MyE28.com

Posted: **Apr 09, 2018 11:27 PM**

davintosh wrote:We had a bad car day at our house today.

Just saw this. Sending (+) vibes in your direction.

Posted: **Apr 10, 2018 6:22 AM**

davintosh wrote: Who the heck comes up with this crap? A plastic gear on something as critical as the camshaft?

Ford (and GM) was doing this through the mid 80s at least, and yes it was a terrible idea. It wasn't completely plastic either, its a metal gear with plastic teeth. When the plastic wears away, the chain skips. Before they fail, the chain gets sloppy enough to usually cause some running issues, especially with fuel injection. Some of them are interference engines too, so when the chain jumps or the gear strips, it smashes valves. Some you get lucky with, depends on the piston. If yours is one of the good ones, throwing a chain on it will fix the problem. You have an option of single row or double row chains, I'd go for the double. They're more durable. I swapped the original on my Mark VII at 225k miles and it was actually still fine.

and to be fair, its really not any worse than say a rubber belt on a camshaft, though at least with belts they tell you to replace them on a schedule.

On my almost-BMW, I replaced the hydroboost return line. It was drooling power steering blood down the back of the engine compartment and making a general mess of things. In the process I disturbed the quick connect fitting between the fuel filter and the lift pump so it started sucking air. Short term repair was to remove the fitting and clamp a rubber line in it's place. The permanant fix is probably going to be swapping that connection out for a hose barb, provided one exists in whatever thread that filter head takes. Worst case, I'll replace the O rings and put it back to stock.

Posted: **Apr 10, 2018 11:59 AM**

gadget73 wrote:
davintosh wrote: Who the heck comes up with this crap? A plastic gear on something as critical as the camshaft?
Ford (and GM) was doing this through the mid 80s at least, and yes it was a terrible idea. It wasn't completely plastic either, its a metal gear with plastic teeth. When the plastic wears away, the chain skips. Before they fail, the chain gets sloppy enough to usually cause some running issues, especially with fuel injection. Some of them are interference engines too, so when the chain jumps or the gear strips, it smashes valves. Some you get lucky with, depends on the piston. If yours is one of the good ones, throwing a chain on it will fix the problem. You have an option of single row or double row chains, I'd go for the double. They're more durable. I swapped the original on my Mark VII at 225k miles and it was actually still fine.

and to be fair, its really not any worse than say a rubber belt on a camshaft, though at least with belts they tell you to replace them on a schedule.

This was a 4.9L inline six; the cam is in the block next to the crank, and the gear meshes directly with a gear on the crank. As I understand it, the gear is all composite plastic. I've learned that they went that route for noise considerations, and they generally last about 150,000 miles; this one lasted to 215k. There are aftermarket metal gears available, but it's about a 3-day DIY job to replace it; a time investment like that isn't worth it for a $1000 truck. And yes, it had developed some drivability issues that in retrospect are obviously timing related; that thing was losing teeth and timing was going farther & farther out. I can't for the life of me understand why the plastic was in any way preferred over metal, other than cost savings and planned obsolescence.

But I decided to cut my losses on the truck; sold it yesterday to a guy who has a rusted-out version of the same truck. He plans to pull the good motor from his and drop into this one. The Fjord will live on. Screw planned obsolescence.

Now that the sun is shining and the April snow is melting, on to figuring out how to fix that stupid e34.

Posted: **Apr 10, 2018 6:32 PM**

They did that on the 300? Wow, did not know that. I always assumed (yeah, yeah) that the gear to gear drive used, well, gears. Someone had a better idea obviously.

Posted: **Apr 10, 2018 8:14 PM**

New carpet and dynamat in my fiancè's '65 Barracuda.

Posted: **Apr 15, 2018 5:14 PM**

It's a miserable rainy day, but it's warm, so I opened up the garage and painstakingly dusted and detailed the interior on the Benz.

Posted: **Apr 15, 2018 8:33 PM**

First oil change performed by me on wife's 2013 328i xDrive (F30) since dealer free maintenance plan ended. Dealer changed it a year ago. Drain plug had rounded corners & was gorilla-grunted on! I torqued it & filter cap properly (25 Nm) upon completing oil drain.

Posted: **Apr 15, 2018 9:48 PM**

e28Sean wrote:It's a miserable rainy day, but it's warm, so I opened up the garage and painstakingly dusted and detailed the interior on the Benz.

I approve of this post.

