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e30 M3 minor rust repair.

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    and then you can pop the bushes out. To my surprise it seems a previous
    owner has fitted polly bushes instead of the original bushes, and they're
    still in perfect nick......



    From reading on various forums it seems this change from original
    rubber bushes to harder polly bushes is to cure an inherent problem
    with alternators on the M3's S14 engine. The engine likes to vibrate
    a lot especially when your driving arse out of it (as all M3's should be).
    And this makes the alternator with the standard bushes vibrate a lot
    too, which can snap the adjuster bracket and leave you without a
    working alternator. So the polly bushes stiffen things up a bit and
    makes life a little easier for the adjuster bracket.
    At least thats my understanding of it, no doubt I've probably got it
    arseways as usual.

    With all the bushes checked and the casings cleaned up it was time to
    nail it all back together and hope for once that you don't end up with
    bits left over.
    First up the 2 little studs that poke through the back of the casing to
    attach the power leads to, making sure the little inner plastic insulators
    are in place so that the studs can't arc off the casing, spark, fire, boom,
    tears.......



    pop it into the rear casing......



    and pop the outer insulator back on securing it with the two little nuts.
    Also the little suppressor dude goes back on......



    then the stator (outer bit) and rotor (inner bit) sits down into the casing.
    Rotor may need a little tap to get the small bearing the other end of
    the shaft back into it's little dome in the casing......





    and then finally the front casing pops on (making sure you've aligned the
    3 markings you've made on the casings before stripping). Then the
    4 main outer bolts are refitted and tightened to hold the casings together
    and finally the 4 inner screws that hold that little plate behind the front bearing
    tight to the casing are refitted.
    When all thats done the brush pack can be slotted back in (softly, softly).....



    and the earth lead reconnected........



    followed by all the bits that make up the front pulley section......



    and voila!.......



    After this it was hooked up to our state of the art, mobile, water cooled,
    alternator test bed to check it was charging........



    engine running and everything electrical turned on and bingo 14 volts
    at the battery. Didn't even need to use the fire extinguisher, how
    professional is that?



    And thats about it for now. Depending on how whacked I get
    on pain killers this evening I hope to have the next bit up
    tomorrow.
    Till then.......

    Comment


      Next up the starter.......



      Two main bits to the starter, the big bit on the bottom is the actual
      motor that turns the engine over and then the smaller bit on top which
      is the solenoid. And it's the solenoid thats first to be removed.
      Three screws at the front are undone.....



      and on the back end, the nut shown below is undone and the main
      power lead to the motor underneath is removed.....



      Which leaves the solenoid free to be removed
      (don't lose the little spring left behind its important!).....



      next up, the two main bolts that hold the motor to it's nose casing......



      which allows the nose casing to be removed and reveal the starter
      pinion gear (bit with the teeth) and the solenoid linkage......



      here's how I "think" it all works. The pic below shows
      the terminals of the solenoid which sits on top of the motor.....



      The starter takes a fair whack of juice to get it to turn over, and as
      such, it needs a fat wire to carry all that power down to it. It doesn't
      make sense to run the wire through the ignition switch on it's way to
      the starter because you'd need a bloody huge ignition switch on the
      steering column to be able to handle that amount of power.
      So,
      The main feed for the starter (big fat black wire direct from the battery
      positive terminal) runs directly to terminal 1 on the starter solenoid shown
      above. When you turn the ignition switch to start position, power comes
      down a smaller black/yellow wire to terminal 3 and travels across inside the solenoid
      to terminal 4 and earths. While travelling across to terminal 4 it energises a little magnetic
      coil inside the solenoid, which pulls in a set of contacts, and allows the big power
      from terminal 1 to flow over to terminal 2 and start the motor turning.

