Today on my Bimmer I...

Replaced my fuel filler hose and clamp. Cleaned the alternator air intake and found leaves...
Installed 4 nutserts for my x-brace install...
Filled my ATF in the steering reservoir, so it can leak out until I get to replace the hoses.

Now on to patching drywall I side the house from a water leak.

Changed out the faulty backup light switch. Note to self: buy metric wrench set. Using ratchet with deep socket set was a PITA.

Also applied undercoating down below, fixed the foam rubbing on the drive shaft, and noticed how messy a bulging oil filter cap o-ring can be.

Today, well pics explain:



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cleaned the icv and TB on the 528 (m52tu isnt hard to work on, different but easy)

changed the oil on the 328

uh oh Matt is at it again....

What was wrong with that car ?

Nothing wrong, just decided I can get more for it by parting it out. Shell is pending sold, motor is for my E30.

Judging from the floor, it leaks coolant and oil like a sieve.

Lol

Worked my tail off on the 633. Eddie came over at 8 and we got started. Great fun with stuck fasteners, a home made exhaust that was welded in one piece from exhaust manifold to tips ( including welded to the chassis!) 11 hours later the entire rear suspension/diff is on the ground. Tomorrow we take that apart, replace all the trailing arm bushings and rear crossmember bushings (which fell apart when we unbolted them) and put it all back in the car. I did a lot of other little things while I was under there like put the rest of the new shifter bushings in and replaced the rear transmission mounts.

I'm so tired I can hardly move.

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Originally Posted by hornhospital

Worked my tail off on the 633. Eddie came over at 8 and we got started. Great fun with stuck fasteners, a home made exhaust that was welded in one piece from exhaust manifold to tips ( including welded to the chassis!) 11 hours later the entire rear suspension/diff is on the ground. Tomorrow we take that apart, replace all the trailing arm bushings and rear crossmember bushings (which fell apart when we unbolted them) and put it all back in the car. I did a lot of other little things while I was under there like put the rest of the new shifter bushings in and replaced the rear transmission mounts.

I'm so tired I can hardly move.

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Looking awesome happy to see progress on her again
What exactly did you do on this somewhat questionable exhaust hahaha.
Aftermarket setup or did you try and keep it somewhat quiet?

Originally Posted by bimmer claus

Looking awesome happy to see progress on her again
What exactly did you do on this somewhat questionable exhaust hahaha.
Aftermarket setup or did you try and keep it somewhat quiet?

The car came with the home-brewed exhaust. It consists of the two downpipes off the exhaust manifolds which merge into one larger pipe, then split again into two pipes. They then enter a no-name oval muffler (wide part of oval oriented up-down) and twin tips out the back. Every joint was welded (and not very nicely, either...something I'm going to fix). The manifold nuts were rusty nubs, and not one of the six would move. After struggling for 30 minutes, I said screw this and cut the single pipe on a straight section a few inches behind the place where the twin downpipes merged. I had to cut the welded-in-place hanger at the rear (what the heck were they thinking???) The pipe will be joined with a welded-on sleeve on the forward end, and a single exhaust clamp on the trailing joint.

The system is not loud at all inside the car, but it has a heck of a rumble at idle from outside, and a really snarly sound when you romp on it. At cruising throttle it's just enough throaty sound to be noticeable but not too much. Very pleasing.

Good lord what a day we had Thursday! We started at 8 both Wednesday and Thursday, and worked until 7:30 Wednesday night, but got everything out in one day (exhaust, driveshaft, entire rear suspension except for the shocks which we left hanging from the upper mounts). I finished putting in the shifter bushings we couldn't do last time because we couldn't get the front flex disc off the driveshaft. I figured out how to get it off (leverage and a BIG hammer), then took the shifter apart and made a new bushing for the front shifter joint, and put the new dust boot on below the transmission tunnel. The old one was nothing but a tattered piece of rubber with a huge hole in the middle. The new bushing (in addition to the previous new bushings on the rear shifter joint) REALLY tightened up the shifter. MUCH better now. That was Wednesday.

