Non-BMW Stuff on a BMW Forum

[gilber33]

5 hours ago, straight6pwr said:

ahh yes. it has that opening in it perfectly sized to fit a pair of vise grips.

lol

 

Well, I think I got the AC hose/compressor issue sorted. After looking at as many pictures of the different compressors on and off cars, I beleive the hose I got is for a Denso compressor - which has a different configuration for the two hoses. I ordered what I hope is the correct hose for the Bosch/Behr compressor. 

[KaiserRolls]

Having AC makes me jealous. I really want to build a coolshirt system for the hot autox/lapping days 

[gilber33]

15 minutes ago, KaiserRolls said:

Having AC makes me jealous. I really want to build a coolshirt system for the hot autox/lapping days 

Wait to be jealous when it's completely working. lol. 

I have to admit I am really excited to see all of these improvements coming together and the car more closely fitting the vision I had for it. 

[Boris3]

3 hours ago, KaiserRolls said:

Having AC makes me jealous. I really want to build a coolshirt system for the hot autox/lapping days 

DIY: I use a $40 Donjoy Iceman Cold therapy unit (cooler and built in pump) bought used off Craigslist in the race car. Cut off the electrical plug end, connect to toggle switch wired to my old cigarette lighter wiring. The Donjoy hose fittings plug right into the hoses of a regular Coolshirt. Fabbed a bracket and strap setup bolted to the passenger floor for the cooler. Total "system" out the door for less than $200 (biggest price is the shirt). Lasts for about 30-40 minutes on a 80-90 degree day due to the small size of the cooler. Plenty for sprint races, lapping, autox. Esp when you're stuck in grid, baking in a three-layer race suit while they clean up the mess some idiot made in the prior session.   

[KaiserRolls]

56 minutes ago, Boris3 said:

DIY: I use a $40 Donjoy Iceman Cold therapy unit (cooler and built in pump) bought used off Craigslist in the race car. Cut off the electrical plug end, connect to toggle switch wired to my old cigarette lighter wiring. The Donjoy hose fittings plug right into the hoses of a regular Coolshirt. Fabbed a bracket and strap setup bolted to the passenger floor for the cooler. Total "system" out the door for less than $200 (biggest price is the shirt). Lasts for about 30-40 minutes on a 80-90 degree day due to the small size of the cooler. Plenty for sprint races, lapping, autox. Esp when you're stuck in grid, baking in a three-layer race suit while they clean up the mess some idiot made in the prior session.   

I have all of the links saved, just waiting for it to get hot out so I can justify it to myself haha

[gilber33]

Got the gauges mocked up. Started the harnesses for them last night so I can get them in. I need gauges in to be able to put the interior back together. I’m not super thrilled with the fit. But it’s the only gauge bracket that doesn’t either eliminate the storage cubby, middle vents, or something on the dash. I’m going to run some high density foam along the lip under where the gauge bracket sits to conceal that gap. 

 

I'm using relays that will be mounted behind the dash to control the switched power to the gauges and the switched power to the lights. I'll use the radio swicthed 12v for the trigger on the gauge relay and then a headlight wire for the trigger on the gauge light relay. Pulled power directly from the junction block in the engine bay. 

With that said, anyone have a good place to tap a headlight wire of some type for the light relay? 

Found this wiring diagram for the lights. Would I be correct in that the yellow/green wire from the switch would be the switched 12v wire going to the lights that I could tap into for the switch on the relay?

[straight6pwr]

44 minutes ago, gilber33 said:

With that said, anyone have a good place to tap a headlight wire of some type for the light relay? 

if you're already at the back of the radio for the switched power, use the wire there for the switched dashboard lights. it is controlled by the headlight switch.

i looked up the 89 325i in the ETM, and it suggests a white wire will be the "Lights on input" wire. Some e30s differ based on radio type, etc, but this should be easy to verify.

 

tracing that wire to the "Light switch details" it shows that it is controlled by the light switch and gets power in the "Park" lights position and "Head(lights)" lights position.

[gilber33]

4 minutes ago, straight6pwr said:

if you're already at the back of the radio for the switched power, use the wire there for the switched dashboard lights. it is controlled by the headlight switch.

Thank you! If I'm reading that correctly, will that white wire be part of the radio wire harness bundle? 