Posted: **Apr 16, 2018 8:06 AM**

Fixed the stereo in the Towncar. Fuse holder had partially melted, voltage loss was making the sub drop out.
Cussed at the Mark VII. Brake caliper is hanging up, and the rack with less than 500 miles on it has bad seals. I foolishly bought a performance rack for it because the standard remans are generally worn out and vague in the center. It took several months to get this thing, and when it went in it immediately contaminated the system with metal. The fluid has been changed 4 or 5 times now and its still sparkly. I'll clean and re-seal it myself and either flush or replace the hoses and pump before it goes back in. Don't buy steering racks from AGR.
Continental blew a power steering hose. Napa has them on order for me, $25 each. I'm amazed they have it, its a diesel-specific hose. Less than 4000 cars were made with that option. I wonder if that hose has been on the shelf since 1984.

Posted: **Apr 18, 2018 10:39 AM**

replaced the cracked expansion tank and cap on the Conti with NOS Ford-branded BMW parts. Also flipped the washer on the radiator drain to hopefully take care of the very slight leak I had there and replaced the leaky quick connect fitting on the fuel filter with a normal hose barb.

Posted: **Apr 18, 2018 12:47 PM**

Loaded SUVie with all the solar and wind generating paraphernalia
for the trip to Fredneck Acres in hopes of brewing my coffee Friday morning off the grid.

Posted: **Apr 18, 2018 2:22 PM**

davintosh wrote:We had a bad car day at our house today.

First, the F150 has been out of action for a few days after stranding me earlier in the week, and I haven't got around to figuring out what its problem is.

So I took the e34 to my early meeting this morning. On the way home, it's humming along nice as you please, then suddenly the tach goes to zero, and I coast to a stop. What the heck?

Crank and crank and crank, and nothing. Called my son for rescue, then after I hung up I tried the starter again and it started. Smooth as ever. Drove a block and it quit again. Couple more tries and it started; cool. Said a prayer and continued on, getting a mile closer to home before it quit again. After several more tries it started, but quit one more time before I got it home.

Once in the driveway I left it running, popped the hood and trunk, and while I'm listening to the fuel pump, the engine quits. No stumble, just like somebody turned the key off. I messed with it the rest of the morning and got nowhere. Crap.

So, since I can't have two vehicles down, and since I'm not getting anywhere with the e34, I decide to tear into the pickup to figure out what the problem is. After checking several things I discover that the distributor rotor isn't turning as it should; instead of a smooth rotation, it's jerking around like its got the hiccups. What the heck? I reached down and find that I can turn the rotor with my hand, and can hear the camshaft turning in the engine. Uh-oh. After some Googling I found this video explaining what the issue is; the teeth on the plastic timing gear(!?!?!?) on the end of the camshaft disintegrated. Just. Great. Time to cut my losses on this one. Bye, truck.

Who the heck comes up with this crap? A plastic gear on something as critical as the camshaft?

Looking back through this thread, it's obvious my "other cars" are far too interesting, and featured far too often here. I obviously need to be a bit more choosy when car shopping.

I got this thing buttoned up and back on the road the other day by replacing the crankshaft position sensor. I'm not quite sure how that goes bad all of a sudden like that, but... Thankful for another relatively easy fix.

Posted: **Apr 18, 2018 5:37 PM**

cek wrote:I approve of this post.

I'm glad you approve.

Posted: **Apr 19, 2018 7:46 AM**

Calipers and pads on the Mark VII. Caliper got sticky on the right side. Pads were glazed and cracked, but no grooves or other problems worth talking about on the rotors. Cleaned them up with a Rolloc disc and just bedded the brakes in. Napa would have had my rotors for a week before they could be cut and I just don't have time for this to be apart and in my way for that long. Works fine, amazingly the rotors are not warped. Not super impressed with pedal feel, may still have a small air bubble in there. It felt fine until I forced the ABS to fire, so possibly the bubble was in there.

Posted: **Apr 19, 2018 8:47 AM**

Moved the golf cart out of the garage to make room for the Miata that my younger son just bought. "I just need a place to store it until we get our new house finished." (Here's how much I know about the Miata: it's black, it's first gen.)

Posted: **Apr 19, 2018 9:34 AM**

Got the TO bearing replaced and put it back together the other day so that last night I could get it on the ground and start it. I also installed new wheels/tires which I have been itching to get on there.

