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SteelBlue

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Car is back the garage.

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Big thank you to @GunMetalGrey for all the help.

Still have some things to button up on it. Brake booster being the big one. In my stupidity/ignorance, I tore the diaphragm on the booster when I spun the "rod" in it. Have a couple options for purchasing a new one and should be ordered soon. So it has NO brakes right now.

Another issue is the hard fuel lines. It was going back and forth between leaking and not leaking. But when I was letting it idle today for a little it was dripping a bit. Not sure if this will be a spring job or if I'll do it this winter still.

I'm going to be replacing to the clutch line with a braided stainless steel one as the rubber one was getting pinched. Actually got so pinched that it locked the clutch pedal. Had a mini heart attack when we surmised that it might have been something with the clutch being installed wrong, thankfully it was not.

Hopefully Ben can add to this post as I know there will be a few things I will forget.

Probably needs a new tie rod on one side as the nut didn't get tightened all the way down when we were fixing the control arm. It popped out when it was getting moved, potentially damaging it, so for the peace of mind I will be replacing before any major driving.

Was told the weather should be pretty decent next weekend, so I can FINALLY wash and clean up the outside of the car which has been bothering me forever.

Any alignment tips for the hood? One side it lines up okay with the fender, other side has a bigger gap. Gonna be doing some tinkering with it.

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Bought a couple items I didn't mention in the last post.

Wanted to do something different than the usually ZHP knob, so I bought this Nardi Evolution when eBay was doing their 15% off sale.

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Also bought a Euro clock for those sick scene points from a guy who was selling them on R3V for $50. Gonna buy the adapter from E30love.com to make it as seamless as possible.

Started to buy some things for the exhaust. Bought a 3" dual tip, black powder coated Vibrant streetpower muffler as well as a 3" Vibrant resonator.

Got a couple leads on a new booster to hopefully get on order to get some brakes in the car.

Saw a guy on R3v with a bracket for the OBDII diagnostic port, he might be making some with enough interest or I want to try and make one myself.

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you should be able to move the hood horizontally using the 4 points of attachment. look at the hinge brackets where they attach near the headlights. loosen the 3 bolts on the hood side on both and there will be plenty of wiggle. same goes for the other end - at the roller closers, you can loosen the 2 bolts on each side and wiggle them around a slight amount in each direction.  getting it all lined up may take several tries.  measure the gaps on both sides and find the difference. divide by 2. make alignment marks, then move the calculated amount. make alignment marks for both horizontal and front to back because it will slip when you loosen it all. 

 

and, depending on prior accidents/fender alignment, you may run out of adjustment before its perfect. but honestly, your current alignment is as good as 90% of e30s out there, and no one will notice but you. 

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8 hours ago, straight6pwr said:

you should be able to move the hood horizontally using the 4 points of attachment. look at the hinge brackets where they attach near the headlights. loosen the 3 bolts on the hood side on both and there will be plenty of wiggle. same goes for the other end - at the roller closers, you can loosen the 2 bolts on each side and wiggle them around a slight amount in each direction.  getting it all lined up may take several tries.  measure the gaps on both sides and find the difference. divide by 2. make alignment marks, then move the calculated amount. make alignment marks for both horizontal and front to back because it will slip when you loosen it all. 

 

and, depending on prior accidents/fender alignment, you may run out of adjustment before its perfect. but honestly, your current alignment is as good as 90% of e30s out there, and no one will notice but you. 

Unfortunate this chassis was in a wreck, it's pretty clean otherwise. Hopefully I can even it out a little bit.

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47 minutes ago, HipMF said:

Line wrenches. 11 and 13mm I believe...

You're thinking brake lines.

The screws under the chassis are phillips head, and usually rusted in place. You can bust the head off the screw to get the retaining plate out. You may also be able to bend it far enough to remove the lines, then bend it back up when the new lines are in (not sure on that one).

