jerry

there was a time when one could drop off drums and rotors off at the local parts supply house. now all i'm hearing lately is that "the fellow who used to do that retired", or "we no longer do that anymore...."

anyone know a place, preferably near Oakland Airport/eastbay or Marin County where i could have rotors, drums, flywheels and perhaps headwork done?

Castro Valley/san jose/southbay/livermore is too far for my lazy butt...

150 to get it refurbished? where is this place? That is a good price.

armond, i got my recaros completely reupolstered in Fremont for $200/ea and these seats were trashed when i brought them in. i'm happy with the job i got for the price. the work was well beyond just a refurbishment. the place is called Stereo City off Thornton Ave in Fremont.

IF the bearings from the hub you pulled off the 320i fit correctly onto your non-tii spindles then you have the right hubs. IF they are too big then you probably have earlier hubs than you think and these would be for tii spindles. your rotors look like the 1977 320i (only year, as i understand it) vented rotors.

you do NOT use the 320i spindles you've shown.

find a mid-80s Volvo 240DL for the calipers.

looking at your photos again. those 320i spindles look to be the same size as 2002tii spindles. me thinks you may have pulled these parts off an earlier car, likely a 1977 year. keep the rotors. at least you can use them with your non-tii conversion.

i JUST went through this excercise.

remove radiator, alternator, battery

verify alternator bushings are good.

clean surrounding areas good.

bend locktabs and remove fan. may have to scotchbrite the metal arbor alittle and may need assistance of a puller.

i left the front grills on the car, but probably worth the time to remove those so you can get a straight shot to reassemble the fan bolts.

remove water pump bolts paying attention to the various different lengths and their locations. find a means to identify them for reassembly. takes guess work out, later.

scrape gasket residue of block and clean front timing cover while you're there, too.

clean and oil all the hose clamp screws for good measure.

use new water pump gasket.

torque bolts to 6-8 ft-lbs.

when reinstalling don't forget to reinstall the fan pulley, like i did.

if you did not remove the front grills note the alignment of the holes in the fan. they are not unispaced. i used a small screwdriver to align the holes during placement. i also swabbed the fan with a little glycerine to help slide it on the fan arbor.

hook the fan belt on with the alternator loose and unbolted, then secure alternator.

if you mind these steps you'll eliminate most of the wasted time i went through. it sounds obvious in hindsight but maybe i'm a little more dense.

your car will thank you. i wish i did this months ago.

my daily driver has been idling very rough these past couple of weeks. it was one of those things i was gonna take care of eventually. i attributed it to a minor overheating incident i had last summer. i thought perhaps i may have warped the head alittle. the compression on Nos. 2&3 were about 10-15psi less than 1&4 if i remember correctly.

anyhow, i knew i had a water leak somewhere and finally traced it to the bottom hole in the water pump.

inspection of the water pump indicated severe corrosion of the impeller and what looks like foreign object damage (FOD) on the adjacent shroud. this car sat for a couple years i was told by the PO. i'm attributing the FOD to corrosion products.

2 questions:

a) would lack of sufficient cooling explain the rough idle

what's the best way to flush the cooling system? filling it at the cap and pulling the bottom rubber hose doesn't seem like it would get the deep recesses.

btw, i replaced the radiator with one i had boiled at a shop. the other radiator is gonna get a new core.

I borrowed a puller from the Kragen by my office today. They let me rent it for $6, not bad. So I won't need your rig Jerry, but thanks again for the offer.

hey, i ain't letting you off the hook that easy. a glass of cool (not cold) homebrew sounds like a great treat before the commute home.

oh well, have one for me. that's not a bad rental fee. the local rental here wanted $10 and i figured i'd need it again in the future so i paid $50 and change for mine. at least it came in a nice plastic case.

Sounds good. I'll be on the water with my outrigger in the morning. Probably between 7 to 10 AM. I have a bottle of Wine for you.

armond, if you're gonna be on the bay come on by and stick around for a bit. i could use your back. bring warm clothes and shoes in a watertight bag.

if you are merely removing the brake booster only, then you'll have the brackets and bolts still.

if you are thinking of removing the bracket aft of the booster then you must consider that the brake linkage also pivots on that bracket too.

if you start monkeying with that bracket keep in mind the angles from the pedalbox and the alignment of the brake linkage.

just words to ponder...

i just bought an authentic original asian knock-off of a hub puller complete with plastic case on ePay. my 2-jaw puller just wasn't up to it on this particular set. no amount of PB Blaster and heat and time, would make it budge. i still had to whack it (the tool) with a hammer too.

i work by the oakland airport, but i'm off work this week so you'd have to wait till next week.

jerryallsmanATyahooDOTcom

gtom,

i think you are right, you should have emailed Coop personally about this.

let sleeping dogs lie...

folks,

i'd like to return to the stock configuration as best as practicable. however, the PO removed the original coil resistor and installed a Crane Cam XR700. i will keep the XR700, but would also like to return the coil resistor. i realize the bosch blue coil has an internal resistor.

question:

a green wire from the harness typically goes through the square relay then a small connection is made to the resistor. on the other side is a green-red wire that goes from the opposite side of the resistor to the coil (No.15 tab, i think). is this correct?

IF the consensus is that reconnecting this resistor is idiotic, then which wires get discretely taped off?

thanks in advance. i'm going back to the car now...

1. use any wheel bearing grease, sold as such at your favorite auto parts store. they typically contain molybdenum disulfide, a good lubricant. you can get fancy and by the reddish synthetic grease but not necessary. clean your bearings very well for inspection at 3X magnification.

bearings are a funny item. they'll either degrade early in life or they'll last a LONG time under normal use. i'm reusing all my rear bearings from my car with 30 odd years on them. i inspected them using a stereoscope and found nothing wrong.

