Some of you will remember that on my 1985 900i I had a problem when I replaced all the balljoints, etc. that on the RHS lower control arm the nut securing the shock to the control arm wouldn't tighten beyond about 20 ft/lb's...
Well today I got out my brand new nut splitter set (a couple of pics going on the galleries tonight!) and cut off the nut. What I found was a completely destroyed thread on the 'bolt' of the lower control arm - it means I have to replace the control arm but that's a good challenge since I'm getting quite confident with working on drivetrain-related parts of the car now. 8-)
I will probably 'borrow' the matching one from the donor car (I already used the steering swivel member and wheel hub from that side of the donor car on the 900i!), and I have a new one coming from the US that I will keep as a spare if the one on the donor car has a ruined thread too.
So it's a bit annoying that the thread is ruined but at least I haven't been driving the car on the road (it's not registered!), and I still need to replace the rear springs which are problematic and I'm sure one or both of them has 'collapsed' somewhat so the car doesn't track properly over bumps when I've been 'test-driving' it to check out how the stuff I've fixed so far behaves.
Craig.