[quote=“Ranger” post=79645]I looked at my bushings. They are a different design. I’m pretty sure that my 2 bushings halves are thick enough that they meet in the middle. That is to say torquing the nut down doesn’t encourage the 2 halves to move towards each other so hard that the end of the subframe might mushroom or the lip collapse. They can’t move towards each other because the two halves are already in contact.
Non-metal bushings have a cylinder inside of them that the bolt runs thru. This prevents the nut from putting too much load on the bushing.
Something isn’t right here. Maybe wrong bushings, maybe something odd about the subframe, I dunno. The bushings halves should not be tempted to move towards each other and mushroom the subframe.[/quote]
So I confirmed, using a 90-degree pick, that the two halves on mine are not meeting in the middle. Even after some crushing on the 2nd bushing, I was able to move the pick around about 5mm or more between the halves. Either they jacked up these bushings, or 12/86 built (87 model) 325i’s had a slightly different subframe design.
I measured the height of the subframe hole – 70mm. Wonder if that’s the typical height?
I’m currently leaning towards manufacturing mistake. Or this product was meant for another subframe. I checked my receipt and it definitely says it’s for the E30.
My next problem – how the hell do I get these damn things out? One option I’m considering – drilling 2 holes from the top in one half and then tapping them. Then reusing my old front subframe bolts to push the bottom half out. I’m guessing once I get one half out I can just pound the other half from the inside to get it out…?
What a nightmare… I’m scheduled to take the car to get caged next weekend, too. I’m gonna have to overnight whatever part I can find on Monday morning and hope I can reassemble everything in the middle of the week after work.
On the plus side… looks like I get to fix my adjusters. (straining hard to see that silver lining)
Yeah, it’s the newer IE kits that have the serrated plates. Is the stripping a common problem? Seems like they would have addressed that with harder plates with the newer design? Or is that just wishful thinking? Not a big deal to weld a nut on there now that it’s off, though. I welded a drilled nut on the other side onto the bolt head to facilitate running a safety wire to the adjuster wall to keep it from coming undone.
What kind of force causes the stripping? Is there a force pulling the bolt out axially? Or is there a force twisting the bolt to over-tighten it? I wouldn’t think the latter would be a problem considering people are usually concerned with the bolts loosening instead of over-tightening…