MyE28.com

Picked up a piece of a mechanical screw(not fastener) roughly 3/8"X1" in the back passenger side tire on the way to Lubbock. This gave me a chance to try out my DynaPlug kit. YIPPEE!

The hole was huge and it took three plugs to get a good seal, but as far as side-of-the-road repairs go this was a breeze. Didn't even have to remove the tire. Just pull the shiv and insert the plug at the same angle in the puncture. It took longer to dig the kit out of the trunk. Aired the tire back up and away we went.

Got the snows on wifey's car.

Snows on my MK6 GTI, snows, brake lines, oil PCV system and heater core on my MK1 Rabbit Pickup, stored my MK2 Jetta Coupe.

Replaced the final stage resistor in the E39, just in time for the approaching cold spell. Much easier the second time around! Took longer to vacuum the interior (my first with black).

John in VA wrote:Replaced the final stage resistor in the E39

I had to Google 'final stage resistor'. I see it's a common failure item which means I'll probably be replacing it soon since my e39 would never skip a common failure item . I just found out my headlamp adjusters are broken which is another common failure item. BTW, I'm going to refer to them as 'CFIs' from now on.

Yet another TLA; just what we need.

davintosh wrote:Yet another TLA; just what we need.

Totally Lame Acronym?

Karl Grau wrote:I just found out my headlamp adjusters are broken which is another common failure item. BTW, I'm going to refer to them as 'CFIs' from now on.

My adjusters are good. Pre-facelift lenses can be baked/heated & removed for easier replacement of the adjusters. Later ones, like mine, can't be opened and require small tools to do the job. There are guys that will do it for you. Odometergears.com makes adjusters for later cars made from 20% glass filled Delrin. There are metal adjusters available as well.
http://www.odometergears.com/products/B ... .+00-03/28

John in VA wrote:Pre-facelift lenses can be baked/heated & removed for easier replacement of the adjusters. Later ones, like mine, can't be opened

Mine is the first month of facelift and my homework told me that I can to the bake/separate method but I could be wrong. The beefier replacements are on the way so I guess I'll find out next weekend.

Karl Grau wrote: I just found out my headlamp adjusters are broken which is another common failure item. BTW, I'm going to refer to them as 'CFIs' from now on.

Want another one? In the short period I have owned mine (6 months) I have a long list of them
Run into the door vapor barriers leaking water in yet? Be prepared...... You'll need some of this stuff to reseal them.


Wait till the moonroof quits/breaks it's plastic tabs The list just goes on and on and.........

Nothing, another weekend spent at home.

waynet1 wrote: Wait till the moonroof quits/breaks it's plastic tabs The list just goes on and on and.........

You mean the ones that raise the back of the sunroof? That cost $60 new? Each. No, I don't know what you're talking about.

I think they were under a ten spot at P and P, plus it let me figure out how to take it apart without running the risk of breaking anything on mine.

But in over 200K now on the platform, no window regulators or final stage units.

The last few days have been "interesting," but my story starts last Thursday.

My touring has been making me very sad. I put new tires on it and just parked it for a month and drove a good car. My 528i. Well, the brake booster 'sploded in that, so I had to drive the E34 again. The rattling at 1200-1800 RPM was getting annoying and then it started doing it at idle, so I ordered the VANOS rattle repair kit from Beisan Systems. I put over 80k miles on the S50 since it was installed in November, 2012 and really had done no maintenance on it, so I figured a valve cover gasket, plugs and what not were in order too. I made an appointment to get the VANOS repair done since I didn't want to do it myself on a car I rely heavily on. Never done it before.

So, valve cover off and look at that. #1 plug hole is half-full (or in my case half-empty) of oil!



No smoke or anything on start up and consumption has been okay since switching to Total 15w40 (It has a cute semi truck on the label).

Looking at the front of the engine, the guide rails for the cam timing chains are missing. That could be the rattle at idle. Look a little closer and all of the plastic guides are missing. Nice. Glad I'm not doing this in my driveway. Well, things just got way more expensive since to change the guide rails, the head has to come off.







Of course, at that point, I'm left with all these thoughts of the while-you're-in-there stuff and then I thought well, shit, why not just do the head. Then I realized that if I have oil consumption, and it is more likely the rings in this car, a fresh head might make that worse so I changed my mind. Plus, my head was muy excellente and it appeared to have been redone before. The gasket was not original and it was in good condition. I did decide to replace all of the lifters since I have had an annoying lifter tick I couldn't get rid of for the last 18 months or so. I got the car back late Friday afternoon. Once it was all back together, it was discovered that my car was slow. Turns out the throttle only opened half way. My accelerator pedal bushings were shot and the cable was bad. Those were ordered, but some liberal lubricant and fully adjusting the nut on the cable made a huge difference. I don't think I ever realized just how fast this car is. It is crazy.

