MyE28.com DEV

SD45T-2 wrote:Had a Pair of E24's Droped off, Got the Door Open That the Seller couldn't Get open. I also threw away the Seats/Door panels as they was Trashed.

You lucky bastard. I wished I had the space for that duo.

Got to take a dvd player apart in my D2 to find a small metal toy spoon that my little 5 year old put in it.
Good news was that I got it to work again.

Jump-started the E34 after leaving the tail gate open for about 8 minutes.

That was yesterday, but I get to do it again once it stops "raining" because I forgot to turn my lights off and left them on for 6 minutes.

Of course, each time, the car is parked in a spot I can't just leave it. Unfortunately, this time, it's loaded up with crap, and it doesn't have enough power to release the tail gate.

Haven't had much time to work on the e32 this week, so it's mostly just been sitting with its water pump & hoses off waiting for me to get the three broken bolts out. Two came out without a lot of fuss (propane torch, PB Blaster and a needle-nose Vise-Grip) but that third one was a bear. It had about 3/16" sticking out, just enough to make you think you could get it but then the pliers would slip and grind a little more off.

I decided to get brutal with it and just drill the bugger out, but the problem with that on that car is the stuff that needs attention is at the front of the motor, and the forward-tilting hood makes it difficult to see what you're doing. So I took a few short bits of steel bar, drilled a shallow hole in one that fit snugly around the M6 bolt, then used an 1/8" bit centered in that shallow hole to drill the rest of the way through the bar. I also drilled an 1/8" hole through two more pieces then stacked the three together with the holes lined up. Then with all three of them epoxied together in a stack, I clamped them to the water pump flange with the larger hole fitted over the broken bolt stub (after I had cut the end off flat); the 1/8" hole then helped guide an 1/8" drill bit to the center of the offending bolt, and the stack helped keep the bit perpendicular to the face of the water pump flange on the block.

Once I got that 1/8" pilot hole drilled, it was easy enough to drill increasingly larger holes, then used a straight fluted extractor to turn it out. Slick. Oh, I also had to pick up a 90° angle attachment for my drill because even with the radiator out of the way I still couldn't get my drill and a bit in between the block and the AC coil, and I was not interested in messing with that.

Wow; all that to say I got one broken bolt out. Don't even want to think about how much time it took me to get that done.

Is there any chance you could make your signature a more reasonable size? I can see it's a tree made of hubcaps, but don't need to identify the cars from which the hubcaps came.

My wife and I drove our respective E34s to our local BMWCCA coffee meet this morning.

Been driving the touring so much it was down a quart of oil. From San Rafael to San Fransisco then back and over to Berkeley and back all week. So nice driving an auto and 24 MPG instead of a lifted 5 speed 4Runner.
Not nice working 12 hours a day and driving 3.

As long as the weather was decent after finishing up the water pump/coolant hose replacement job on the e32, and the wife wasn't complaining about the car displacing the Freestar in the garage, I decided to do something about replacing its saggy rear shock mounts. FInished up last night, and my what a difference... Still need to replace the beer cans and the trailing arm bushings, but waiting to get a set of camber/toe plates welded up to a spare subframe and replace the whole shebang in one swell foop. The improvement I felt in it today gave me extra incentive to just get it done already!

It sure is nice getting back into the e32 after driving my kid's craprocket Muttstang for a couple of weeks; I might miss the go-pedal on that car, but that's about it.

Put Silvania Silverstars in the headlights.

Ordered UUC clutch bushings and pedal stop.

BAM!

Put 70$ worth of petrol in the Landbruiser and pushed on towards the Oldskool compound at the coast. No salt air in a week and I'm getting a wee bit grumpy and light-headed.

Put a shifter cable in the Buick today. Note to self: next time that car breaks, burn it to the ground.

New air intake boot on the E34 ///M.

New UUC clutch pedal bushings came in today, hopefully the clutch stop arrived too (as I have none whatsoever in the M3).

Tonight I'll have a straight clutch pedal to drive down to Franklin County for New Years.

Pulled the front door panels of in hopes of lubing the lock assys and getting the keyless to work again. Turns out they were both gummed up with 'glue' from the foam insulator stuff behind the panel.

Tried lubing the window assy as it slows about 2/3 the way down, but no luck. Any ideas? It slows down, then picks back up again

I drove the 735i running errands today. Was at it for a good hour or more, and was reminded of how many things BMW did right on the e32... Even at 190k, it handles well, rides well, has plenty of go at the ready, has by far the best HVAC system of any car I've owned, has a great sounding stereo (Boston's Foreplay/Long Time at high volume is nothing less than awesome in that car) and looks good besides. I like my car.

Installed most of the driver side glovebox in my e34 touring. Just need the right half of the knee bolster and the wood trim. It looks like my dash is changing from dove to silvergrau, so I need a glovebox too :rolleyes: .

It's a little tough to see from the picture, but the flaw in the fire ring is in the bottom right of the last picture

The block halves should be back on tuesday.

Beer cans on the E34 M5. Got double duty out of butane torch by using it to light off the fireworks tonight.
Hair of the Dog drive in the morning. Happy New Year!

funfunfer wrote:...the E34 M5. ...Hair of the Dog drive in the morning. Happy New Year!

