MyE28.com

John,

Thanks for the head-up. I saw the thread last week and it is an impressive upgrade. The thread I saw said "sold out" and I was ready to do it now. Dealership got it next day. I paid around $70. Figured if the stock one in my E34 is still going strong at 215,000 miles, this one will likely outlast me! It's not a difficult job other than having to abuse my 67-year-old body by putting it in that position for so long to do it.

Was in the process of a nice cooling system refresh(fan clutch, thermostat+cover, housing, water pump, hoses). Fan clutch off, Hoses off, housing off, water pump off. water pump on, hous- oh. I forgot to order the housing. I could put the old one back on since it's technically fine, but it's so ugly and crusty, i'm not doing that. To be continued Thursday!

Also, if there was a competition for dirtiest engine bay, I might be a podium finisher. Just years upon years of buildup. Not that I want to win!

When my BMW Advanced Charging System bit the dust (again), I found that they don't make it with a cigarette lighter adapter anymore, so I got a new Schwaben trickle charger that does - as a separate pigtail. It comes with two other pigtails: battery clamps, and ring connectors.

I went with the ring connectors and screwed them to the positive battery terminal and the chassis, and fed the pigtail connector out through the grill. It has a nice rubber cover to keep the connectors clean. Now it's super easy to plug in and remove the trickle charger. I don't have to run a charging wire through the window and mess with that finicky cigarette lighter adapter.

ECS Tuning Link: Schwaben 005979sch01a Automatic Battery Charger.

I drove mine!

Over 200-miles, round-trip, to pick up a set of Style 42s (5), which now gives me 14 of them.

BMWCCA2 wrote:I drove mine!

Over 200-miles, round-trip, to pick up a set of Style 42s (5), which now gives me 14 of them.

I'm not sure about the 14 part of it, but 42s are one of my favorites. Kind of like E39 style 5s were until I discovered 42s. That was actually a selling point to me when I bought my E36, it had style 42s. The one piece, 16 inch high offset ones, but still, a good looking wheel.

Mike W. wrote:I'm not sure about the 14 part of it, but 42s are one of my favorites. Kind of like E39 style 5s were until I discovered 42s. That was actually a selling point to me when I bought my E36, it had style 42s. The one piece, 16 inch high offset ones, but still, a good looking wheel.

Yeah, mine are all 17 x 8-inch two-piece modular 20mm offset for E39. I have two E39s and both of my E28s are running E39 16-inch cross-spoke wheels. Don't know if the 17s will ever end up on an E28 but at least I have enough spares to last the rest of my life. When you find them cheap enough and close enough, it's best to just get them!

Drove it. Probably will end up driving it again this afternoon. I love that car. Such lovely exhaust noises...

Took the alternator off since it was right there. Brought it to work and threw it under the parts washer for a few minutes and cleaned as much as I could without taking it apart.

amagansa wrote:Took the alternator off since it was right there. Brought it to work and threw it under the parts washer for a few minutes and cleaned as much as I could without taking it apart.

FWIW, taking them apart and putting them back together is not hard. Not sure how good an idea it was to put it in the parts washer though.

Cleaning the grease out of the bearings would be my biggest concern. When I bought my E28 long ago it was covered with dirt and oil. I mean really bad. The better part of a can of spray electrical cleaner and it was much better. It was still going strong when I sold the car 155K later. Brushes were the only thing I had to replace.

New front seatbelt receivers. The passenger had been cracked in the past and plastic welded, not sure what happened there...

topher800 wrote:New front seatbelt receivers. The passenger had been cracked in the past and plastic welded, not sure what happened there...

Wow! Those are pretty. NOS?

Dale3783 wrote:

topher800 wrote:New front seatbelt receivers. The passenger had been cracked in the past and plastic welded, not sure what happened there...

Wow! Those are pretty. NOS?

Really. If the rest of the car is anything like the little bit of the seats I can see, I can see justifying spending money on new receivers. Looks good!

Dale3783 wrote:

topher800 wrote:New front seatbelt receivers. The passenger had been cracked in the past and plastic welded, not sure what happened there...

Wow! Those are pretty. NOS?

If "from the dealer" qualifies as NOS.

Mike W. wrote:Really. If the rest of the car is anything like the little bit of the seats I can see, I can see justifying spending money on new receivers. Looks good!

Thanks. Front seats were recovered 2 years ago. It's pretty cherry for a DD. Pics of the paint job at top of page 201. Picture of seats on pg 191, about 3/4 down. Cocomats now replaced with Lloyd's "golden harvest" berber, and new leather shift boot cover from DJM thread in parts forum.

