Oh, the possibilities... ('73 and '74 content)

[H_Krix]

Any advice on reinstalling the center support bearing? Anything you guys can think of to look out for?

the bearing has to be "pre-loaded" - meaning you press it about 2-3cm forward when mounting, then tighten the bolts in place.

[Hammer03]

Perfect, thanks. I was wondering what those grooves were for.

[Hammer03]

And it has officially LEFT the driveway! Only to return triumphantly, but it did leave for a short test drive. Welded up a little extension to the support bracket for the shift tower (not really sure if anyone has any idea what I'm talking about, idk what its called) but the shifter doesn't ride on the driveshaft any more! Bolted down the trans, got the clips in top and bottom (bottom clip was too small, but it got the job done with a little persuasion...) and held well. Got the harness and switch run for headlights, and the tail lights still work just fine (only the under-hood wires got fried from the exploding battery). After fiddling with the vacuum advance on the dizzy for a few minutes, we realized it was being plugged into the wrong vacuum port on the carb... Not really sure why there or two, but one makes the car stumble immediately, and the other makes it run like a champ! Got the timing set, it idles great and revs freely, noticed a small exhaust leak (look like some knockoff of Stahl headers, with some UGLY welds near the flange, which make it near impossible to get a wrench on a few of the nuts, must have left one loose). Pulled the center support bearing as far forward as I could, then tightened down those nuts, exhaust was already bolted up. Everything underneath done! Drop the car down!

Then realize we forgot to bleed the clutch. Kyle had found an m10 coupler somewhere in his garage, and we mated the two lines (e21 trans has a male fitting on the line from the slave, 2002 has a male coming from the master...) Get it back up in the air, bleed out all of the nasty looking fluid, get some fresh stuff in there, and we have hydraulics! Back on the ground again, and out for a ride around the block!

The car accelerates and decelerates just fine, but at constant partial throttle it seems to stumble. We're going to try adjusting the carb as-is, and hope to avoid having to re-jet or rebuild the whole thing... Maybe one of you awesome carb experts could offer some advice? It's a Weber 32/36, and was running great on the (believed to be) original motor (well, ok until the head blew).

Also have to sort out the gauges situation... At the moment only the speedo works. I need to keep a working odometer for insurance purposes, but I'm thinking about a custom gauge panel, tach/oil temp/oil press/speedo/water temp/fuel, as the budget permits.

Comments/questions/advice welcome and appreciated! Hope to have some better pictures this weekend or next, out of the driveway

[2002haus]

Nice Dave. Be sure to get back under there and move the center support bearing back. The preload is supposed to be 2-3mm, not cm.

Any driving with the way it is will ruin the CCB.

[H_Krix]

Nice Dave. Be sure to get back under there and move the center support bearing back. The preload is supposed to be 2-3mm, not cm.

Any driving with the way it is will ruin the CCB.

Ack! thanks, good catch. Sorry about that.

[Hammer03]

Nice Dave. Be sure to get back under there and move the center support bearing back. The preload is supposed to be 2-3mm, not cm.

Any driving with the way it is will ruin the CCB.

Ack! thanks, good catch. Sorry about that.

Oh! Ok then haha thanks. So then just set it at rest, move it a few mm forward on both sides and crank her down? I gotta find that manual, it's in the garage...

Thanks guys!

[Hammer03]

Well, the '74 made it home last night. It still has some partial-constant-throttle issues, which I'm pretty sure are coming from too much fuel pressure. Any suggestions for an fpr? I've seen a few people with Holley's, I figure they'll mostly all be just fine. That being said, on the throttle more than say 20% or off completely it pulls great, sounds wicked, and I adjusted the csb to have just a hair of preload before bolting it down. It sorely needs new seats, the fpr, and some under the hood wiring (temp sensor, oil press sensor, tach doesnt work for some reason either) but it's back on the road!

Oh yeah, and we decided to repaint the hood:

Needs some touch-up, it was way too cold/humid when we painted it, but this car is just for fun. I'll let it bake for 2 days and then we'll see how well its sticking.

[Hammer03]

Well all was going great with the '74, it made a few 30+ mile trips, and I took it up to Nojoqui Park this weekend for a euro meet... back to Solvang for the night, and then right before I got on the freeway for the trip home the guibo gave up the ghost

Driving down the road, a little rattle started to get louder, but it didn't seem any different than the other rattles (car has basically no interior, it's loud) so I thought nothing of it until a giant CRUNCH RATTLE and then the sound of metal coming out from under the car... clutch in, coasted to into the gas station on the corner and got out to see if I could find the problem. Engine was idling fine, the sound was gone, but I wasn't about to risk driving after that one... So I call a friend to bring a jack by, and we get under there to see the flex disc broken in 3 places, one bolt/nut gone and another one halfway out, the nut gone. The "ear" of the driveshaft where the bolt goes through to attach to the flex disc was chipped and may be bent, and the trans is now very slowly leaking fluid... I can't even describe how mad at myself I am for not doing more research into the proper installation procedure. I thought I had it figured out, but apparently not (not to mention I bought the cheap flex disc that pelican offered, that also had a GM part number... ). I had the car towed back and left car at a friend's and had to come home for work, but I'll be back up there as soon as I gather some new parts. I'm also taking a closer look at the possibility of a 5 speed swap, since I'd be replacing many of the same parts, but I have a spare 4 speed and might just toss that in and wait until the budget grows some...

All in all a setback rather than a major problem, but I'm very glad it happened at low speeds (probably 30mph) instead of 75 on the freeway...