There'll be two on 'em.
Clutch hydraulics on the E28 M5 failed today.
Looking on the bright side, better today than on tomorrows drive.

The last 4 days has been all about the Honda:
1. Replaced the Headlamp units.
2. Then one of the rear power windows decided to roll down but then not go back up . Tore the door apart and pulled a battery out of the BMW to hot wire the window motor to roll it back up (there is no manual override on these motors like our E28's). Have to see which switch or relay is not working. Did I say ?

Swapped the snow tires/wheels onto the E46. No snow in sight, but doing this with temps in the 50s just made sense.

Changed the oil on the E39. Only 8K on it, I wasn't as far overdue as I feared, and running synthetic no biggie.

Bigger problems coming though, the wife said it sounded funny unlocking in the morning lately, like it was slow. I assured her as long as it was cranking over ok it was probably just fine. Checked the battery after sitting overnight and it read 12.03V. Damn, are her ears that good? Not much open today so I'll be after one tomorrow.

Today I was rear ended in the E90. Yeah. Then the driver skipped out on me. Double yeah. So if you see an idiot in an 1997 Ford Mustang with the Ohio license plate EKG 4935 please call Columbus Police at 614-645-4545 to report its location.

We had just turned onto a four lane road and a driver from the left lane cut me off so I slammed on the brakes and the douche behind me didn't stop in time. I suspect the damage is minimal but I'll still probably need a new bumper. :annoyed:

rmiddendorf wrote:Today I was rear ended in the E90. Yeah. Then the driver skipped out on me. Double yeah. So if you see an idiot in an 1997 Ford Mustang with the Ohio license plate EKG 4935 please call Columbus Police at 614-645-4545 to report its location.

We had just turned onto a four lane road and a driver from the left lane cut me off so I slammed on the brakes and the douche behind me didn't stop in time. I suspect the damage is minimal but I'll still probably need a new bumper. :annoyed:

Wow does that suck. Good job getting the plate number; hope they catch him.

rmiddendorf wrote:Today I was rear ended in the E90. Yeah. Then the driver skipped out on me. Double yeah.

That sucks - sorry to hear it. Side note - somehow I didn't know that Bella was red. Nice car, the right motor, and a great color!

My own recent fleet activities - oil and cabin filter change on the 330. That car's racking up the miles.

Oil, filter, transfer case and diff (2) fluid changes on the Tundra. Also lube the big guy's shafts. Homeaux? No! There is so much room around the rear diff and transfer case that I can just get those pointy bottles and tip them up to pour the fluid in. That's nice.

Oil change and cleaned/polished/buffed out the headlight covers on the E36. Wow, what a change. I can see two beams again instead of just this fuzzy light up front. Seems like the only complaints I've heard about those crappy plastic covers are cosmetic, but damn, what a difference. And mine weren't nearly as bad as they get.

Fixed the nonoperational passenger side seatbelt, installed autodim rearview mirror, debadged the hatch, and tucked the antenna (?) Wire back into its groove at the top of the hatch/spoiler.
Ordered all the shocks (except suspension) for the car-hatch, glass, and hood.
Waiting on the wood trim for my driver side glovebox, and floor panels for the trunk.
Enjoying driving it, although nervous since its now my 'only car'-sold the 4Runner we've had for 10+ years.

Went to work on changing the lower control arm bushings on my son's Civic on Saturday, and we're stuck trying to get the stupid arm off of the ball joint. Grrr. I've beat on it with everything short of a long-handle sledgehammer, hit it with BFHs from both sides, heated it up with a torch, cussed at it, growled at it, but it refuses to pop. We've also tried getting a gear puller & steering wheel puller to do the job, but they can't get a decent grip on the control arm. I've checked several places looking for a lever-type ball joint separator... Nothing locally. I've borrowed the tool before from one of the Advance Auto shops in town, but their kit is out on loan right now.



I hate the thought of sticking a pickle fork in there & ripping up a perfectly good ball joint boot. A pitman arm puller might work if I can find one that has the right gap between the arms. But dang; you wouldn't think it'd be this much of a pain to get two stoopid ball joints loose.

This showed up for the e30....

davintosh wrote:Went to work on changing the lower control arm bushings on my son's Civic on Saturday, and we're stuck trying to get the stupid arm off of the ball joint. Grrr. I've beat on it with everything short of a long-handle sledgehammer, hit it with BFHs from both sides, heated it up with a torch, cussed at it, growled at it, but it refuses to pop. We've also tried getting a gear puller & steering wheel puller to do the job, but they can't get a decent grip on the control arm. I've checked several places looking for a lever-type ball joint separator... Nothing locally. I've borrowed the tool before from one of the Advance Auto shops in town, but their kit is out on loan right now.



I hate the thought of sticking a pickle fork in there & ripping up a perfectly good ball joint boot. A pitman arm puller might work if I can find one that has the right gap between the arms. But dang; you wouldn't think it'd be this much of a pain to get two stoopid ball joints loose.

Is Harbor Freight nearby? They carry them... and at single use prices too! Wear safety glasses. The first one I bought snapped like it was made of pot metal. Oh wait, it is. Got the job done though. And harbor freight took it back for replacement as I had purchased it that day.