[jc43089]

Use the radio wire.  The wire you first identified is actually a switched ground for the relay so it will not work as you intend.

[straight6pwr]

19 minutes ago, gilber33 said:

Thank you! If I'm reading that correctly, will that white wire be part of the radio wire harness bundle? 

Yes, on the diagram you can see the black line for the wire just touches the box that represents the radio, instead of having an arrow and connector number (C216, for example). I believe it shares a small two pin connector with that adjacent solid yellow wire. (this is if you still have the factory radio)

alternatively, you may be able to utilize that GY/RD (gray/red) wire that splits off the harness and goes to position 1 of the C243 connector. it is labeled as "not used" which means the pin on the other half of the connector should be missing. you could either pull the pin from the connector and use it, or add a new pin/wire to the side that is missing.

this is what the C243 connector looks like:

it will be upstream in the radio harness in the dashboard. it should be the only 8-pin connector in there, I think.

[gilber33]

That is extremely helpful! Thank you for all of that information. 

 

[gilber33]

These gauges took way more work and time than I thought they would. Mostly because the bracket fit like garbage once the two screws on the back of it were tightened down.

In the end I had to get out the belt sander and shave one side down so it fit in the cubby. Out of the box it was maybe 1/16” too wide making the fit very poor. It would fit OK when it was loosely sitting in there, but once tightened down it would lift up towards the front. I basically bent the mounting tab down a bit so as it is tightened it pushes the front of the bracket down/forward. 

End result is satisfactory though. I would love to come up with a custom gauge bracket somehow that better matched the interior, but I wouldn’t know where to start. 

 

I finally got the replacement rear brake line piece. I have the new/correct AC hose in the car and now all of the AC lines are in with new o-rings. Wtih the rear brake lines done I'll be able to put the gas tank back in the car. Once the rear is done I'll move on to the front struts. 

Debating if I want to rebuild the axles while they are out. From the how-to's I've looked at they appear to be relatively straightforward and all new boots and grease is only $100 to do both axles. 

[gilber33]

Didn’t realize that the area behind the rear “door” cards are completely bare metal. Took those out and put sound mat in there.

Where the gauge relay power and gauge harness comes through the firewall and the runs down to their respective locations. 
 

 

Also discovered that when the power was ran to my garage they ran 220. I asked them to wire the garage for 120v and always assumed they only brought that out to the garage. Cue the installation of 240v outlets. First thing I’m doing is putting in an electric heater. 
 

 

[straight6pwr]

bonus! wish my garage had better electric.

[HipMF]

14 hours ago, gilber33 said:

Also discovered that when the power was ran to my garage they ran 220. I asked them to wire the garage for 120v and always assumed they only brought that out to the garage. Cue the installation of 240v outlets. First thing I’m doing is putting in an electric heater. 
 

 

Slightly confused what you mean here. 120v single-phase is actually two 120v legs 180 degrees out of phase, so measuring across the two hots give 240v. Measuring hot to neutral will give you 120v. 120v and 240v are both available from the same panel.

[straight6pwr]

17 minutes ago, HipMF said:

Slightly confused what you mean here. 120v single-phase is actually two 120v legs 180 degrees out of phase, so measuring across the two hots give 240v. Measuring hot to neutral will give you 120v. 120v and 240v are both available from the same panel.

i'd assume that he means that 240v was run from the main panel to the subpanel. (multiple hot wires on separate breakers, instead of just one)

[HipMF]

3 minutes ago, straight6pwr said:

i'd assume that he means that 240v was run from the main panel to the subpanel. (multiple hot wires instead of just one)

Ah that makes sense. I don't think I've ever seen a breaker box that was designed to be powered off of just one leg. I'm pretty sure running all of the available phases to a sub panel is standard practice. It's a bit more efficient in terms of the amount of wire required because current being drawn from the opposing phases cancel each other out, reducing neutral current. ie 2 20 amp circuits only requires one 12ga neutral instead of 2.

[gilber33]

1 hour ago, straight6pwr said:

i'd assume that he means that 240v was run from the main panel to the subpanel. (multiple hot wires on separate breakers, instead of just one)

 

This is correct. I meant that they ran a 220a service from the house to the garage's subpanel - two 120v legs to a 2-pole 100a breaker. 