2. if you're gonna be removing the backing plate, i found it easy to remove wheel cylinders first by pulling the shoes outward, then remove the springy clip and you can easily disengage the parking brake cable.

you'll have to drill them out. start with a small drill bit, maybe 1/8 inch for a pilot hole. then redrill using bigger bit as appropriate. if you have the control arms off the car it's a minor job with a drill press.

if you're doing this under the car, make sure you have sharp bits, eyeglasses and plenty of working space to get good pressure on it while drilling.

it may be a good idea to hit them each with a center punch to make sure your drill bit doesn't wander off the mark.

Good day,

Yes, the white one is a 69 that I'll be selling soon and the one next to the sand blaster is the 74 Touring A4

Regards

Jan

just curious, was that white one the one off craiglist in oakland last summer?

i've got too many in my herd or else i'd love to have a 'black plate' 02.

when i did my 74 02 in the 90's i actually glued a gray fuzzy cloth in the glovebox. i think i bought the stuff in a roll from J.C. Whitney. it's the same stuff i believe folks wrap around big boxy speakers. it worked well and never gave me a problem with fuzzy stuff coming off. i used the rest in the trunk against the wheel wells and on the shelf tray by the rear window as speakers were already cut out by PO. it hid the speakers nicely.

fabricating control arms or trailing arms out of a Cr-Mo steel of and by itself will do no good unless you heat treat it afterwards. the relatively thin stock material wouldn't be difficult to attain adequate cooling rate from elevated temperature, but distortion MAY come into play.

it'd be more realistic to merely reinforce the factory pieces if you are so inclined.

btw, the additions of Cr-Mo to a steel is added to shift the 'cooling transformation curve' to the right thereby allowing one to attain a hardened structure within a feasible cooling rate, this is more important for thicker sections. Cr and Mo additionally combine with carbon to form carbides for strength and hardness.

like those front lights. now all you need is an identical set for the rear with red lenses.

you have quite a nice stable of cars. i see you too have the ol' canvas garage as well.

got a couple photos of work i did to convert to a 5 speed. i'm making 2 sets while i'm at it. last week a took a oxy-acetylene torch to some flat steel and hammered out two sets of transmission mount tabs. they're slightly crud but they should work. one set looks alittle less stout than the other so i only bolted it in place just in case i have to replace/repair it down the road. the other set will be welded in place cuz it's strong.

i made a little fixture to align the shift rod accurately. i copied the dimensions from some conversion parts i had on hand from a scrap car.

i am making progress, bit by bit.

yikes, a schwartz 02 within 50 mile proximity.

sorry, couldn't resist

now all i need is to find out there's a siennabraun closer....

just kidding folks, chill

i haven't personally, but i'm in the process of putting one back together.

consider this:

there are two seals, one on the steering column input arbor, the other on the steering arm output underneath.

on the steering column you're gonna have to disengage the flex coupling and the 4-bolt flange from the steering box. if memory serves me, you MAY have to pull the steering column aft (4 bolts in the cabin under dash).

you'd have access to the seal at this point and could pick it out i suppose.

you're only half way there though. now you have to disengage the swing-arm from the center link (i'm guessing that's the one). accessibility would be a challenge and i don't recall if the big bolt is unobstructed.

i think for the amount of hassle-factor, just remove the whole thing and work from the comfort of your workbench.

there are alignment marks on the box and arbors that must be considered upon reassembly. it's really not a complicated mechanism when you take it apart.

i'm curious.

would the recommendations differ any if the gearbox is a close ratio 5speed?

i have a C/R 5spd and was thinking a 3.64 might be the better match thinking it'd go faster in 5th gear.

i'm not an auto-crosser type per se (yet, maybe).

i have yet to install the C/R gearbox, btw so it's all academic at this point.

A good rule of thumb. Only visit inside the 465 loop. Don't live there, don't send your kids to school there. LOL

hey, hold on a second. when i moved there in 1995 i bought a POS victorian in the 'hood' downtown (21st & n. new jersey). at the time i had to clean up the occasional heroin needle or condom in the back alley. there was an active revitalization going on and a pioneer spirit. most of my neighbors were middle class. i sold it in 2003 for more than 10X original price and the new buyers of the area were definitely upper middle class. i was part of the gentrification of that area. now, back in california, i feel like the class being gentrified out of my neighborhood. the irony does not escape me.

btw, there is now a charter school in the area too. however, housing market sucks right now according to an old girlfriend who took her house off the market in Irvington.

for what it's worth:

i'm finding out that a whole lot of 02 seals and bearings are available at my local industrial bearing supply store.

this includes: steering box seals, transmission seals, wheel bearings

when i saw the 'Made in ROC' label on the BMW bag, i figured what i can get at the industrial supply company can't be too much different in quality. it's not been an issue with me.

IMO, an original, complete, worn, and even rusty tii in an unusual color is preferable to a basket case, dismantled, modded, or incomplete "more common" color.

That said, it might take the auction price plus as much as $20K (maybe more?) to bring it back to glory. In this case, despite the rust, matching numbers add to its desirability.

With ebay prices for so-so cars nipping at the $20K gavel price, this is where things start to get interesting.

It's one to watch.

Delia

Delia, i'm supposing some of the bidders on this car have read your post. this car barely broke the $500 mark a month ago before being pulled off ebay at the closing hours. now it's above $1000 and will probably go higher.

amazing what a car wash, clean photos and alittle hyperbole will do for a sale.

i'm not familiar with Moog brand ball joints. weren't they a synthesizer company back in the 70's?

where'd you get them and how much? mine were Meyle at $22/ea

btw, i used Red Loctite on the threads and torqued to 19ft-lbs, then i took a can of black satin rattle can and sprayed the uncoated bits a little for good measure.