Vlad: The Zinno '87 535is

[Karl Grau]

Sell me that car. I have an M5 plus cash.

[Bav3.5]

Looks/sounds great! Any performance difference?

[tig]

The morning I drove to 5erWest, I polished and waxed Vlad for the first time since it was painted. I was in such a rush, I didn't take any pictures until I got to 5erWest. I didn't take my real camera so these were taken with my Nexus 6S phone...not bad for a smartphone camera...












I got a burrito before leaving Seattle and when I went to open the driver's door there was a "pop" and the door wouldn't open. I was able to get into the car on the passenger side and figured out I could open the drivers' door from the inside. I panicked and called Kohler asking if he thought I should risk fixing it in Portland or go home first. He walked me off the ledge and said we'd figure it out in Portland.

When we got to the Old Chicago parking lot I pulled the door panel off and discovered that the little clip that holds the tumbler in place had popped out.

From another thread:


Fortunately the little spring and other stuff was still in place and we found the clip in the bottom of the door. Some borrowed tools (Evan? Thank you!) and I was able to get the clip back in and fixed. Whew.

The car drove brilliantly all weekend. The 5erDrive around Mt. Hood was spectacular and i had been nominated to lead.



I lost the pack before we headed down the back-side of Hood due to some mis-communication. There was no traffic and suffice to say I let her rip. Fastest I've driven this car. The roads were so open that I was able to do a few panic-brake tests. Stable as stable can be.

This year we took a slightly different route, driving on the Cooper Spur Road (https://goo.gl/maps/FaJSFrtwMt92) which was a-maze-ing. Just a hoot.

This weekend it was time for some regular "24 month" maintenance items (recall the M30B35 was put in early July 2014). I checked the brakes and the pads are due (PO put new pads on at 164k and I now have 192k). I was going to flush the brake fluid today, but since the pads are due I'm going to do a full brake job as soon as the new pads/rotors I've ordered come, maybe next weekend.

I flushed the coolant, topped off the PS fluid, and a checked out pretty much everything else on the list. Someday I'll figure out how to flush the coolant without getting coolant all over me when removing the bolt in the block.

Seems like I just changed the oil, but checking my records that was in December at 187K miles. So it's time to do it again... maybe next weekend.

[dsmith]

Very nice. Where are the rallycross pictures?

[Adam W in MN]

I love looking at this car and the body color bumpers are really sharp. Personally I think a set of 16" BBS RZ (are those the rare magnesium ones on Bruce Bockelman's M5?) would really suit it over the black centers. Either way, it's lovely.

[tig]

I love looking at this car and the body color bumpers are really sharp. Personally I think a set of 16" BBS RZ (are those the rare magnesium ones on Bruce Bockelman's M5?) would really suit it over the black centers. Either way, it's lovely.

The wheels on the car ARE 16" BBS RZs.

[Adam W in MN]

The wheels on the car ARE 16" BBS RZs.

Just checked, the ones I was referencing are RG's.

[m-racer]

Beautiful car. I do like the Alpina wheels the best...for whatever good that is

[leadphut]

Beautiful car. I do like the Alpina wheels the best...for whatever good that is

+1

[tig]

Harumpfh.

I must be getting old or something.

I SWEAR when I took the wheels off and looked at the brake pads they were obviously near EOL. Today, after finally getting the right replacement pads, I pulled the wheels off again...all ready to do the job.



Good news is I now have everything to do the brakes when they DO need to be done.

[Adam W in MN]

The rotor hats still look pretty presentable. Is that just silver paint?

[tig]

The rotor hats still look pretty presentable. Is that just silver paint?

Don't think so.

[athayer187]

The rotor hats still look pretty presentable. Is that just silver paint?

Don't think so.

They look zinc plated to me (see inside the vanes).

[tig]

@ 14192 miles on the motor I did the first valve adjustment today. It didn't seem noisy at all, but I was really curious to pull the valve cover and "they say" do it every 15k...

