The D2 suspension is completely different to the D1.
BMW fitted neutral radius steering which made them much more stable on the highway but introduced ball joints rather than swivels. the ball joints can fail if neglected like the boots cracking and nobody adding grease. The rear has a Watts linkage instead of the centre ball joint and longer leading arms.
Mine are now at 236KK with gone boots but greased every oil change with bodged boots made up from rubber and spit. AFAI can tell there is no movement and they are fine.
Couple of differences with V8 and TD5. With a diesel you largely cannot increase speed greatly uphill as you cannot really kick down like a V8 and go. BUT the TD5 is a much better tow vehicle as you can maintain speed up hills where the V8 will die in the bum as the TD5 has lots of torque at 2000Rpm wheras the V8 does not. My RRC 3.9 was well tuned with heads, chip, dyno tune, and at the end Thor manifold for torque but still could not match my TD5 for torque.
The Traction control on D2s is great and only second best to lockers or torque biassing diffs if the brakes are maintained and have soft pads.
Make sure you get one with a centre diff lock so unless you are handy avoid 2002 . All D2As have centre diff lock and most importantly the linkages.
Regards PhilipA