Here's what was left of the guides:



Both of the bolts for the plastic guide had to be replaced since the chain was basically riding on them.



The chain was replaced too.

So, I felt that deserved a wash. Then the rain came.



Thursday night, I got home from work at 1:30am. My parents were having tree trimmers up in the morning (gee, thanks for the warning), so I had to move a bunch of their cars around. One of them, my old '87 Volvo has a massive oil leak from the front cam seal, so I took that over to my house since they think they're driving it to Yuma on Thursday. Got a couple hours of sleep before I had to clean one of my cars for a photo shoot.

I get home from the shoot on Friday and then took the touring back to the shop for the new bushings and cable. Before I could leave, I got stopped by my dad who had walked over with one of the tree-trimmers to look at one of my trees and then quote me on replacing my fence with a block wall (random). After that was done, the car felt totally different and I had to relearn how to drive it. I was amazed at how the throttle reacted to the pedal. It was a different car.



I get home from that and the tree-trimmers had gone and I find out that my Saturday had been planned out babysitting people building a wall in my backyard. Nice. How am I going to pay for that? Apparently, I will work that out later.

So, the Corvette hasn't been driven for a few years and it had been on the plate, but with the house explosion and the subsequent bullshit (for the last 2.5 years) it hasn't been a priority. Last year, fuel started leaking out of the tank, so I siphoned it all out and then started researching a fuel tank. It's a November 1969 built 1969 model (long story, but it was a test car with a one-off suspension among other nearly-impossible to find parts), so I was really confused. The tank had been replaced in the '80s with what my dad called a "racing" tank with a greater capacity (gauge was always wrong). It had the classic failure where it rusts through where the tank sits on the support straps. So, since I couldn't figure out what to order, it's been on the back burner (though not to my dad who complains constantly about everything I'm SUPPOSED to be fixing). Problem was, the tires were starting to get low, so we had to move it out so I could put air in the tires and it might be nice to clean it.





I did figure out the fuel tank I need to buy by combing through Corvette forums. Amazing how many of the C3 guys are actually pretty articulate. The whole problem came since in July/August, supposedly, the fuel tank design changed to a vented tank with a vapor canister. Early tanks for '68/'69 were sealed tanks with a vented cap. Well, this tank has a vented cap, so that solved the issue. I ended up buying a kit that should have everything I need and it came in about $300 with shipping. While it's out, I'll take the opportunity to clean out the drains for the rear deck vents since I'm sure they're clogged.

Saturday, I awake to some guys destroying my fence. Great. So, they also want money to buy materials, so yay. Well, now that I'm up and can't leave (the car I need to work on is at my storage unit), I guess I might as well look at the Volvo. I've done some reading off and on about how to fix this, but I'm more worried about what caused the issue. Fortunately, I was sorta-kinda prepared for this since I found some guy on craigslist with some Continental belts, a timing belt and an Elring cam and crank seal for $20. He turned out to be a weirdo, but I took the parts anyway. So, I don't know what year the 240 was he had the parts for, but only one of the V-belts would work but I need a matched pair for the alternator, so maybe those will work on the '81. Fortunately,the other stuff would work. I started getting things torn down and went digging for the flame trap which I had never dealt with and then that was such a pain, I just decided to take the front of the engine apart anyway. Last timing belt was in 2009, so it's due. I got everything apart with the help of some great YouTube videos from ipd and some other guy. I had never done a timing belt before, so this was a learning experience. Turned out, I didn't have any way to hold the crank pulley, which wasn't a problem for removal (impact), but I needed a pulley holder to put it back on. Fortunately, a former E28 owner and Volvo nut (Felix) helped me out big time with that. I replaced the cam seal as the intermediate and crank seal weren't leaking. Felix came over with the tool and helped me finish the timing belt. He also helped me take off the oil separator since I think the issue of the over-pressurization probably originated there. It looked clear and there was no flame trap. Figured that was as far as I could get since I was ill-prepared to really do the job, so Monday, I'd just order up the belts, some cooling hoses, a thermostat, cap, rotor, maybe some plugs and hopefully finish it up Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

