1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

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Sbeaud
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1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Refreshing my suspension with new shocks and bushings. I'm replacing the front shocks with Bilsteins. I understand since they're gas shocks they don't need the oil in the strut as do the OEM versions. Any thoughts on putting a small amount of some type of lubricant/anti-corrosion fluid in them to prevent corrosion?

Thanks

Scott
BMW M6 Left Front Suspension.jpg
BMW M6 Left Front Suspension.jpg (402.34 KiB) Viewed 2298 times
BMW M6 Front Strut - Clean.jpg
BMW M6 Front Strut - Clean.jpg (480.68 KiB) Viewed 2298 times
1988 M6
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Slownrusty
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Slownrusty »

Scott - That's what I do, a few ML of oil in the housing to prevent corrosion.

Looking good!
Yasin
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Thanks Yasin.
1988 M6
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Another question.

Maybe I'm a little slow today, but I'm fitting the Bilstein shocks into the front struts and I don't understand the assembly. Per the Bilstein instructions the white plastic ring (#2) should be over the strut housing (#4). But the ID of the plastic ring is smaller than the OD of the threaded lock ring (#3). How do you get the plastic ring over the threaded lock ring and on the OD of the strut housing?

Thanks

Scott
Attachments
BMW M6 Front Strut with Bilstein Shock showing Plastic Ring.jpg
BMW M6 Front Strut with Bilstein Shock showing Plastic Ring.jpg (257.52 KiB) Viewed 2279 times
BMW M6 Front Strut with Bilstein Shock.jpg
BMW M6 Front Strut with Bilstein Shock.jpg (419.84 KiB) Viewed 2279 times
BMW M6 Bilstein Front Shock Instructions.jpg
BMW M6 Bilstein Front Shock Instructions.jpg (355.66 KiB) Viewed 2279 times
1988 M6
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Thanks very much for the feedback. Yes, I agree that is how I read it as well. But the shock is shipped with the plastic ring already on the shock "captured" between the lock ring and the bellows. Is the bellows removable?

Thanks

Scott
1988 M6
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Slownrusty
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Slownrusty »

Scott - I've got a new set of B8s waiting to go on my M635 (I'm a week away from actual installation) and will see if I can throw together some pictures on this for you.

Cheers,
Yasin
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Thanks very much Yasin. Unfortunately I'm trying to assemble it this week. I have a BMW club drive to Traverse City in a couple weeks and I'll be out of town for a while, so time is running short. I'll be painting the struts today, so looking to assemble tomorrow or the next day. Open to any other suggestions/thoughts! Seems like something simple and I'm just missing the obvious answer...

Thanks

Scott
1988 M6
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Solved. The bellows is indeed removable. I was concerned about pulling too hard and tearing it. Pulling upwards released it.

Thanks!

Scott
BMW M6 Front Strut with Bilstein Shock without bellows.jpg
BMW M6 Front Strut with Bilstein Shock without bellows.jpg (290.9 KiB) Viewed 2249 times
1988 M6
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Slownrusty
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Slownrusty »

Scott - Glad you got it figured out....I'm the only one allowed to have a "senior moment" :)
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Ok, everything is on the car and I met my timeline goal of taking it to the Motor City BMW Car Club of America drive to Traverse City, Michigan. The drive was a little wet, but the destination is great. Hagerty hosted a very nice dinner at their "Garage" (part garage, mostly museum and event space). Only issue is a clunk that sounds like something is loose in the left rear strut/shock. Will need some diagnosis. I'm absolutely positive I torqued everything down (Yasin, maybe a senior moment?) :oops: . I'm going to share my part list to document the repair.
1988 BMW M6 Front Suspension Parts Replaced.jpg
1988 BMW M6 Front Suspension Parts Replaced.jpg (153.84 KiB) Viewed 2117 times
1988 BMW M6 Front Suspension Parts Replaced.jpg
1988 BMW M6 Front Suspension Parts Replaced.jpg (153.84 KiB) Viewed 2117 times
1988 BMW M6 Rear Suspension Parts Replaced.jpg
1988 BMW M6 Rear Suspension Parts Replaced.jpg (182.85 KiB) Viewed 2117 times
Some pics of the drive. You can see that there were a few non-BMWs that joined us - the more the merrier.
220521 BMW Motor City Club Drive - 1.jpg
220521 BMW Motor City Club Drive - 1.jpg (802.83 KiB) Viewed 2117 times
Hmm. won't let me add any more images. I'll follow up with another post.

Scott
Attachments
1988 BMW M6 Front Suspension Parts Replaced - 1.jpg
1988 BMW M6 Front Suspension Parts Replaced - 1.jpg (213.02 KiB) Viewed 2117 times
1988 M6
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Okay, couple things. Here are the additional images that the site would not load in my previous post.
220521 BMW Motor City Club Drive - 2.jpg
220521 BMW Motor City Club Drive - 2.jpg (740 KiB) Viewed 2116 times
220521 BMW Motor City Club Drive - 3.jpg
220521 BMW Motor City Club Drive - 3.jpg (486.67 KiB) Viewed 2116 times
Second item: For some reason I always have issues loading images. I use a snippet to capture an image, then save it to my hard drive. I then "add and attachment" noting that I want it placed inline. The site often repeats images, and in the my previous posting it scrambles the order. This is even though the draft shows the image attachment .jpg in the correct order. Anybody else have similar issues?

Thanks

Scott
1988 M6
TimU
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by TimU »

Nice job - I love your simple acts of including RealOEM diagrams and numbers to your parts list.
I'm totally stealing this for my own shopping lists!

Regarding your NLA part, 37121114729 Support, this is showing as available at Schmiedmann.
https://www.schmiedmann.com/en/product/ ... -1-114-729
04/1986 635csi Euro spec
Australian Delivered, RHD
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Sbeaud
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Re: 1988 M6 Suspension Refresh

Post by Sbeaud »

Thanks Tim. I thought about pursuing the part further, but it's a relatively innocuous part that is not visible so I just reused the old one. To that point the parts chosen were probably a little overkill, but I was on a timeline and could not afford to disassemble then react to an unexpected part replacement. Some of the BMW parts took 1.5-2 months to receive from Germany so I did not want to risk having the car out of commission that long.

Scott
1988 M6
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