During house arrest..

[X5Sport]

Isn’t it always the way. Do one job and another hidden one leaps out to make you start all over again and wish you hadn’t bothered.

[henrym3]

So is it the arm that’s causing the play or still the ball joint? If it’s the arm, then not a difficult fix. Would certainly account for inner edge wear.

[Themoog2]

Logic tells me that when driving forward the wheel is being toed out more than usual so accelerating the inner edge wear on the tyre. Wobbly lower ball joint doesn’t help either..

[Greydog]

The top eccentric bolt adjusts camber, the lower adjust toe.
But as you rightly say wear in any of them accelerates wear through out the system. The rear suspension is basically a 5 series but with more weight and leverage as its higher so no wonder they wear quickly.

Still on the bright side with all the practice your getting it should be a quick job

[Themoog2]

I have plenty of time...

[Themoog2]

Here we go.. Old lower Bush out. New one in. I had a load of grief trying to get the new one in as it just kept clocking over on an angle. I had to modify the tool as it was pressing against the underside of the hub carrier. See pics. More to follow.

[Themoog2]

By the way, I forgot to measure wheel centre to edge of arch so I can set my camber so can someone please measure there's and post. Ta.

[Themoog2]

Right. All done apart from the alignment. I couldn't really set it myself so I just put the cam bolts in the centre.
I'm not sure about the wheel spacers. Not sure if i like the look. I may sell them on.

[Themoog2]

Drat and double drat! The local place where I have my 2 year alignment deal is closed.. Trye Pros down the road have one but that will cost me. I tried to blag it as they are all owned by the same group anyway but no good.
At the moment I’ve got it up on slabs on the drive trying to get reference points to straighten the rear wheels up. Camber looks sort of ok but the toe was way off on the o/s wheel. It’s a bit redneck but I put a 1m level across the tyre and measured from the very end of the alloy part of the running board.. o/s was 39mm while n/s was 27mm.
I’ve managed to swivel the wheel in so it’s 28 and 27 mm respectivley. I don’t know if the wheels are parallel or the thrust angle is ok.
I’m still thinking whilst having a beer.
If anyone has any ideas please say.

[Greydog]

When I rebuilt the suspension I set the front wheels straight ahead then used a laser level with a mag mount on the wheel bolts at the rear and a home made T piece clamped to the front wheel using 2 wheel bolts. The T was about 100mm long and I stuck a 6" rule to it with blue-tack. It let me get both rear wheels pointed in the same direction as the fronts and when it got on the 4 wheel alignment it wasn't far out. Camber like you I just set in the middle.

[Themoog2]

Right. I set up some string each side and got it as parallel to each rear wheel as possible.
As far as I can tell the n/s is quite good but the o/s is not.. See photo of my sketch. Either the rear wheel is sticking out or the front is in too far.
The strings are a bit out of parallel but I had the wife helping so I have to take that measurement with a pinch of salt.. The other photo is from a website that calculates toe etc fot the diyer.

[Themoog2]

I’ve had a think.. the strings out of parallel and the big difference in front o/s wheel could be because the rear o/s is not straight. I’ve moved it in as far as it will go with the upper arm adjuster so all that’s left is the lower cam bolt. I’m not sure I’ll be able to alter that with the weight of the car.

[henrym3]

Don’t understand the measurements. If G is smaller number than H and is toe out how can C be smaller than D and be toe in.

[Themoog2]

Ignore the figures on the website thing.. the two string should have been parallel but they were not. I think my theory is correct about the rear n/s being on the pop based on how I set it up. I’ll leave it for now until tyre city opens back up. It’s not like I’m going to do many miles in it...

[Themoog2]

Drat and triple drat!
I was just fiddling about under the car when I noticed that the n/s brake pipe was weeping slightly. The one that goes from the caliper, clipped onto the control arm then to the hard line.
When i wire brushed it then applied anti rust fluid I did think it was a bit damp but put that down to Wd40 that I had sprayed on it..
Anyway I've just ordered both sides for £34 so not too bad. Just a tad inconvenient..