E30/E36 Front Control Arm Ball Joint Replacement - Don't Buy Control Arms

Pressing out old ball joints and pressing in new ones is very easy on E30s and E36s. They share the same Lemforder inner and outer ball joints, so there's no reason to buy new control arms just for the ball joints. E36 M3 control arms are ~$250 each, whereas all 4 ball joints from FCPeuro was only ~$80 shipped.
All you need is access to a 12-ton press. I know this sounds like a big hurdle, but I've gone to a transmission machine shop and had them press my ball joints out before for ~$20. I did this with the OEM control arm bushing as well back in the day before I moved to poly.
I finally decided to pick a cheap 12-ton press up on black friday, and it's absolute junk :) So I had to bring out my inner Bruce Lee on it once I was done.

[@georg_der_falsche3560]

I am from Bavaria/Germany and I had to search for this DIY video for the E36 in english language because there is not even one video in German language showing this kind of work on youtube. Thank you so much! Even in Germany most garages would not do this work in such a correct way like you did.

[@josepeixoto3384]

*Wow man, thanks a bunch, great explanations;
You explained that those ball joints there are directional, did not know that, so i will mark the orientation of the old ones before removal !*

[@aryaniqbal5599]

Ur awesome dude i see a big career you can make out of CZcams keep up the awesome work✌️

[@anishapatel1394]

Bruh gg just came here from your f1 comment 🤘😊

[@mihaimalene405]

Thanks a lot for your time! really nice!

[@dariofernandezaparicio4843]

thank you for information. I searched. good work

[@cantonm3racer]

Excellent video how to!! Thank you sir!

[@macelius]

Good video on this, thanks.

[@longrangevolley425]

Do you know if you can replace the inner balljoints on the e46 ? i have seen people replacing outer ones but never inner

[@amindaou5711]

This arm for E30 right ? I have e36 it has the same arm . Is the outer ball joint e36 match with e30 arm 🤔

[@Carpythesharky]

I believe E30 and E36 arms are different. However, the E36 arm takes the same ball joints as the E30 does. Different arms, same ball joints.

[@amindaou5711]

@Carpythesharky that's I need to know ( same ball joints) thanks for reply 🙏 👍