Boost Junkys 5 Lug Conversion Guide

[Boost Junky 1]

As promised to you all I would share my experience on the E30 5 Lug conversion. Now first things first... Disclaimer blaa blaa im not responsible for anyone elses vehicle/incidents resulting from the instructions as per this post, I am not a qualified mechanic and am known at times to be slightly slow and incompetant.

Second of all I want to thank a top man Ray @ HELLBM! Cheers for the mean hookups on the E36 running gear dude. Ray will happily help you with any of your BMW enquiries and parts needed at a very competitive rate. So Cheers mate!

Right im going to keep this simple guys!

Parts List

- 1x E36 318ti Rear subframe

- 1x Left hand rear E36 318ti trailing arm/hub

- 1x Right hand rear E36 318ti trailing arm/hub

- 1x Front Right E36 Hub with caliper

- 1x Front Left E36 Hub with caliper

- Pair of front E36 Shock absorbers

- 1x Front Lower Rear Control Arm bushes with castor offset (Can get these nationwide from any parts place in Nolothane or Noltec, forgot part no.)

- 1x Pair of rear E30/E36 Subframe Mount Bushes (N92964 thats nolothanes number i believe)

- 1x full set of rear E30/E36 trailing arm Bushes (W62187 Noltec number)

Optional:

- I replaced my front and rear pads at the same time and will also be replacing all four brake rotors.

- Would also be a good time to replace front lower control arms, Sway bar Links and Sway bar mount bushes etc.

REMOVING THE FRONT E30 SUSPENSION SETUP

Ok so here goes nothing....

Step 1:

Jack the front end of your car up and place it on axle stands with them located under the chasis rails. Remove the front wheels which I dont think needs explaining?

Step 2:

Undo the front sway bar links from your lower control arms. There should be a nut on the underside of the Lower arm which is a 13mm bolt i believe. If the ball joint or the lower bushings are worn on the sway bar link replace them. You can tell when a ball joint is worn by excesive play and movement in them, they should be really tight to move if they are fine.

Step 3:

Undo the traiing arm rear mounts from under the body, there are two bolts holding each one on which I believe are a 19mm bolt. Then pull them off the lower arms.

Now that you have the sway bar mounts off the vehicle you will need to take them into a machine shop and have the old bushes pressed out and the new ones pressed in. If your replacing the rear subframe and trailing arm bushes you may as well get the shop to do these all for you at once. The front new ones should look like this:

Step 4:

Undo the bolt that holds the hub onto the lower arm ball joint and also the tie rod end nut.

Step 5:

Remove the Inner control arm ball joint nut to release the control arm from the vehicle. This picture best displays the location of the nut on each control arm, you can just see them circled in red..

Step 6:

This is where you must be careful you can either use a ball joint seperator or give the area a smack with a rubber mallet on the side of the area where each ball joint goes through the hub. If using a mallet this could take many descent sometimes painful smacks. The inner control arm ball joints I simply smack down from above the subframe with the mallet. Releasing these three ball joints will remove the lower arm from the vehicle.

Step 7:

Undo the Brake hose from the brake caliper. You may want to clamp the line to save a mess..

Step 8:

Undo the top nut inside the Strut hat to remove the E30 Front shock absorbers. The shock should and hub unit should all just drop out of the strut tower.

Repeat these steps for the other side of the vehicle.

Note: You can re-attatch the lower rear bushes to the control arms again at this stage. Use some rubber grease to slip them back on easier

INSTALLING THE E36 FRONT SUSPENSION COMPONENTS

Step 1:

Re-install the lower control arms on both sides of the vehicle but this time you will be adding the E36 front hubs

Step 2:

Slip the E36 hub assembly onto the control arm and tie rod end like this:

Just slips straight back in place of the E30 one. Make sure you remember to do up the brake hose onto the new hub assembly.

Step 3:

You now need to slip the E36 front shock up into the original top strut hat and redo that bolt up from the top. In my case I have purchased E36 coilovers and have adjustable camber plates which required modification to the strut towers so I cant quite display a picture of this step.. however it is pretty straight forward.

Step 4:

Attatch the lower end of the shock absorber to the E36 hub unit. There is a bolt which goes through the top of the hub and through the shock with a nut to do it up at the other side:

Then do the bottom two bolts of the shock up which go through the bottom of the shock and into the lower back of the hub like this:

Step 5:

Re-install the front wheels and lower the car back to the ground. You will notice even with the offset castor bushes the wheels will still be sitting rather far back in the guards. I took my car to an allignment shop and they professionally pressed them to the perfect amount forward to return my original castor.

REMOVING THE E30 REAR END

Step 1:

Jack the rear end of your car up and place it on axle standsand remove the rear wheels. Normally I place the axle stands under the subframe but in this case you are removing the subframe so You need to find another secure location to place them.

Step 2:

Undo the lower shock absorber bolt on each side as pictured and remove the rear springs from their perchs.