      So with all that done the starter motor is now turning over, the only problem is
      the little starter gear (pinion gear) on the front of the starter that engages with the
      flywheel ring gear to turn over the engine needs to be pushed forward to reach
      the flywheel. (if it was in contact with the flywheel all the time the starter would
      sh*t itself as the engine revs started to rise)

      So,
      the solenoid on top of the starter has another little job to do.
      In the pic below the little green metal cylinder on top of the starter
      is pulled (magnetically) into the solenoid when you turn the key to the
      start position.
      And attached to the back of the green cylinder is a little
      green linkage with a fork on the bottom end.
      The blue part in the middle is fixed and acts as a hinge point for the green linkage.
      As the top part is drawn into the solenoid the bottom part (pinion gear)
      is pushed outwards and into contact with the flywheel ring gear.
      And now the starter is turning the engine.
      Thats pretty much what happens when you turn the key,
      motor starts tuning and the teeth push out and engage with the flywheel
      and crank up the beast.
      As soon as you let go the key, the magnetism thats holding the green cylinder
      in, is lost, and that little spring shown earlier pushes the cylinder back out,
      which in turn pulls the starter teeth back away from the flywheel.



      Sometimes if your trying to start a car with a flat battery the engine just
      makes a clicking sound but doesn't turn over.
      Theres enough power to pull the cylinder into the solenoid and shoot
      the pinion gear out to the flywheel (which is the little click you hear)
      but not enough power to travel down the fat wires and turn the engine over.

      The pic below shows a starter which has been disassembled using the
      "f*ck, what did I just drop, I wonder was it important" method.....



      and the one below shows a starter which has been reassembled using
      the "it'll be a f*cking miracle if this ever works again" method......



      last thing to do upon reassembly is bench test it. A set of jump leads,
      big power to terminal 1 and the earth lead clamped onto the casing.
      Any finally a little piece of wire to give a dart of power to the smaller
      terminal 3, which should bring the starter to life. If it doesn't, beat it
      to death with and hammer, hide it under the bench, and tell anybody who
      asks, "it was to far gone to repair".....


      Comment


        Staying on the theme of motors, next up was the wiper motor and linkage.....



        plastic cover pops off to reveal the motor.....



        on the other side is the bolts to disconnect the motor from the linkage.
        3 red arrowed bolt release the motor body and the purple arrowed nut
        releases the linkage from the motor spindle.....



        strip of water sealing tape removed......



        to reveal the two screws that hold the two halfs of the motor together......
        (one this side in pic and one directly opposite the other side)



        screws undone and black bit slid off.....



        all i'm interested in checking in here is the motors brushes.
        There's 3 of them......



        You can check the condition of the brushes with just stripping as
        far as above, but since I've a mental dysfunction which makes me
        want to strip everything down to the last nut and bolt, belows a clearer
        picture of the brushes. Theres 3 of them, only two sticking out of their
        housings below (red arrows)......



        as the third one is the earth brush and is connected to the housing.....



        all the brushes still had plenty of life in them so everything gets cleaned
        and jumbled back together......



        remembering to put some tape around the top part again so
        water can creep in and fu*k things up in there.....



        after that it was on to the linkage.......



        on top of the linkage spindles are a large nut and two washers which
        secure the linkage to the scuttle panel on the car, and if yours is out
        and on the bench these will already have been removed. Just in the
        centre of this though is a little small circlip......



        which when undone allows the spindle shafts to slide out of their
        housings. Both shaft and housing (purple and red arrows) each side get
        cleaned up and greased to help prevent against noisy wipers.....



        after which the joints in the linkage are done. These just pry apart,
        softly, with a large screwdriver (be careful not to damage the rubber booth).....



        when apart they're cleaned and inspected. In one of them the grease had
        gone hard and the linkage was just starting to wear a groove in the ball.
        The one on the left below is the good one, and on the right you can see
        the wear grooves just starting on the ball....



        thankfully the ball wasn't badly grooved yet and it cleaned up nice with
        some fine sandpaper. When these get badly grooved the wiper linkage starts
        to get annoyingly noisy and the wiper blades get sloppy on the windscreen.
        With everything cleaned up, they were all reassembled with plenty of fresh
        grease and the wiper motor reconnected.......



        refitting of wiper linkage to car is an interference fit, for this reason
        it is recommended that special tool part number 959sledgehamer
        is locked away before undertaking said task.


        And thats it for tonight.
        Join us again tomorrow night for more cliff hangers,
        plot twists and the continuation of the worlds most
        monotonous thread
        Till then......

        Comment


          Dude, you are me hero. This is by far the best rebuild thread ever.

          Comment


            Originally posted by CorvallisBMW View Post
            Dude, you are me hero. This is by far the best rebuild thread ever.
            +1

            What I want to know is, what is the price comparison of rebuilding lets say a alternator than buying a new one?