Redid the seat adjust decals. May order another set and try again. I ripped two small parts. My fault as it took a practice round to learn the technique.

Buttoned up the cooling system but It was leaking. Turns out the only hose on the t-stat housing I didn't replace was torn but I had a spare laying around. PITA

Some quality time with my chin on the coolant bottle.

cek wrote:FWIW, taking them apart and putting them back together is not hard. Not sure how good an idea it was to put it in the parts washer though.

True and fair point. Messing with my alternator was a "while you're in there" kind of thing. 2 bolts, it was begging me to take it out. Alternator is currently on, charging and within voltage specs. Who knows if I prolonged or shortened lifespan. Worst case scenario I mess up an unknown mileage alternator and a battery under warranty.

Mike W. wrote:Cleaning the grease out of the bearings would be my biggest concern.

I stole a can of electrical contact cleaner from work and emptied it into the alternator after reading this. Thanks for the advice!

I checked my regulator out just being curious and it was super worn out, so thanks both of you for making me double check things. For 11 bucks I now have a new regulator and and emergency spare.

Swept a foot of snow off of it.

Another (the other) crank position sensor. Haven't been able to drive it in a week since I chose free shipping from FCP instead of VOR through the dealership where I work. Drove the 36-year-old Toyota pickup instead.

Got home and the FCP box was in the mailbox, a day earlier than the tracking said it would be. Still had some light so I safely jacked the car up and set a jack stand and was done with plenty of light left, in time for a beautiful sunset. Remembered to wear my gloves this time which sure saves hand scrubbing time when you're working on daily drivers!

Today was sunny and warm so I tackled a thankless job to fix something that's bugged me since I took over stewardship of this car from the son of the original owner: removal of the double beige taped pin-stripes! God, I hate this task, but beige double stripes on a Delphin exterior just looks so . . . '80s.

Used GooGone to lube the surface and a Snap-On scraper handle set made of some fancy plastic blade material that won't harm paint. Lot's of 3M Adhesive Remover and plenty of sweat-equity and grunting to clean up the remaining glue. (I've tried heat-guns before but it leaves the same nasty glue mess, only it's warm.) Then a pre-wax cleaner, and a coat of wax over the removal area. Looks just like I remember the 535i when the first one rolled off the truck . . . but with much nicer wheels and tires! (That doesn't take much.)

BMWCCA2 wrote:Today was sunny and warm so I tackled a thankless job to fix something that's bugged me since I took over stewardship of this car from the son of the original owner: removal of the double beige taped pin-stripes! God, I hate this task, but beige double stripes on a Delphin exterior just looks so . . . '80s.

Used GooGone to lube the surface and a Snap-On scraper handle set made of some fancy plastic blade material that won't harm paint. Lot's of 3M Adhesive Remover and plenty of sweat-equity and grunting to clean up the remaining glue. (I've tried heat-guns before but it leaves the same nasty glue mess, only it's warm.) Then a pre-wax cleaner, and a coat of wax over the removal area. Looks just like I remember the 535i when the first one rolled off the truck . . . but with much nicer wheels and tires! (That doesn't take much.)

I was never a fan of pinstripes, have removed a few and IMO it looks much nicer without them. However, in my experience, they leave their mark. The paint oxydizes and wears where the pinstripe wasn't, but not underneath it. So if you catch the light right, you can still see the friggin' lines. I had an E23 painted one time and you could still see them thru the new paint, even though I'd removed them long before the new (cheap) paint job and had block sanded it, though obviously not well enough.

Sideswiped a guardrail on a mountain road. Front right fender is destroyed. Euro bumper isn't even scratched.

Beemernut wrote:Sideswiped a guardrail on a mountain road. Front right fender is destroyed. Euro bumper isn't even scratched.

Uh-oh! Nobody hurt I hope. Good to hear it was just the fender. Replaceable enough.

part way through driving across the country i noticed my c pillar vent cover was barely hanging on... i replaced the grommets and put it back on.

next thing is to replace the door bump stops/door strikers whatever you'd like to call them. the new ones are smaller than the original ones so maybe i'll have to warm them up, but does not look like a slip on and walk away deal.

Replaced driveshaft center bearing with beefier E34 version. I pray this fixes my driveline vibration issues as I've tried everything else. As a bonus, my neighbor's kids came over and wanted to hear the car reving without the muffer (basically straight out of the headers) - of course I obliged them

Went out to clean my new wheels and ended up doing the whole car, as one does.