Posted: **Apr 19, 2018 9:48 AM**

tschultz wrote:

Looks like your driveway is properly populated with '80's BMWs. Your wife must love you very, very much.

Posted: **Apr 19, 2018 10:24 AM**

davintosh wrote:Looks like your driveway is properly populated with '80's BMWs. Your wife must love you very, very much.

I'd say so, yes! Even one or two in my side yard as well. Something I may need to do something about

Posted: **Apr 20, 2018 9:30 PM**

Power steering lines done on the Continental. Replaced the rack bushings while I was in the neighborhood since they had turned to jelly. Its kinda nice not having the car tramline on worn out roads.

Posted: **Apr 21, 2018 5:37 PM**

Detailed the 911. Ready for the All Porsche event at XXX Burgers in Issaquah tomorrow...

Pulled these damn things off the Tacoma. Hate them. They are useless. They stick out too far and actually make it HARDER to get in and out of the truck. Julie hates them too.

Too bad, because they did look nice. I'm going to try to find something more svelte.

Posted: **Apr 21, 2018 7:43 PM**

Fixed the OBC switch on the E46. Again. As usual, just a broken wire. The same part on my E28 lasted twice the years and twice the miles.

Posted: **Apr 22, 2018 10:40 AM**

Final prep:

All detailed and ready for the "All Porsche Day" at XXX Rootbeer in Issaquah, WA today.

Posted: **Apr 22, 2018 9:10 PM**

Switch out the linen for tobacco and then we talk. Until then . . .

Posted: **Apr 23, 2018 7:44 AM**

Fixed the cruise on the Continental. Some hack managed to pull the harness out of the grommet, and ran it between the grommet and the firewall to make sure the wiring got all chewed up. Replaced the servo with one that had a good harness and grommet, works absolutely perfectly. As a bonus, that slight draft from under the dashboard is gone. Also started work on fixing the AC system. Drier is an unknown, so going to try to match that up today. Compressor clutch plug disintegrated when I unplugged it. Damaged compressor is out.

Posted: **Apr 23, 2018 4:50 PM**

E39:
Last Thursday: New Tires (Dunlop Signature HP's) after this happened the previous weekend:

These were the two rear tires; one came apart at speed on the freeway and the other was on its' way to doing the same thing.

Yesterday: Prepped the car from major surgery: Entire Front and Rear Suspension Overhaul: Emptied it, packed parts, and washed it.

Today: Just dropped the car off along with many boxes of parts:

Shop (PS Racing in Burbank, CA; a Porsche shop but Doug Weaver, owner, is one of my hangar-mates and just did my other hangar-mate's E39 Touring) will have it the rest of the week. Estimates are close to 40 shop hours for the entire suspension system. A lot, but at 178,800 miles and 16 years it needs to be done.

Posted: **Apr 24, 2018 8:06 AM**

yikes, how old were those tires?

AC system back together on the Conti. Its sitting under vacuum leak-testing currently. If its holding when I get home from work, I'll call it good. Needs a low side fitting, the conversion one was junk. Can't find the drier, seems to be engine-specific and no listings exist for it. Failing a better option, I'll just vacuum the BS out of it and hope for the best. All the parts are used anyway, I have no money into fixing this besides some O-rings and one electrical connector.

Posted: **Apr 24, 2018 11:13 AM**

gadget73 wrote:yikes, how old were those tires?

2 years and +/-22,345 miles.
I've never had such an experience with Kuhmo's before; I have already started a claim with Tire Rack.

Posted: **Apr 24, 2018 10:28 PM**

I generally run the Rat around the casa in 4 low with the hubs unlocked . Today, I locked the Rat's front hubs and pulled out a 20' locust sapling. The tap root was over 3' in the ground where it broke.

Posted: **Apr 25, 2018 7:40 AM**

AC repair failed. Held vacuum overnight, charged it, had 36 degrees at the vent, then something let go and most of the refrigerant leaked out in a couple minutes. On the upside I found and fixed some other problems with the system so once I figure out the leak I should be good. I also found the drier, someone on ebay had one.

Posted: **Apr 25, 2018 7:54 AM**

Replaced the duck gasket and coolant expansion tank on the e34 this afternoon. That gasket never gets any easier but was a definite cause of the oil drips on the driveway, it had split around the bolt with the nylon washer ring (which had also failed) Double whammy. Expansion tank was purely cosmetic and 'while I'm in there', gave some sort of satisfaction to the eyes after an hour of bruised knuckles.

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