            Comment


              Apologies for the delay getting this next part up, I had half of this
              waffle typed up and then the interweb broke, or something, and it
              all disappeared. It took a little time after that to fetch the computer
              from the neighbours front garden and reassemble it all again.
              Anywho, back to the story.......

              Next to get refitted was the ABS motor, nothing much to do with
              this. It was removed from the car in the beginning just as you see
              it below. And all of the pipes that had to be disconnected from the unit
              on removal had the open ports plugged to stop the fluid draining
              out of the motor. These can be a bit of a pig sometimes to bleed
              out upon refittal it she's been allowed to completely empty inside.....





              Just before fitting it, the little protective cover is popped of the rear end
              to check the condition of the electrical connections for all the stuff in there.
              The relays are pulled (red arrows) to check for any corrosion on the pins
              beneath which may have been caused by dampness getting in.
              And the pins sticking up (purple arrow) where the main ABS plug will
              fit on are also checked for corrosion. All clear, she was good to go......



              after that the brake servo and master cylinder......



              two nuts undone from the servo allows the master cylinder to drop off......



              servo was looking a little second hand, so she got a sand and lick of paint.....





              On to the master cylinder, the little reservoir on top just pulls off
              (gently).....





              then the two rubber grommets pop out, and you can see the little
              slotted washer in the port of the rear chamber.....



              washer just lifts out and needs to be remembered upon reassembly.
              The purpose of this washer is top secret. I could tell you, but then I'd
              have to kill you. (yep, I haven't a clue either)......



              The ABS type master cylinder isn't constructed with overhauling in mind,
              hence the circlip on the front with no holes to get a circlip pliers into (marked red).
              And with the main dealer listing no internal parts and the motor factors drawing a
              blank as well, I decided to leave well enough alone. I've no intention of renewing
              the cylinder just for the sake of it, they're fairly pricey, and this one is showing no
              external signs of failing. If she does down the line, then I'll replace it.

              A mod that seems fairly common out there, is to change the master cylinder with
              one from a seven series bm, which has a larger internal bore and as such stiffens up the
              brake pedal a lot. I've driven an e30 with this mod done, and it ain't for me. The
              brake pedal was uncomfortably hard for everyday driving. I could see why you might
              do it in a competition car, but a road car, not for me. Each to their own though.

              The one thing I did change was the little square sectioned O ring on the snout
              of the cylinder (purple arrow).....



              after that cylinder took a clean up.....





              and everything reassembled. Next up, clutch slave cylinder.....



              this is such an easy task with the pedal box out of the car as opposed
              to changing one in place. If you'd like a more realistic experience on
              how to change a clutch master cylinder in place, then lay crunched up on your
              back on the floor, and hold the monitor over your head and swear
              repeatedly at it while reading this......



              two mounting bolts and one pivot bolt secure the new cylinder in place......



              and with that done the ABS unit, brake pipes and master cylinder could
              be fitted back in the engine bay......





              while the pedal box was rebolted back inside......


              Comment


                Next up, heater motor......



                starting up top first with the actual fan motor......



                power and earth wire's are disconnected from the motor.....



                followed by undoing the four tabs on the front of the fan cowls and
                another four on the rear (softly, softly, 20 odd years of living out
                under the scuttle panel and they're fairly brittle)......





                cowls removed and it's on to pulling the motor out. After 20 minutes
                of beating chunks out of it I finally figured out
                the motor retaining clip (coloured blue below) is popped free at
                the bottom and hinged up......





                to allow the motor to lift out.....



                first up was to check the motor shaft for any play side to side or
                wibbly wobbly (technical term), if there is, dump the motor and get another,
                it's not worth the grief trying to change the bearings on these.
                With that done the only other thing I wanted to check while it was out
                was the motor brushes, which are under these clips......



                Two in total, one each side. Clips just pop off ,and the springs underneath
                like to head off into the scenery, which turned this particular job into
                a frustrating fu*king treasure hunt......



                with the clips removed you can see the brushes in their little housing.....



                when slid out they were found to be not even half worn yet, so they're
                good to go for another long while yet.......



                Next up was the little resistor pack, which resides just above the water
                valve on the side of the heater unit......



                and sticks out into the incoming air duct area....



                it just pulls out......