Looks great:


I only had to make minor tweaks to 5 of the valves. A few were slightly tight (0.011" would barely go in) and a few were slightly loose (0.013" slipped in).

All cam surfaces look great.





Also made sure the banjo bolts were there and tight.

Purrs like a kitten.

[tig]

UCABs are shot.



Just ordered some new arms with UCABS installed from Mr. Moosehead.

Question: Can the "other end" of the UCAs with the ball joint be replaced?

[tig]

Went back in my records and the control arms and pitman arm were replaced by the PO at 169k, which was about 2k before I bought it.

My new Lemforder lower arms and Moosehead upper's came this week, along with a new pitman arm.


Getting the old arms off was easy because of this:


The only trouble I had getting things back together was because it was non-obvious (to me) how to keep the ball joint bolts from turning when trying to put on the new nylon nuts. Thanks to Paul Moosehead Muskopf for the pro-tip of using a huge set of channel locks to apply some pressure so the taper would catch.


The old lower control arms are fine, but I'm replacing them anyway. The uppers were totally shot.



The ball joints on these uppers seem fine, so I may press the bushings out and put new Mooseys in and use them on Maytag.

Getting the left side on was far easier than getting the right side, but that's really because I had done it once and realized the order of assembly matters...








After double and triple checking that everything was torqued correctly, I went for a nice shakedown drive. I'm pleasantly surprised that the Moosehead bushings are not harsh, at all. I sorta expected more harshness. I now will have no qualms putting these on Maytag.

Car drives even more brilliantly than it did before...

[jhh925]

Nice. You probably know this already, but don't forget that you shouldn't torque the inboard bushings until after the car is resting back down on its suspension and the front suspension is fully loaded. If you torque the inboard bushings when the front wheels are hanging down, you lock the "inside" part rotated into the wrong position, causing the rubber to get badly twisted when the car rests back down under weight. (And if this was discussed already in this thread, I apologize ... it's 57 pages long!)

[wkohler]

There's no rubber in either arm.

[jhh925]

Just FYI, you can still get the drivers side lock assemblies new off of eBay. I bought this one.

With a bit of patience, you can swap all the tumblers from your old unit into the new unit, so that your original key will work in the new lock.

[tig]

There's no rubber in either arm.

This. Preloading is not required with Moosehead's UCA bushings.

[Sabier]

Hi man.

I am just respect you with your workout. I also have e28 M535i DC71(VIN:0641309). I also want to start restoration of it. And i will happy to talk with you about it. I have alredy read all your topics and also looked flickr photos. +99 (450) 645 00 90 this is my phone number, and whatsapp number also. Skype : mamedov-91 Please pm me where you can.

[jhh925]

There's no rubber in either arm.

This. Preloading is not required with Moosehead's UCA bushings.

TIL. Probably safer if I just stay in the garage and off the internet.

[tig]

Hi man.

I am just respect you with your workout. I also have e28 M535i DC71(VIN:0641309). I also want to start restoration of it. And i will happy to talk with you about it. I have alredy read all your topics and also looked flickr photos. +99 (450) 645 00 90 this is my phone number, and whatsapp number also. Skype : mamedov-91 Please pm me where you can.

Thanks for the kind words.

However I'm pretty much against talking to other people on the phone.

I'll happily discuss stuff with you here though. Ask away.

[Sabier]

Hi man.

I am just respect you with your workout. I also have e28 M535i DC71(VIN:0641309). I also want to start restoration of it. And i will happy to talk with you about it. I have alredy read all your topics and also looked flickr photos. +99 (450) 645 00 90 this is my phone number, and whatsapp number also. Skype : mamedov-91 Please pm me where you can.

Thanks for the kind words.

However I'm pretty much against talking to other people on the phone.

I'll happily discuss stuff with you here though. Ask away.

You are welcome) I didn't ask for talking on phone. I asked for chatting on phone. I don't like talking too.

[carlb]

I love the Moosehead CAB's. One of the top three changes I've made to the e28.