Greetings. I've got a 1978 that had a set of vintage ST swaybars front & rear - 28mm & 22mm. The front bushings (bar to car) disintegrated and I've been unable to locate replacements. I stumbled across a 1980 320is in the local Pull-A-Part and scored the front and rear swaybars, the 3.91 lsd, sport wheel, and Recaro's. Today I pulled the old 28mm front bar and was going to replace it with the 1980 320is bar. Guess what? The 2 piece bar to control arm bushings have a smaller inner diameter than the threaded ends of the 1980 320is bar. Should I have expected this? Are my old bushings a special ST deal and if I buy stock bushings will they have the correct inner diameter? My worthless local BMW dealer doesn't have any in stock to compare to. Now I'm not sure if this IS bar will even work on my 1978. I need help. Thanks.

Just to make sure we are on the same page, you are in need of the 4 cone bushings (2 per CA)?

If this is the case I have 4 new FIBI bushing I can sell you.

And no, an iS bar will not work with your pre 80 E21. Some 79's, those produced after October of 78 will not work either, as they are classified to be in the 80-83 E21's.

The control arms are also different and this is why the bushings are also different.

And no, an iS bar will not work with your pre 80 E21. Some 79's, those produced after October of 78 will not work either, as they are classified to be in the 80-83 E21's.



I have the iS rear sway bar on mine....:confused

I have the iS rear sway bar on mine....:confused

Simple reading comprehension would see that I was referring to the iS bar to control arm.

Simple reading comprehension would see that I was referring to the iS bar to control arm.

not even going to argue with you....:rolleyes

LOL @ CJ, u crack me up man....

Whatever, he was obviously talking about the front swaybar.

*EDIT: and I'm a retard.

You've got a couple problems here, the ST sway bars are out of production and they probably don't sell the bar to frame bushings anymore-call them and ask... The stock front bar to frame bushings will have a different ID and won't work correctly with the large ST bar.

The late front parts will NOT fit correctly on the early chassis, I tried converting my '78 to late control arms and sway bar but the sway bar mounts to the frame in a slightly different location so without some fab work it's not going to work.

ken

Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately, that's not good news. I contacted ST about 10 months ago. They no longer have the bushings. I've called several vendors without any luck. racetep sells some 25mm bushings but the machine shops I've talked to don't think that boring them out is a viable option. racetep lists a set of bars, 25mm & 19mm with bushings, for $325 - not sure if they are for the early e21 or later models. And who knows how long they will supply bushings? 3 years from now I may be unable to find 25mm bushings either and be in the same situation again. Anybody know of other decent sources for bars for a 1978 320i. Replacement seems to be my only realistic option at this point. I'm just tired of watching the car sit.

Well, this situation is due to the age of the car, and the fact that the early models had different control arms and sway bars than the later models.

You choices become limited.
I have a 28 mm front dinan bar, and suspect that I have exactly the same problem as you in that its for the later model subframe and control arms that do not work with my 79 323i. Both CJ and I have purchased the control arms from Fred at e21 parts only to find out that we both have the early style arms.

My only thoughts where how hard is it to convert the whole subframe and control arms to the later model ones? If it was a doable swap...that could be the workaround.

We compared pictures of the front subframe and control arms a while back on Tricord's board and I never heard if anyone who had the earlier 78 subframe swaped theirs for the later one.....

Changing the subframe is not the cure, the problem lies with the location of the sway bar mounts on the body. If you could modify those to the correct position you could use the late control arms and swaybars. It doesn't seem to be that big of deal if you can cut and weld well.

ken

I swaped my 81' 320 front-suspension onto my 79' 320 w/no problems, however', ALL of my 81's front-suspension components were used front-subframe included! When swaping one for the other I did notice the difference in the earlyer-style' front-controller arm's from 81' to 79' and they are different, I too have ST-sway bars 25mm front/19mm rear and the 81' style-bar could-not be used in conjuntion with earlier-style arm's otherwise I would've tried. I know 25mm's is close to aprox. 1inch my bushings came w/my kit, I know Jegs sells universal-polly "sway-bar" bushings they go by american measurements 1in, 1.5inch etc. so as a back-up I could go there if I had to for sway-bar polly-bushings, BUT they are "universal" so fittment to the OEM-bmw sway-bar bracket's would be an issue but it's a back-up plan if need be. My front controller-arm to sway-bar bushing's were manufactured by a company called "RTRS" which to my knowledge is no-longer in bussiness the only other place I know of that makes urethane controller-arm bushings right now is e21parts.net, hope this helps out a little, peace out.

I swaped my 81' 320 front-suspension onto my 79' 320 w/no problems, however', ALL of my 81's front-suspension components were used front-subframe included! When swaping one for the other I did notice the difference in the earlyer-style' front-controller arm's from 81' to 79' and they are different, I too have ST-sway bars 25mm front/19mm rear and the 81' style-bar could-not be used in conjuntion with earlier-style arm's otherwise I would've tried. I know 25mm's is close to aprox. 1inch my bushings came w/my kit, I know Jegs sells universal-polly "sway-bar" bushings they go by american measurements 1in, 1.5inch etc. so as a back-up I could go there if I had to for sway-bar polly-bushings, BUT they are "universal" so fittment to the OEM-bmw sway-bar bracket's would be an issue but it's a back-up plan if need be. My front controller-arm to sway-bar bushing's were manufactured by a company called "RTRS" which to my knowledge is no-longer in bussiness the only other place I know of that makes urethane controller-arm bushings right now is e21parts.net, hope this helps out a little, peace out.

hmm...I do not have access to a welder, so I may swap the whole front subframe and control arms on my 323i.

But...the key question is which one handles better...holding everything else on the car constant...the old style subframe or the new style one.....

I swaped my 81' 320 front-suspension onto my 79' 320 w/no problems
What was the manufacture date of the '79? The later '79's had the new style sway/control arm.

Joe, it has nothing to do with the subframe. Read Ken's post 5 times and repeat it back to me.

I don't think one will handle better than the other, especially on the street. And we all know its not like you're ever going to race or even autox your 323. Buy poly bushings and be done with it. If you still haven't figured out where to get poly bushings for your old style control arms then do a search on Tricord. There is a company in the UK that sells them.

I could find out the manuf.-date of my 79' if that would help anyone here? I did notice that the lower-controller arms were different, so different in fact that I could tell side-by-side "visually" that one was early-style and my new one's were 80'-on, so to speak. I just swaped both front and rear suspension's from my 81' to my 79' because my 81' had all new components on them and my 79's front and rear suspensions are now on my 81' if that makes any difference. I don't know if the actual "body" of the e21 changed from 77' to mid to late of 79' but my 79' did have some weird changes like a single-row timing chain, and a left-rear exhaust exit like my 81' I even used my 81's ANSA on my 79' and it mounted identical which was kinda' weird but it all worked fine. I got pics. of the suspension on my myspace profile myspace.com/BMWdna if anyone want to take a looksee, peace out.:buttrock