E36 Front Lower Control Arm Replacment DIY
There are two tools that are essential for this job:
22mm Flex-Head Ratcheting Wrench
(When removing the center ball joint nut, space is very limited, using a standard wrench you’re only able to turn the nut a quarter of a revolution at a time, and must flip the wrench each turn. A ratcheting wrench will save you considerable time and agony, trust me.)
Pickle Forks
A nice video showing the removal of the front lower control arm on an E36 chassis.
Torque specs:
– Ball joint to cross member 85 Nm / 62 ft-lb
– Ball joint to steering arm 65 Nm / 48 ft-lb
– Bushing carrier (lollipop) to body 47 Nm / 34 ft-lb
– Sway bar drop link (M8) 42 Nm / 31 ft-lb
– Wheel to hub 100 +-10 Nm / 74 +-7 ft-lb
Just a quick note, if you’re doing this on an E36 M3 the motor mounts get in the way of using that GearWrench, so you have to either go in from the top (if you can) or do the quarter-revolution (if that) at-a-time thing with those inner nuts. I don’t know if the same issue is present with the non-M cars. Definitely won’t fit on either side.