Anyway, between arguments on why people can't follow instructions on replacing a fence or just copying the layout of what's already there, I was informed I was going to have to move one of the parts E24s. Great. I've driven the car, but it's been sitting a few months now. I yanked a battery out of the 528i and I couldn't get it going, so I got some fuel to add to the tank. By the time I got back with that, there were more problems with the fence and Felix had showed up, so I got back on the Volvo. Once he left, the fence guys had knocked off and I tried to move the E24. Then this happened:



It was VERY loud and it hurt my ears. Also frightened me since I was enveloped in a cloud of smoke, but fortunately, no fire. My parents heard it a block away and the phone rang, my mom came over along with several neighbors. I'm not going to bother moving it.

Got back on working on the E28 I'm supposed to be working on, today, but this is a pretty good indication of how things went all day - or pretty much with anything I try to do on this car. It's that car that fights you every step of the way.

I know the feeling of a car constantly fighting you.

My Rabbit Truck has been a prime contender.

Yesterday, after Michigan's first real snow (which turned out to be an 8 inch dumpage), I decided to go out and fire up the cars after a cold night. E28, fine, lady's Malibu, fine, GTI, of course fine, but the Rabbit was flat dead.

Jumper box got it running and charging briefly. Then it just died. I just did a bunch of stuff Saturday morning on it to CORRECT some issues. I did actually fix them all. But after I left the garage, the truck cut out on me four times. Like all loss of electrical power. I checked all the connections, all seemed well.

Well yesterday, it also decided to quit getting fuel. The cold overnight from Saturday to Sunday must've frozen up the lines somewhat, and it's not getting to the engine. The soft line under the hood is fine, but it was just too cold to check under the truck by the pump. However the pump looked icy. But it did run when I turned the key. Just not getting to the engine.

Strangely, the fuel gauge also read it was flat empty when I got it to run for a few seconds. It clearly had run out though. But I had put a half tank in on Saturday after the work I had done.

So then I went and had the battery charged. Came back to have them tell me it had a dead cell and probably wouldn't hold its charge long. Must've had a drain overnight I thought.

I get back and drop it in and as I go to place the negative terminal on, it immediately begins to sizzle. It took me five seconds to get it back off as it was attempting to weld itself on. Little bastard.

To come to a close, I found the main alternator charge wire was punched under the battery tray and had worn through its coating over the last several months. Thank VW for that design. I've since replaced, rerouted, and rewrapped the cluster of wires there.

Now it needs fuel.

Monday morning I was driving to work in my 325ix. I stopped at a light, and when I started to pull away after it turned green there was a big clunk and then a Zinnnggg noise. Stripped out the splines on the front driveshaft.

A couple months ago I had a used transfer case swapped in because the original one was making noise. At that time it was noted that the front driveshaft splines were worn, but the shop put a thicker guibo on it which gave it a little better purchase in the mating splines in the transfer case. Thinking about it now, I should have just gone ahead and replaced the driveshaft then.

As it happens, a couple weeks ago I took the original transfer case to a local shop that was able to rebuild it, Zumbrota Bearing and Gear (they have a funny web address: http://zbag.com ) I figured it would be good to keep it around for a spare, and coincidentally they finished it up today. So, I'll have the rebuilt one put back in, along with a new driveshaft that's on order now (BMW had one in stock in the US, in Pennsylvania.) I can't get it into the shop until next Tuesday, so in the meantime I'm driving a rental Ford Focus. I could pull the M535i out of storage for a few days, but it's supposed to start snowing tomorrow night and I'm not going to expose it to salty roads (plus it has summer tires that would be useless in snow.)

Oh well, it's only money. The 325ix should be good for many more miles, and the rebuilt transfer case looks like it's brand new.

E46 wagon got a new valve cover gasket, drivers window regulator and the snow tires swapped on.
911 got a bath before being tucked in for hibernation

Lots of E28 projects planned over winter

E-30 got a full work down paint/detail Saturday night out in the garage. Looks fucking fantastic now and no more smell of stale beer and pizza.
Found a few new rust bubbles on the sunroof and a worrisome spot in a rocker panel. Oy vey.
FOR SALE!

Got the bad tire on the E39 changed out last week. Except first they put it on the good spare in spite of my repeated mentions about bad tire and being down to the steel and checking the car for anything wonky. When I went to pay the service writer kind of paused when I said something about down to the steel and said, wait a minute, let me check. Came back and said we screwed up, we'll take care of it right away, can we give you a ride home, get you anything etc, etc. It was a good half an hour or more since they had to dis and remount 2 tires, not just one, but what can you do. Accidents happen and they made it right.