Menards has their heaters on sale. Planning on picking one up this week to install that. Roughly estimated that if I use it 3 times a week on its highest setting non-stop for a few hours at a time that it would cost about $30/mo. Which I didn't think is too bad. Beats the noise and smells generated by my current propane torpedo-heater. 

[HipMF]

That will be nice. I have a kerosene torpedo heater, and it's handy to have around. It puts out a ton of heat which is nice, but like you said, it's noisy, smelly, and generally a hassle. Not to mention concerns over CO/CO2 when used indoors. Unvented heaters like that also put a ton of moisture in the air which can cause condensation and probably other moisture-related problems.

[gilber33]

15 minutes ago, HipMF said:

Not to mention concerns over CO/CO2 when used indoors.

That is very true. I have a CO alarm in the garage but needed to take the batteries out because it would go off after having the heater going for just a little while. 

[GunMetalGrey]

1 hour ago, gilber33 said:

That is very true. I have a CO alarm in the garage but needed to take the batteries out because it would go off after having the heater going for just a little while. 

Hahahaha, entirely defeating the point of the alarm. 
Not saying I haven't done it, just amusing to read. 

[gilber33]

29 minutes ago, GunMetalGrey said:

Hahahaha, entirely defeating the point of the alarm. 
Not saying I haven't done it, just amusing to read. 

Oh yeah. It served no purpose. Actually, it did serve a purpose. It was telling me to open the doors and get some fresh air. 

[jc43089]

Just to clarify, the subpanel having a 100 amp main breaker does not mean 100A is available.  What size is the breaker in the house that feeds it?  It may or may not be 100A the size would depend on the wire gauge that was used.  Either way that is excellent.  If you have wiring questions just ask, I am a master electrician, I'm actually teaching code class to apprentices right now.

I have typically run 60A to a garage, so the feeder breaker is a 60A, using 6ga copper wire, and the sub panel is usually 100A rated because that is pretty standard for smaller panels.  There are a couple things to pay attention to in a subpanel.  The ground and neutral wires can't be mixed like in a main panel.  So the grounds need to go to a ground bus attached to the enclosure and the neutrals attach to the neutral bus.  Otherwise you create a parallel circuit and current will flow on the ground wire back to the main panel which is bad/dangerous/against code.

Be careful and turn it off when doing anything, don't just turn off the main breaker in the garage panel.  Turn it off at the feeder breaker in the house.  Otherwise the incoming lines are still live and it is easy to slip.

[gilber33]

1 hour ago, jc43089 said:

Just to clarify, the subpanel having a 100 amp main breaker does not mean 100A is available.  What size is the breaker in the house that feeds it?  It may or may not be 100A the size would depend on the wire gauge that was used.  Either way that is excellent.  If you have wiring questions just ask, I am a master electrician, I'm actually teaching code class to apprentices right now.

I have typically run 60A to a garage, so the feeder breaker is a 60A, using 6ga copper wire, and the sub panel is usually 100A rated because that is pretty standard for smaller panels.  There are a couple things to pay attention to in a subpanel.  The ground and neutral wires can't be mixed like in a main panel.  So the grounds need to go to a ground bus attached to the enclosure and the neutrals attach to the neutral bus.  Otherwise you create a parallel circuit and current will flow on the ground wire back to the main panel which is bad/dangerous/against code.

Be careful and turn it off when doing anything, don't just turn off the main breaker in the garage panel.  Turn it off at the feeder breaker in the house.  Otherwise the incoming lines are still live and it is easy to slip.

I had sent pictures off to a friend of mine who is also an electrician. I believe the breaker for the garage in the main panel is a 60a breaker.

 

And thank you, I will! I have some basic, at home DIY knowledge for electrical work - running outlet and a couple lights/switches in our basement. But later this year the garage will be transitioning from a shared garage with my wife to a shop for just me. At that point I'll be building a storage room and an office along the back wall. So I may be back with more electrical questions at that time. 

[gilber33]

It was a relative PITA, mostly my fault, but it’s in and works better than I expected. I have it on the low setting and it raised the temp of the garage 10° in about 45 mins. The garage typically stays 20° warmer than outside and was at 50° when I went inside.