Step 3:

Clamp the rear brake hose out on the arm where the meet the hard brake lines and undo them from the hard lines as pictured.

[Boost Junky 1]

Step 4:

You now need to support the differential with a Jack and undo the bolt that supports there rear of the differential.

Step 5:

Undo the driveshaft bolts that hold the driveshaft to the differential. This is easiest done by having the handbreak on and the car in first gear or, having a mate holding the brakes on for you which is easier as you dont need to get out from under the car when you need to turn the driveshaft to get to the top 2 bolts.

Step 6:

You now need to remove the handbrake cables from inside the rear drums. Unfortunately I didnt take a photo of this step.

You need to undo the allen key which holds the rear drum disc to the hub and slide the drum off the hub, the handbrake must be released to slide it off. You then have to remove the mounting bolts that hold each brake shoe to the hub assembly these are an Allen key bolt also which you turn 90deg anti clockwise to release them. You then remove the top and lower springs holding the shoes together and pull the shoes off.

Now you will see the cable that actuates the bottom lever that the shoes sit against, pull this lever apart by removing the two dowels that hold them and the cable together as a unit (take not of how it must go back together or a photo to save a headache later on!) Slip the cables out of the hubs.

Step 7:

Remove the rear exhaust section to make way for the subframe to come off. You may also need to undo the shield covering the center hanger bearing and undo the hanger bearing to allow the driveshaft to pull away from the subframe enough.

Step 8:

Now its time to remove the subframe, undo the large bolts on the left and right hand side of the car that hold the subframe brackets under the subframe.

Step 9:

Undo the two allen key bolts that hold the subframe brackets too the body. These are visible from the outside of the vehicle. Make sure you do not loose the plates that are between the bolts and the brackets. Pull the brackets from the subframe.

Step 10:

This can be the tricky part but if your lucky like me you should just be able to lower the jack down and the subframe should pull down away from the main subframe bolts. I got stuck with the driveshaft not pulling towards the front of the car enough for the subframe to be able to pull all the way down, this is where its probably easier if you do undo the center hanger bearing for the driveshaft.. Remove the speedo plug from the back of the diff.

Lower the jack..

Subframe out..

INSTALLING THE NEW BUSHES AND REAR END

Step 1:

Take the subframe and remove the differential from the subframe if you are using your existing differential. You need to take your new or existing subframe and E36 trailing arms to a press and press out your old bushes and press the new ones in. Remove the E30 trailing arms from the E30 subframe if your using the this subframe.

It is very important you get the subframe bushes up the right way! A lesson I learnt the hard way haha.

The trailing arm bushes are more difficult to get out, the press I was using was not adequate enough to remove them. If the press cannot press the trailing arm bushes out like in my case you need too improvise and make a tool up out of long threaded rod and sockets to slowly pull them out or you can also burn them out (messy).

The new urethane bushes for the trailing arms are easy enough to press in by hand, apply some rubber grease to them to ease installation.

Step 2:

Assemble the E36 trailing arms to the subframe you are using and jack the new subframe setup up into the rear end of the car. Make sure you slip the

driveshaft through the center of the subframe before you push it right up into place. Put the subframe brackets back in place and put the main bolts and allen key bolts back on.

If this step is difficult it can be easier if you bolt the bottom of the shocks back to the new trailing arms to help support some of the weight.

Step 3:

Jack the differential up into place and reinstall in the reverse order of removal. Be sure to plug the speedo sensor back into the rear of the differential

Step 4:

Now you need to remove your old driveshafts/cv joints from the old E30 trailing arms and diff and put them into the new subframe setup. You may need a rattle gun to remove the hub nuts holding the driveshafts in through the Hubs.

Step 5:

Call me lazy but... Continue too re-assemble the car back together in the reverse order of removal. Go out and select a nice set of 5 stud wheels!

TADA!!!..

Pretty easy conversion I thought! Just time consuming really. Now go and DO A SKID!!!!

[CamB 48]

Awesome writeup!

2 things:

- fixing the caster is important

- don't do the next step this way ----> undo the three nuts holding the strut top on, remove the whole strut and use spring compressors before removing the shock nut.

Step 8:

Undo the top nut inside the Strut hat to remove the E30 Front shock absorbers. The shock should and hub unit should all just drop out of the strut tower.

[Boost Junky 1]

Haha oh dear I just realised the outcome of removing the top strut nut didnt even cross my mind cheers for the corretion Cam! Very stupid mistake on my behalf I should know better than that.

And for the castor issue it was fixed just not the way most people have done so in the past. If you require more castor forward than factory then id suggest getting the correct arms yes.

Edited August 7, 2009 by Boost Junky

[APT 188]

Major Thread Dig:

In Step 3: In my case I have purchased E36 coilovers and have adjustable camber plates which required modification to the strut towers so I cant quite display a picture of this step.. however it is pretty straight forward.

Does anybody know what modifications to the strut tower was needed? Do e36 top hats fit onto the e30 strut tower?