328 ABS rear wheel suspension & wheel bearings refurbishment

below pics show the new bearings in position
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both hubs ready for being installed:
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the A-arms are powder coated and look absolutely like new. Costs were surprisingly low to me. Including the 2 springs and swaybar just 140 Euro!
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Now the new bushings are to be installed in the A-arms, the drive shafts receive new rubber covers and I have to collect the renovated shock-absorbers next week.

 

Today March 24th the job is basically done and the 328 is back on its wheels, so now its time to resume what happened. The A-arms received new bushings which I ordered from Superformance, see picture. I do not show the pressing out of the old ones and pressing in the new ones since this was not a hard job at all but required the right press and patience. The Superformance set has slightly harder ones (having a darker colour to makes them easy recognizable) on the hub side. Note that these need to be welded with 2 spot weldings on the frame side, same as when the old ones had.
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The drive shafts were a real dirty job by removing the old molypdenum grease. The homekineets were all in top shape so the rubbers were replaced by new ones and the homokineets were filled with new molybdenum grease. When installing them back you will need to put some of the grease also in the oppposing spaces in the wheel hub and on the differential side, see picture below:

 

The shockabsorbers have been completely recondioned inside and outside by a specialist in the Netherlands. The have been disamantled, oild viscosity measured and replaced and all parts inspected. The parts inside were all like new and basically besides the oil its the rubbers that needed replaced and of course the bushings op top and on the bottom. The shockabsorbers received a new original respray and got new (Original classic style) Koni stickers: 1st pic shows the springs are removed, the 2nd shows that the finish outside was poor and there was corrosion on the surface.

 

below picture shows one of the 2 rear shockabsorbers is opened. I was not there when the shock absorbers were reconditioned and I only have few pics which are however unclear to me. When they were closed again the old paint was removed with a metal brush on a handheld drill, see the 2nd picture:
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The respray is done with Motip 42200 that matches the exact original colour. First pic is from the Motip spray can and 2nd is the result. The discs I had powdercoated as informed earlier because they had slight corrosion that was removed by sandblasting.
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Assembling the shockabsorbers with the springs need an installation where the absorbers are positioned upside down, the spring is moved over the absorber and than the spring is forced hydraulically to reach the insert where the disc is installed with the (slightly less then) half round brackets, see picture. 2nd picture is the result
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Than it became the time to reassemble. Of course need the drive shafts to be mounted firstly on the differental side. To not forget to put the Mo. grease on the differential side and just mount it back the opposite way when removing it. I ordered new bolts and locking nuts. Bolts are M10x1.25 (metric fine thread) and high strength class 12.9. The Original all steel locking nuts are expensive whilst they are often replaced by more modern (nylon) lock nuts that might even be better whilst you cannot see them. I also applied here the after market and used the Original ones only on the hub side. Torgue is 80NM which requires serious power so use the ability to rotate the shaft by putting gearbox in neutral to find the best position and put in 1st gear to apply power. Of course before using power firstly work in a kind of opposing sequense to finx the 6 bolts and do not forget the double washers and extra washer/spacer on the LH side.
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Actually was I also rurprised that the bushings were not bad at all. Still the new ones will make the car feel different (I hope). Jack stands is Always an issue and I did not use proper equipment which is...………..stupid

 

After the drive shafts I remounted the under A-arms with the forks already mounted to the A-arms. That is basically easy but the new rubbers may demand some force to allow the forks to slide over them. I decided to switch the position of the bolt going through the bushes on the differential side because inserting them from the outside is difficult in my car since it gets in contact with the bottom of the drop-gear housing between gearbox and bellhousing and the bolt on the other side has a similar issue so the nuts on the outside and shifting the bolts from the inside of the A-arm. The shokabsorber followed that only needs fixed with one bolt on the top and then the top A-arm. Below the well known scheme but I added the required torgues.
The torgues I did not apply and instead all is just hand tight because when lowering the car you want that the bushings have their normal rest position when fixed with the appropriate torques:

 

The wheel hub was also surprisingly easy to re-install. First to the shockabsorber, than the bottom A-arm and the top A-arm comes last. But see that the handbrake cable is inserted through the guide welded on the bottom A-arm and is inseted through its loose metal cap and ends inside the hub:
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Assembling the handbrake requires some patience. First you start to connect the hook to the rectangular end of the handbrake cable followed by the 2 handbrake shoes that needs fixed with the springloaded pins that insert in their holes of the hub. In these holes are small round plates that I kept in position during fitting with a hollow pipe that fits inside and allows the pins to go through the small rouns plates. Use a allen-key that suits the top of the pins to push the pins inside and rotate them 45 degrees allowing the shaped ends torest in the inserts of the small rouns plates. Sounds easy but requires some trial and error. Than on the top the adjustment set needs installed which can be done by hand and some force. Ensure the adjustment screw is turned fully inside. Last but not least are the springs that needs hooked on one shoe side hole and than I used steel wire to pull them by hand to just above the other hole and pushed them inside the hole with a screwdriver.

 

When doing th other side handbrake assembly see for some slack so the hook can slide in the rectangular end of the bandbrake cable. Not too much as I did because it can than be unhooked during assembly of the rest and you must start all over again………..dont do that at the end of the day is my personal experience

 

the result
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The handbrakes need to be adjusted and I guess I applied the general known system after the disks were mounted. With a larger screw driver make the shoes to contact the inner wal of the disks and than turn them back 3 or 4 teeth of the small adjustment gear wheel (the item in the middle of the adjustment set.

 

When doing this or part of the job, dont hesitate to ask any questions you like.

 

you are absolutely right, so I will see to get a set.

 

Appreciate your reaction Lester and Moysiuan. Before I start any job I Always take much info from this site thanks to guys willing to share their experiences and frustrations