So today I go by and thank them for taking care of it with no BS, just taking care of it right away. The guy went into appology mode again and I had to stop him. I finally said, everybody bitches about things, I came in to thank you, end of story. He got it finally, smiled and said thanks.

I've had the same thing happen with guys who worked for me, I'd give them a complement and they'd be making excuses or saying it was no big deal or no problem. Finally one time one guy got it and said to his coworker, stop. The boss gives you kudos, just say thank you. End of story, you get a complement, just say thanks, don't pat yourself on the back, don't say no big deal, just say thanks.

Mike W. wrote:... just say thanks.

... and today's that day.

Washed it and cleaned under the hood a little.
Paid $300 for a new key fob.

I liked it a lot.

Ive concluded that this whip will finally replace the Ford
Edge in the stable.
Then the hunt for another vintage BMW will begin.

TSMacNeil wrote:...
Then the hunt for another vintage BMW will begin.

TSMacNeil wrote:Washed it and cleaned under the hood a little.
Paid $300 for a new key fob.

I liked it a lot.

Ive concluded that this whip will finally replace the Ford
Edge in the stable.
Then the hunt for another vintage BMW will begin.

I know I've been gone but when did that acquisition happen? Aren't you terrified of what can go wrong?

I know I own a 12-cyl E32, but at least I understand that car. Those newer 7-series really seem scary to moi.

I traded my M3 for it last month.
I dont understand it yet either. Has lots of magic in it.

Please, in the name of all that is holy, sell that thing before it breaks. The e65 is one of the biggest money pits ever devised. And they are ugly.

It's actually a pretty nice car. The guy he got it from knows all about them and id rather own that thing than a Ford Edge.

lol
I think Kyle was about to make an offer...


Im keeping it.

wkohler wrote:It's actually a pretty nice car. The guy he got it from knows all about them and id rather own that thing than a Ford Edge.

There is that, just like an Exploder only cheaper. I generally buy a Ford every 30 yrs or so to remind me why not to buy a Ford. Right now I have the Rat. I bonded with it at first sight. Just like a pound puppy. The effing meds sold me a rosy bill of goods. Pain, money and pain, followed, but I 've brought it back. Still a project, but I've gotten to where it makes me smile driving it around town.

Installed E39 M5 rotors as a substitute for the E34 floating rotors on the M5, installed non-cracked taillights, and installed a Moosehead engineering sticker

^^^ Value and HP added.

I got home as it was getting dark and decided that since it was supposed to rain tonight, I was going to have a look at removing the fuel tank from the Corvette. I had been reading about a lock for the spare tire and that began to worry me. The spare had never been used in this car, though the tank had been replaced once before. Fortunately, the lock wasn't there. I put a jack under the spare tire tub, dropped the spare and put it aside.



Never been on the car, original Firestone Wide Oval F70/15. 46-year-old tire!

Anyway, I removed the spare tire cover, but left the tub attached as I had read people had difficulty with the bolts. I figured with the rally suspension and how high this car sits in the rear that I probably could get away with not raising the rear of the car.

Here's a blurry shot of the tank with the front crossmember removed.



Here's the two areas that sat on the crossmember:





^ That's why it's being replaced.

GM used 30# roofing felt as an isolator between the tank and the crossmembers. I'm no so sure it's a great idea. Unfortunately, the "complete fuel tank kit" I bought doesn't include these pieces, so I'm looking into another alternative at this point. I haven't been successful in finding something that's 1/16" thick and 2-3" wide. I also don't want to buy a roll of roofing felt to get a 5" strip.

After undoing the bolts for the straps on the rear of the frame, then pushing slightly at the top, the tank came down. Unfortunately, the spare tire carrier was in the way. After some maneuvering, I ended up turning the tank over and had about 1mm of clearance between the spare tire carrier and the bottom of the rear valance. I couldn't believe it.

Here's the old tank:



I bought a new correct tank for the car, so it only has one nipple. The tank that came out must have been for a big block car having been larger capacity and also for a '70-on car since it had the nipple on the left for the vent hose which would have gone to a vapor canister. Since this car has a vented fuel cap, it's not supposed to have that.

Where's that fuel tank?


Once I clean up some of the stuff under the car and the parts I removed, I will try to install the new tank. Also need new isolation pieces. Hopefully I can come up with something.