                Comment


                  These can give a bit of trouble now the cars are reaching this age,
                  and a sure sign that ones playing up is when speeds 1, 2 and 3 don't
                  work on the heater anymore but position 4 still works fine.
                  To get a look at the inner bits of the pack the 4 little tabs marked
                  below are bent back......



                  allowing the metal cover to pop off......



                  and then you can see the 3 little coils of wire of varying thickness's
                  which make up the 3 resistors......



                  When you have the heater switched to speed 1, the power leaves the
                  switch and comes to this resistor pack on it's way to the fan motor.
                  When it enter's the pack it passes through all 3 coils of wire (resistors)
                  before going on to the motor. As it has had to push through all 3 resistors
                  the power left when it reaches the motor is small, so the motor only turns
                  slowly. Hence number 1 speed on the fan switch equals soft blow.
                  Number 2 speed power only passes through 2 of these resistors,
                  hence a little more power left when it reaches the motor and as such
                  the motor turns a little faster. Number 3 speed power only passes through
                  the one resistor and the fan motor gets a good wack of juice.
                  And finally number 4 speed doesn't go near the resistor pack at all, it just
                  heads straight to the fan motor and gives her full 12 volt, warp speed.
                  And as such when the resistor pack fails your just left with full speed
                  position 4 or nothing.

                  In the pic below you can see the route the power takes on it's way out of
                  resistor pack. Regardless of which speed it is 1, 2 or 3 they all take this path
                  on the way out. Flowing from the red arrow on the right in the pic, towards
                  the left, through the set of closed contacts (purple arrow) and on down
                  and out the bottom to the wire that brings them to the fan motor.



                  the reason there's a set of contacts is a safety measure. There a fair
                  whack of juice flowing through these resistor coils and as such they can get
                  quite hot, hence the reason this bit pokes out into the incoming air, to
                  help cool it. But, if something happened and they were to get too hot
                  they could become a fire risk, so, in the pic above you can see a tiny bit
                  of metal I've coloured yellow (pointed out by yellow arrow).
                  This metal is bimetallic, meaning that when it reaches a certain temperature
                  it bends. And in this case, if the resistors get too hot, then it bends like in the
                  pic below and seperates the two contacts apart.....



                  now the power can't flow any more on speeds 1, 2 or 3 till the resistors
                  cool down and the little bimetallic strip also cools and flattens out again
                  allowing the contacts to touch again. Unfortunately what happens is
                  these contacts can get dirty over the years until eventually the power
                  can't cross them anymore, where upon the owner/mechanic takes them
                  out fu*ks them away and buys a new set, when 9 out of ten times, popping
                  the cover and using a little piece of sandpaper to clean the contacts up would
                  have left them good to go for another 10 or 20 years.

                  Anywho,
                  next up was the heater radiator and valve. To remove the rad the
                  3 little screws arrowed below are undone......



                  however the rad can only slide out so far till the air duct below (red arrow)
                  gets in the way, so by removing the little screw on the side (purple arrow)
                  and popping it's two little retainer clips the vent can be removed..........



                  allowing the rad to side all the way out......



                  theres two different types of heater motor's fitted to e30 heater's
                  and as such two different types of radiators to go into them. They
                  are distinguished by the pipes that fit on to them. Below you can see
                  mine has one plastic pipe and one aluminium pipe. So it's the aluminium
                  pipe type. The other type one has two plastic pipes going to it.......



                  Why do i need to know this you may ask? Well, it should help
                  you buy the right type of rad, because the two are non interchangeable,
                  as I proudly display below after buying the wrong one,
                  fu*k......





                  Must say a quick thanks to the good folk at C3bmw.co.uk, who
                  without quibble took back the wrong rad I had chose and promptly
                  sent me the other one, even though quite a bit of time had elapsed
                  since the original purchace. Good people.
                  As you can see below I now had a perfect match......



                  The reason this is being changed by the way, is at this age the rad's like
                  to spring a leak and unfortunately the first you'll know about it is when
                  the interior carpet starts to resemble a swamp. The other part thats
                  being changed is the heater valve pipe that bolts up to the rad as these
                  can also fail. Your usually left in no doubt when this fails as when it bursts
                  it can spew out boiling water over your legs. Nice........



                  new rad comes with a fat and skinny piece of foam.....



                  fat one sticks on around the outside and skinny one around the top
                  like below......



                  then the new heater valve pipe and the other pipe get bolted back
                  on with some fresh o rings......


