Bushings, rod bearings, swaybars, JWT PP/2001 disk. Wow!

[Peter Serwe]

Well, after quite a long time dead in the water,
and a few posts on the subject I finally got my
car all back together.  Looks like the lower pan's
seeping, but that's pretty simple to regoo.

Meticulously torqued everything, strictly following
FSM directions, everything seems great so far.

Got my front progress bar on, set to middle,
that with the all the bushings on the control
arms, new ball joints, and my caster set to max
on the GC plates make for a car that feels nothing
short of amazing in the front end.  The torque mount
inserts help amazingly, there is no longer any shifter
back and forth action on acceleration/deceleration.

I should manage to get the rear end all sorted out
tomorrow, I *might* have to set the rear bar for
full stiff (oversteer) *chuckle*.  I am wondering what pulls
more G on a skidpad though, full soft front, medium rear
with the end result being a slight tendency to push or
soft front/full stiff rear for oversteer?  I'll probably have
to try it both ways.

I know many of you folks have done all kinds of stuff like
this before, but for the ones who haven't, all I can say
is no BMW feels this good.  I can't believe I ignored
the bushings so long, the swaybars don't hurt, either.

There is no longer ANY rubber whatsoever in my suspension.
If you've never had pillowball shock mounts, you'd think they'd
be harsh, not a chance.

I could go on and on and on and on.. But words just don't do
justice to what it's like driving a rebushed car.  I don't dare
step on the gas hard, I'd like to get 500 miles on the clutch
and rod bearings before I put any power down.

Lastly, I can't express enough how much I've gained
from this list, and how much owning one of these ugly
little econoboxes has actually changed my life.

Wow.

P.S.  I think I'm going to actually have to
start making it to some autocrosses!  I don't
have any excuses left.  Oh wait, 8" springs
and cornerweighting..

--
Peter Serwe <peter@easytree.net>
Cheaper, Faster, Better, pick any two.
finger peter@easytree.net for public pgp key