonight and read through some of the threads to decide how I want to go. What I have discovered thus far is that some jobs sounds very intimidating to me, like dropping the subframe a bit to add the sway bar, but then in practice are annoying and slightly back-breaking but are not overly technical. Hoping that this is the same...what I am reading in threads is that this is the PITA but fairly straightforward. We shall see - I'll post results here. Thanks to all before me who have posted very thorough pictures which I can follow.
And yeah, I saw Don's comment and he would be the guy that knows. I'll see if he calls me in the next week to tell me not to do it - that's how my brake calipers went from home rebuild to professional rebuild
Don seems to haunt these posts, and when I either ask a stupid question, or am genuinely stumped, he calls me out of the blue.. Like having a BMW Guardian Angel!
As I understand it, the axles are held on with a massive nut that cannot easily be undone. Then you have to press the old bearings out and press new ones in without ruining them.
In anticipation of doing this (and the fronts), I actually bought an arbor press (the relatively inexpensive one-time-use kind from Harbor Fright...) And I may still go there... with Don's avatar laughing in my ear while prodding me with a little pitchfork..
Hmmm I shall be watching how you do this. On my list as well. best of luck!
I will be watching this discussion. Dropping the rear sub-frame and breaking it down for powder coating is on my list and I was not looking forward to dealing with the rear hubs and bearings as the job seemed...daunting.
How far can things be broken down for powder coating (high temps) and do we need to re-pack the bearings without removing the races?
How far can things be broken down for powder coating (high temps) and do we need to re-pack the bearings without removing the races?
Well, it wasn’t Don but another one of my car buddies who was over last night and told me “yeah, don’t do that”. As he noted, the bearings in the rear weren’t making noise and if I do need to do the job at some point it’s as easy/hard then as it is now. So I pulled the handbrake shoes off, will wire wheel the protection plate (in place) and then rustproof/paint it with some POR15 but forgo the full bearing removal. So sorry that those of you who wanted to watch the struggle will have to go away disappointed - nothing to see here!
I did put on harmonic balanced and front double pulley sourced from Don so that I can do the newer-style belt routing with my new alternator, water pump and power steering pump. Also will hopefully allow for AC belt add if I go that route in the future. Tightened that thing with a 400-lbs torque wrench borrowed from Autozone and a jack supporting the engine underneath. And even though I know these aren’t OEM, I am loving the adjuster arm-belt tensioner from Ireland engineering. Very easily to install and exceedingly easy to adjust for tensioning and loosening; far easier than the castellated nut moving along its cogwheel path.
I did put on harmonic balanced and front double pulley sourced from Don so that I can do the newer-style belt routing with my new alternator, water pump and power steering pump. Also will hopefully allow for AC belt add if I go that route in the future. Tightened that thing with a 400-lbs torque wrench borrowed from Autozone and a jack supporting the engine underneath. And even though I know these aren’t OEM, I am loving the adjuster arm-belt tensioner from Ireland engineering. Very easily to install and exceedingly easy to adjust for tensioning and loosening; far easier than the castellated nut moving along its cogwheel path.
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on the 2800cs, if you are swapping the rear swing arms to put disc brakes in (in my current plans), then new bearings are part of the process.
//My5UV
Member
I got my retro sound radio working and eliminated all hose fittings except the compressor as the source of my ac leak. Now I need to clean off the compressor and see if those fittings might be the problem or I have to figure out how to pressure test the evaporator and compressor individually
Went for a drive on skyline blvd, leg of
Küstenfahrt. Was doing about 50 on a long strait away nothing crazy. Bicyclist headed in opposite direction on other side of road squirts his water bottle at me and water hits my windshield. What the heck. Briefly thought about turning around and letting him breath my fumes for the rest of his ride. But it was a beautiful day and nothing was going to ruin my beautiful drive.
Ps it was not going 50mph into that 20mph hairpin. Althought that hairpin was fun
hairpin
Küstenfahrt. Was doing about 50 on a long strait away nothing crazy. Bicyclist headed in opposite direction on other side of road squirts his water bottle at me and water hits my windshield. What the heck. Briefly thought about turning around and letting him breath my fumes for the rest of his ride. But it was a beautiful day and nothing was going to ruin my beautiful drive.
Ps it was not going 50mph into that 20mph hairpin. Althought that hairpin was fun
hairpin
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mkent
Well-Known Member
As a cyclist I can say that he is not one of us. That was poor form. Way to brush it off and have a great drive!
Like it or not BMW drivers are perceived as having a level arrogance that’s way off the charts compared to other high end brands. While it may apply to a good number of late model owners, I’ve seen it myself, a lot people feel that way for any vehicle sporting a roundel.
Maybe that cyclist was mad at all BMWs having seen this story about an idiot in his m3 harassing cyclists in SoCal.
//My5UV
Member
Today I got my repaired clock back in the dash and changed all the lighting to LED thanks to this post:
Nice! I still have it on my list to try out the LED rheostat discussed in that thread but have been distracted by actually putting the car back together. Did you clean the glass on the gauges? Does require removing them (a bit of a job) but the difference was pretty impressive between pre and post cleaning. I also had to have my clock rebuilt and so it looked so perfectly clean that the others seemed dingy by comparisonToday I got my repaired clock back in the dash and changed all the lighting to LED thanks to this post:
//My5UV
Member
I didn’t actually remove anything but the clock. Just loosened the bolts holding the panel so I could reach behind from below the steering column and through the speaker hole.
Well yes, that’s how my “replace the clock and the lights” started too. And then you see the clock, you see the other gauges, you think “removing and cleaning those can’t be THAT hard and there’s a good write up on it here” and then it’s all over
Spent a fair amount of the weekend doing some rewiring. I undid all of the tape in the main loom heading from the under dash area into the firewall and retaped, adding 4 new wiring circuits hooked up to my supplemental fusebox. As per a previous thread, some of these are for future proofing. One is for powering the oil pressure/voltmeter/water temp gauges I plan to add to the console, the others are for anything else I might need in the future. I’ll probably terminate one under the rear seat area (seat heater?) and the other under the center console.
I had previously moved the battery to the trunk and used the battery tray to mount my distribution block. I know that this will probably be heresy to some, but I just didn’t like the look of all of these additional wires on the bsttery and the trunk is large enough to hold a medium Optimum battery easily with a 100-Amp breaker in one of its terminals. The distribution block is covered with a metal box that I fabricated just so it looks clean. I used the new labeler that @ScottAndrews had mentioned in a previous thread, very slick and labeling the shrink wrap was a nice touch in my mind.
I also installed the last of the firewall insulation. Slowly heading towards engine re-insertion.
I had previously moved the battery to the trunk and used the battery tray to mount my distribution block. I know that this will probably be heresy to some, but I just didn’t like the look of all of these additional wires on the bsttery and the trunk is large enough to hold a medium Optimum battery easily with a 100-Amp breaker in one of its terminals. The distribution block is covered with a metal box that I fabricated just so it looks clean. I used the new labeler that @ScottAndrews had mentioned in a previous thread, very slick and labeling the shrink wrap was a nice touch in my mind.
I also installed the last of the firewall insulation. Slowly heading towards engine re-insertion.
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Nice! Whilst you're in there - have you considered upgrading your fuse box to the blade fuses with the mod some folks on the forum have provided to us?
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