                  Comment






                    after which the rad slides back into place......



                    and the little 2 pin electrical plug is reattached to the top of the heater
                    valve.......



                    then the motor is popped back into the front section......



                    and it's retaining clip clipped back down........



                    wire's reconnected.......



                    and finally the fan shrouds are refitted. The fan shroud have a little
                    groove to sit into. Take a second or two to get this right as if you don't
                    there's a good chance the fan is going to rattle like hell when powered up.......



                    and then she's just about ready to go back in.......




                    last thing to do is fit a pair of foam gaskets. As seems to be par for the
                    course at this stage I ordered the wrong one. I'm still convinced I ordered
                    the right part number, however this is what arrived at the main dealer....



                    It's the gasket for the other type of heater motor. As you can see though
                    they're pretty much similar, and a quick chop with the stanley knife
                    and they were a lot more similar......





                    The other gasket was for the inside piece of the heater unit......





                    After that, the grommet gets popped back in the bulkhead.......



                    and the heater unit gets hammered back in, making sure the 4 mounting
                    bolts pop through their little hole in the scuttle area so you can refit the
                    4 nuts to them (red arrows), and the two pipes pop through the big
                    grommet in the bulkhead (purple arrow).......



                    all done.....



                    Hope to get the next final bit of this update up in the next day
                    or two.
                    Till then...........

                    Comment


                      screw the bentley... THIS guy needs to write a book!!
                      -David

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by Davenandez View Post
                        screw the bentley... THIS guy needs to write a book!!
                        Hell yes! You should seriously consider putting all of these posts into like a little handbook!

                        I'll buy it!!!!
                        IG: deniso_nsi Leave me feedback here

                        Comment


                          I cant imagine how much money you have saved doing this your self.


                          Yes i would buy a book also!!!!!

                          Comment


                            o_O

                            I was so close to throwing up, made it to the end! SO INSANE!!!! :) Thank You!

                            Comment


                              seriously, or if you could put it all onto a cd or something, that would sell like crazy, make it the new, and actually useful, 101 projects for your e30
                              "In God we trust. All others must bring data." -W. E. Deming

                              /// 1987 325is /// Project Thread
                              Past: 87 is, 88ix, 88 i, 87 ic, 89 ix, 17 others.

                              Comment


                                The last of the engine ancillaries to get a spit and shine was the power
                                steering pump.





                                the front pulley is popped off after it's 3 bolts are undone.......



                                and then after you've made a mental note of which way the carrier bracket
                                sits on, the four main bolts that hold the 2 half's of the pump together are
                                undone.......



                                only really interested in the half on the right in the pic above as thats
                                where all the serviceable items live. First up the little face plate lifts
                                off it's two little locator dowels.....



                                and then the cam ring underneath lifts off. A bit of time is then spent
                                checking the inside wall of the cam ring (red arrows), as this surface
                                needs to be super smooth for the pump to do it's job. Any heavy
                                scoring or scratches on this surface and it's over the shoulder with
                                the old pump and off to the scrap yard for a "new one".......



                                With the cam ring out of the way the 10 little blades can be removed
                                from the rotor in the centre of the pump.........



                                and finally the little circlip at the centre of the rotor is popped off.......



                                allowing the rotor to be lifted off the splined driveshaft.......



                                once the rotor is removed from the driveshaft, the driveshaft can be
                                slid out of the pump housing........



                                and with that out of the way the little oil seal at the snout of the housing
                                is popped out......



                                With everything pulled asunder and before the enthusiasm starts to
                                wear off, all the bits are cleaned for reassembly. Everythings got to
                                be fairly spotless in here as a little bit of dirt or grit won't take long
                                to fu*k up your pump or steering rack........



                                For nailing it all back together the following service kit was bought
                                from the main dealer under part number 32411 135 880.
                                Which contains the following............



                                1. snout oil seal
                                2. hard, face plate seal
                                3. soft, face plate seal
                                4. O ring
                                5. circlip

                                the other item needed for reassembly is a little bit of power steering
                                oil to rub on the bits as they go back together........



                                First up is the new oil seal fitted to the housing like so......



                                and once thats in, the driveshaft can be refitted..........


                                Comment

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