The hose clamps are likely rusted, but use a 6mm socket to attempt to pull them off without cutting them. 

You can also cheat and cut the soft fuel line and not have to take it off the hard-line that you are replacing anyway. 
Hoses always pull off well once you rotate them, so spin the hose before trying to pull. A pliers is usually required to get them to rotate first, or just slice the hose parallel to the center axis of the hard-line and it'll slip right off.

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3 minutes ago, GunMetalGrey said:

You're thinking brake lines.

The screws under the chassis are phillips head, and usually rusted in place. You can bust the head off the screw to get the retaining plate out. You may also be able to bend it far enough to remove the lines, then bend it back up when the new lines are in (not sure on that one).

The hose clamps are likely rusted, but use a 6mm socket to attempt to pull them off without cutting them. 

You can also cheat and cut the soft fuel line and not have to take it off the hard-line that you are replacing anyway. 
Hoses always pull off well once you rotate them, so spin the hose before trying to pull. A pliers is usually required to get them to rotate first, or just slice the hose parallel to the center axis of the hard-line and it'll slip right off.

I just placed an order for all new mounting hardware for the fuel lines from the dealer that I'll be picking up tomorrow.

Will cutting the soft fuel lines leave enough material to properly hook up the new hard lines?

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51 minutes ago, SteelBlue said:

I just placed an order for all new mounting hardware for the fuel lines from the dealer that I'll be picking up tomorrow.

Will cutting the soft fuel lines leave enough material to properly hook up the new hard lines?

The hardware screws into studs that are welded into the chassis, so unless you manage to get the screw remnants out you won't be able to get the new stuff in.

Replace the soft lines if you're replacing the hard lines. Parts store hoses work just fine. 
Make sure to get high pressure hose for the feed side (~$8/ft) vs the low pressure stuff at a buck or two a foot. 
At minimum replace the hoses by the fuel filter. The hoses up by the motor seemed okay. 

 

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2 hours ago, HipMF said:

This. Still traumatized by those things. Can't move on...

With you on this one. A line on my old m3 rusted in one spot and I pieced in a section with unions. Every double flare tool I touched was junk, and of course the one good double flare I made I forgot to put the threaded nut piece over the line before I flared it 😓 

was one of my least favorite times I ever worked on my car

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13 minutes ago, YoungCR said:

All the brackets are rusted for sure. I just ran the new brake line along the old one as I had intended to redo that all at some point. I don’t remover if the fuel hoses were replaced at the filter or not.

Yeah I saw that when I was under the car. Is there enough room on the top of thank to replace the soft lines from the tank to the hard lines? I’m having a hard time visualizing it right now, the tank doesn’t have to be dropped does it?

If it were still warm out, I probably would just order a whole new tank as the Spectra one is well documented as being pretty much an OEM replacement. It’s also only $170 compared to $1200 for the OEM one.

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15 minutes ago, YoungCR said:

I’d replace the tank while you’re in there, it leaked over half. The fuel pump is new so then you’d have a fully refreshed fuel system.

 

5 minutes ago, straight6pwr said:

replace it, you'll tank yourself later.

 

*bum dum tiss*

Probably the best idea. I’ll start doing some research, but for some preliminary readings, how much of a pain in the ass is it? From some of my browsing, doesn’t look too terrible.

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5 hours ago, GunMetalGrey said:

The hardware screws into studs that are welded into the chassis, so unless you manage to get the screw remnants out you won't be able to get the new stuff in.

Replace the soft lines if you're replacing the hard lines. Parts store hoses work just fine. 
Make sure to get high pressure hose for the feed side (~$8/ft) vs the low pressure stuff at a buck or two a foot. 
At minimum replace the hoses by the fuel filter. The hoses up by the motor seemed okay. 

 

I found that the parts store hose I bought to connect to the fuel filter fit poorly and kinked, so maybe think about getting the one 180 degree curved hose from FCP or something. Others experience may vary, but that’s my two cents. 

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