Lots of new BMW parts!
Getting this very stiff rubber piece on the piston is tough! I had to resort to using a small jewelers screwdriver for leverage to pry it on there and it still took about 15 or 20 minutes to get it on straight in the underlying groove. Just keep at it you’ll get it eventually.
Here is what that blasted needle bearing looks like and the reason for all of this mess. This is a bad design, BMW dropped the ball here. The outside edge of these rollers will always try to spin at a faster rate than the inside edge causing these things to partially slide and slip along and eventually wearing out and turning to dust as I found out.
Previous versions of this clutch actuator design instead used a roller bearing with round balls, much better way to go in my opinion. I have been thinking of a way to use the old bearing in my clutch, I think it can be done by just machining down the face of the piston and a bit of the end that contacts the adjustment screw to compensate for the thicker roller bearing. More info on the differences and changes of the design over the years on this excellent website here.
With all the new parts assembled in my hands I now understand how this mechanism works, from the drawings I couldn’t quite understand what kept the end of the rod from drilling through the pressure plate (like mine did) without needing to be lubricated. Now I see, when under pressure to open the clutch the whole rod spins freely (from the silvery bearing forward) and the piston remains stationary.
Like I mentioned before the washer on the end of the pushrod was fused to the shaft on one side and the other end mushroomed and flared out which made the removal of the old rod impossible from either direction. I had to cut it apart to get it out. Cue picture of sparks flying because it looks cool.