Thursday we started with Eddie cleaning and painting parts, and me making a bushing remover/installer set of tools to push out the ruined big bushings in the rear subframe. That was no problem. They pressed right out and then we went to the trailing arm bushings.....different story. I couldn't position the trailing arms on my 12 ton hydraulic press to get a straight shot at the bushings. We went to the hardware store and bought some 7/16" all-thread and washers and nuts. I made a pusher piece just smaller than the bushing, and a receiver piece that was just bigger than the bushing and deep enough for the bushing to pull into the space between the end and the large washer that held the rod in the center of the receiver. We put it together on the first bushing....and did nothing but bend the wrench and twist the all-thread. Never budged the old bushing. We packed everything into the back of Eddie's truck and headed to the machine shop where I worked for 27 years to use their arbor press and/or hydraulic press. We could get the trailing arms into the arbor press, but that 5 ton+ press wouldn't move the bushings either. The hydraulic press had the same problem as mine...no matter how you put the arm up there, the crosspieces on the press kept the bushing from getting directly under the pusher pin. We ended up pressing JUST the center out of the bushings on the arbor press and then hack-sawing the outer sleeve in two. Then they all practically fell out. That took almost two hours. Then we tried pressing a new bushing in using the arbor press. It went in about 3/4ths of the way and stopped. At this point it was well after the machine shop usually closes, so I told Eddie let's go back to my shop and I'll modify MY press so we could get the arms under the pusher pin. That took another 2 hours+. It was almost dark by the time we got the press modification done. It worked! We got all the bushings pressed in and assembled the rear subframe/trailing arms, drug the whole mess back under the car and jacked it up into place. It bolted in place no problem. Then I started assembling the emergency brakes. Got the passenger's side done, then moved to the driver's side. Got as far as the last step, putting the return springs in place....and the upper spring was missing from the box of parts. This makes no sense. We took the parts off each side individually and put each in a separate box that was then left right beside the car. Everything we put in that drivers side box was there, including the tiny (3/16" X 1/4") pin that connects the E-brake cable to the lever inside the brake, but the spring was gone. We spent almost an hour looking for it and gave up at 9. I'll have to find one and finish the job later, since Eddie can't come back any time soon. At least I didn't spend most of the day on my back under the car!

When I get done EVERY piece of the suspension will be new or have new bushings. Look up what a complete set of Lemforder or Meyle suspension parts cost...every bushing, every control arm, every motor, differential and transmission mount. (the shocks were new when he bought the car...OEM Sachs).

Mother of god. That car better love you when your done progress sounds like it's going fast 0.o. Which is surprising to say the least can't wait to see some more pictures

yestorday picked up a over flow cap and thermastate gaskets and washed my car. today went back to the dealer and got a trans filler plug

Today I filled my transmission, because I have an annoying leak coming from the cooler. I haven't had the time to look exactly where the leak is.

Did the thermastate and found the inside of my expansion tank is all craked to chit

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Originally Posted by hornhospital

(long epicness, edited for ease of reading )

Wow you were NOT kidding when you said I needed to read it on here. Sounds like an experience trying to do anything on Ash... maybe she's picking up bad habits? I do think it's more than time to come visit again and check out all this progress y'all are making! Let's hope Ash can make it this time instead of le duck.

Originally Posted by redE36girl

Did the thermastate and found the inside of my expansion tank is all craked to chit

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Better now than on the side of the road one day. I don't know what all you've done on her so far but after that you should definitely consider an entire cooling system upgrade. I know I had nightmares (literally, yes, I'm serious) about mine until I replaced pretty much everything.

How are the wheels now Amber? Get everything sorted finally?

Yep for the most part. The rears rub pretty bad on bumps (you know, like cracks in the pavement.... or running over dimes... usual stuff....) but nothing major. I'll just get less meaty tires when these are dead. I never gave y'all pictures?

I got so caught up in Ken's adventure I forgot to mention what I've been doing the last few days. Decided a year was long enough to procrastinate on fixing my sunroof and then that my non-matching headliner (the plaid, remember) needed updating since I'd had the fabric for about as long as the sunroof parts. So.... I put on my big kid panties and took my sunroof apart. I lost daylight before being able to reinstall the cassette but rather proud of myself for figuring out how to reconstruct the guts of the mechanism all on my stubborn own. Pretty much everything that could break in mine was broken so had no idea how everything interconnected to make it work. And all without breaking a single nail!

Glad she's sorted, my prediction is that Ash will treat you well for the next 2.74 months in gratitude for the attention. And no, I've not seen any pics of more than just the fronts installed. And never heard whether the one oddball wheel was replaced by the company or not.

Let's not put money on that prediction. She's been insisting on repairs lately to be honest. Agh I didn't?! I'm sorry Yes, they replaced that one finally and got the full set on.

They're right sexy and well worth the hassle if that helps at all?

Why thank you! I still adore them even with how much trouble they've been. Beauty is painful sometimes. I got an e30 too, not sure if I posted pictures of her yet?

Yup, (Well, Ken did) after going to get her with you, but I've not seen any since you got her.

I thought I made a cameo appearance after getting her... perhaps not. Well, she's not too pretty and I haven't painted her chalkboard yet but besides needing a couple things she's pretty solid. Named her Ducky because she's so ugly.

Originally Posted by bimmerbarbie

Better now than on the side of the road one day. I don't know what all you've done on her so far but after that you should definitely consider an entire cooling system upgrade. I know I had nightmares (literally, yes, I'm serious) about mine until I replaced pretty much everything.

The first thing I did was the cooling system on this car, new rad, water pump with metal impeller, metal theremastate housing, clutch fan delete. just was still having issues so replaced the thermastate again after two years.

I'm headed out the door for emissions testing/tab renewal. Should be smooth sailing.