Rob, I'll call you after lunch, I'll probably need some parts.

[Hammer03]

Well, new flex disc, all new hardware, and an hour or so later, and it's all back together. Nothing major looked broken, although there were obvious signs of metal bouncing around down there... Made sure they were tight this time, and I'm going to double check them before the car comes home (tomorrow) but we should be in business. It appears the old nuts just backed themselves out, rattling around in the flex disc, shearing a few of the metal inserts (which are odd to me, they're machined square instead of round inserts like a 6 bolt). Knocked a few marks into the end of the trans, but nothing structural and nothing looked bent/broken. I'll also prep that other trans and have it ready to toss in, just in case...

[Hammer03]

Well, I was wrong about nothing major being broken, rear seal is leaking on the trans, very slowly but it needs to come out. Still have the old 4 speed so that will probably go back in, in the mean time.

In the mean time, traded some e36 parts I was selling for some new toys:

I'm leaving for Germany tomorrow, and hope to find some more fun stuff while I'm over there (any recommendations on junk yard/recyclers? Or know if Cahsel enjoys having visitors? haha) Will have to pick up install parts for all these things when I get back, they won't be going on soon, but we'll see.

[Hammer03]

Well, I haven't updated in forever. Moved into a house, with a garage! It had one closet type storage thing, some shelving that looked like it wouldn't hold a heavy box, let alone a bunch of expensive parts, and a 30 year old dryer. That wasn't going to work for me! So I spent some time in Google Sketchup figuring out what I wanted.

ok, so the vision:

the finished product:

So, the work has started! Big thanks to Rob @ 2002Haus, we will hopefully have the trans swapped tonight. Also big thanks to my friend Dom, he did a good amount of the building while I was at work.

Oh yeah:

[Hammer03]

It's been a while! Got a little work done tonight, in preparation for the big weekend!

Work so far:

Highlights:

Found the problem with the old trans:

Clutch fork on the new trans:

Swapped the shifter collar over (new style onto the older trans going in, this is the old one):

Took the wheel weights off the Diamonds:

Marked the fenders for the flares:

The work from a few weeks ago, still not complete. Hope to have everything in and mounted this weekend. It must drive!

And this is where I realized a potential problem. Swapping the throw out bearing from the e21 trans (busted one) to the '73 trans (Thanks again Rob!) I noticed it didnt quite fit the same:

Old trans, flange to tip is roughly 5 3/4", and the splined part is 3 1/4"

The '73 trans is 6" flange to tip, and the splined part is almost 3 1/2"

The TOB doesn't seem to slide on to the 73 trans as far as the e21 trans. Wanted to make sure this wouldn't be an issue before I threw the trans in the car and burned up a clutch or worse! Nobody likes to do things twice...

Input/comments/suggestions/criticism? Thanks!

[Hammer03]

So that was Friday. Saturday we realized I didn't have the right throw out bearing, which was major disappointment. Dom cut fenders to make way for the wheels, and then we had to stitch the fenderwells back together, which is NOT fun with 35 year of road grime, 70's German sound deadening, and a few layers of paint and primer. Oh, and the 1/4" of Bondo someone used to shape the rear quarter panel at some point :evil:

We managed to cut it before reading all the good advice on here about cutting low and bending the lip over, which I HIGHLY recommend. If I ever have to do this again, that is what I'll do.

If I ever meet the person who did all the sketchy things on this car, I think I'm going to have to slap him...

Painted the wheels, and the crinkle coat centers... didn't crinkle. Not sure if it was too cold, or old paint, or what, but it didnt work out. So they're satin black (like most of the car)

Sunday Kyle found the right throw out bearing in his garage (from the trans that was in the car when i bought it, we swapped it at his house as seen in the 2002FAQ thread) and Dom ran up to Solvang and got it while I chugged away on burning my arms.... I mean welding the fenderwells. They're mostly done. The fronts will need to be moved a little, as the lower offset/wider wheels now hit the front (and maybe back) of the wheel wells...

Threw a tender on the Deka and the motor fired right up with no issues, and the open headers sounded great

So, with the right parts, we tried to get the trans in the car, which is an absolutely miserable process and Dom is a champ for getting it up there (without a trans jack) and we finally got it bolted up and mated to the motor. I'm missing some nuts and bolts that got lost in all the commotion, so those are on order and when they're in I should be able to bolt up the guibo and center support bearing, and then fill/bleed the new slave we put in.

Dom also put together some awesome seat brackets, and we got the driver side seat in and mostly positioned, they're solid!

We managed to get it on four wheels and back it out of the garage to clean up a little, dont worry about the rear ride height, the far corner is jacked up, with the wheel off to keep working on the fenders.

And now it's back up on stands in the garage waiting for a few bolts. But, massive progress!

[Hammer03]

Forgot to mention: the throw out bearing I needed was from the '73 trans, since it clips to the release arm. Once I had the right one, and got all those darn clip things in, it was obvious how it went together. I don't think I like the single sided, slave on the outside, release arm open to debris design of the 232 as much as the self contained 242. But, this one isn't broken, and will get the job done!

[Hammer03]

On the ground, and around the block! Obviously not running very well, I was going to wait for the new motor to put the weber 45's on, but it may help isolate any issues, if I can know at least THAT is correct. Starts up first time, every time, but stumbles at low constant throttle (idle jets?). So that fuel pump I had was probably fine... we'll see. Just glad to have the trans in, and have it moving around under it's own power. The gauges weren't behaving either, so I need to see if something isn't connected correctly or if that part of the harness is just hosed.