[Surly73]

Originally Posted by Luky

Started the rears and got the top 3 nuts on each side loosened. Also got the big bottom nut loose on each side. Was going to pull off the rear arm for removal per the video, but I broke my neighbors T40 socket getting the front end links torqued (craftsman too). The lower rear ball joint also uses the T40... So I am heading up to Lowes to get a new one this morning. Although I think I will remove the federwell liner instead now that I have read that piece of wisdom.

With well liner removed there's no need to remove anything else (as I see you're going to try next). I also broke my T40 retorquing sway bar links.

I got new top plates and spring pads for both front and rear so I can keep the originals as full assemblies. The new self threading screws for the front top are more robust. The original were E12, but the heads on the new ones were E16. Same threads and length. Also the lock nut on the front lower wishbone bolt is different. The original has a nyloc style insert with a built in washer, and the new ones are simple flange nuts with "tight" threads on one end (definitely single use) This looks to be a cost reduction effort (we do a lot of this at work). I put some blue lock-tite on these as the 66 ftlbs from TIS seemed low...

My originals were hex head and seemed much lighter weight than the replacements. Not that those are highly torque or anything. I'll have a little more to say on those bolts in my second part update coming soon.

As I see you've written later, the bottom fork to wishbone bolt is NOT 66 ft-lbs. It's 66 ft-lbs to joint and then 180 degrees. That is REALLY tight. If you're at 66, don't drive. I could only manage about 160 degrees on those without my spidey sense telling me I was going to break something. Meanwhile, all the youtubers do a couple bangs on a 3/8" drive electric impact on the same used bolt and call it a day.

Any fastener shown in TIS with a joint + angle I will never reuse except in emergencies (and temporarily). Call me overly anal if you like - so are the Germans who designed this thing

I do have a question from the TIS torque chart. For the front strut bottom bolt (RWD) it says to torque to 90 Nm (66 ftlb). This seemed loose compared to the removal force. However it also say 180 degree? Does this mean to torque to 66 ftlb and then go another 180 degrees?

The front end links have a similar callout of (45 Nm) 33 ftlb & 45 degree....

You've got it

Also the rear shock bottom bolt torque chart calls out M16 = 250 Nm (184 ftlb) or M14 = 165 Nm (122 ftlbs) so looks like you have to measure the bolt threads to see which size you have.

Going from memory different models have different bolt sizes. You'll see that only one size applies to the F10. I think the F10 M5 is one of the models which has the smaller bolt (oddly).

Originally Posted by MatthewLC

@Surly73 good luck with the rest, hopefully it all works out well! I have no idea how much additional complexity an xi adds to this job but it seems like you've figured out a decent process.

A lot. I'm still a little nervous about my front CV joints which slid apart internallly during the process on both size. I don't BELIEVE that I will have allowed any front diff fluid to escape into the gaiters. I think you have to pull the drive shaft for that to happen. Honestly I don't know and I still have that nagging in the back of my mind. Everything worked find on the test drive.

Like I mentioned earlier the only issue I had with mine was getting enough droop to get the OEM spring/shock combo out in the front. Everyone seems to have a different method of achieving that, my goal was to take as little apart as possible. I just loosened the front rack a little to give the suspension so more droop and was able to get everything out without removing anything else (including sway bar or any other control arm). I think this may only apply to a RWD though.

I don't think that would simplify it enough on an X-drive with the driveshafts. If you dropped the rack I think that means you had to remove the stiffening plate. Watch out for those single-use torque to yield fasteners there too. I order them in sets of 10 from ECS now.

I was fortunate that I had an impact gun to remove the rear lower shock bolt so it wasn't a struggle for me. You will need a shallow socket, swivel and extensions to get at it as it's pretty tight.

I am a little surprised that swivels would transmit enough torque without breaking. Cool. I got it loose on the back with a breaker bar. I don't think I could have loosened my LF (which was tighter everywhere than RF) without air impact. It took 3 rounds of the complete 8gal tank on my compressor to get it off. That's the 66 ft-lbs + 180 degrees one.

You just need to figure out the process that works for you. Once that's done the job becomes pretty quick. The first time I did mine it probably took me 4 hours. Now that I know what works, I could probably swap everything over in an 1.5 hours.

I found that in the rear. The front took me a long time. Lots of thinking, back inside to look at torques and TIS again. Devising undocumented helpful things like pulling the front sway entirely. Thinking things through so that I wouldn't have to undo any single-use fasteners to redo something. I did RF first and thought I figured out stuff but then different stuff slowed me down on the LF.

I basically unpacked, built, bled, tested my Quickjack and raised the car on Friday AM. Day job Friday PM. Got started on the rears and I think got one corner 100% complete Friday PM. Had some other things to take care of Saturday AM until about 10-1030 when I started again, and I finished at 8PM. I worked alone, no helper, stopped for a few breaks and research here and there. Working alone increased time to get the strut tops aligned and things like that for sure.