New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[D.Martijn]

Today I finally went to the guy who's helping me getting the Getrag rebuild. He's actually an old colleague of PieterVN :)

We had a bit of trouble splitting the cases, turns out we forgot to put the trans in neutral. (I was probably asking to many questions lol).
However in the end we got it split. (When doing it the correct way, all of the gears/shafts stay in the rear housing.)


This is the worst mating surface of a syncro ring the transmission has (this is on the input shaft, 4th gear if I recall correctly)
However, it's still fine and will be reused again


I do have some wear on the selector shaft, there is a little roller that's pushed against this shaft and it's worn in a bit. The selector shaft is quite expensive so I suggested I might be able to laser weld and rework the shaft.
(By laser welding you can also weld + add hard material)


Parts..


Housings got put into a washing machine, however I will also glass bead blast them like I did on my transfer case + apply the ceramic coating.


Overall we spend 3,5 hours disassembling the trans, pulling of the gears and syncro's from the main shaft were the hardest part as they were really stuck on there!
I'll be buying new bearings or the input output and idle shaft. needle bearings for the gears won't be changed as he explained these don't see a lot of rotations.

After getting home, I went to the workshop. as I'm getting the bolts plated for the Getrag, I decided to also disassemble the alternator and steering pump to get some more parts to plate, to make it worth while.
Alternator looks a big old, but still works fine.




And disassembled! rear bearing is definitely shot, I'm guessing that's the reason why I got some humming noise coming from the engine


I'll also replace the voltage regulator as it's pretty cheap anyway


Are there specs for the minimum diameter of the commutator? I'll probably get it resurfaced if not as it's pretty grooved


Also needed to find out if I got a Vickers or Lemforder pump, it's a Vickers!


Can't wait to get these bead blasted, will be quite the difference


I already started the disassembly but got stuck on the rear half, not sure how to get it further disassembled


Trying to be as organized as possible, I'll print this picture and when it's time to assemble I only need to put the correct bolts-screws on the same place.


A little empty.. I also want to remove the engine mounts as I need to replace these when doing the X3 rack swap. the alu mounts will also get coated and bolts plated!

[D.Martijn]

Lots of respect for the dedication and time you have put into this project buddy. Can't wait to see how the gearbox rebuild will be. Also the steering rack upgrade looks very promising!

Keep up the great work.

Thanks mate! Still some work to do but I'm just getting started..

[PieterVN]

Lots of respect for the dedication and time you have put into this project buddy. Can't wait to see how the gearbox rebuild will be. Also the steering rack upgrade looks very promising!

Keep up the great work.

[D.Martijn]

While I was removing the transmission two weekend ago, I was thinking to myself what a bitch it was to remove the start motor.
Especially on an iX as the transfercase it also in the way to get to the two torx bolts.
So I decided to buy a new starter. I had a look online and most placed offer a reman for roughly 120€, not to bad actually.

After putting the Bosch part number in in Google, I stumbled upon a guy selling a new reman starter for 50€ so I immediately bought it :)
I already arrived, I decided to give it an extra coat of black paint to freshen it up a little.




I still need to make an arrangement with he guy who'll be rebuilding my transmission.

[D.Martijn]

I would get it to work first then you can perfect as you go. These projects are never ending so you can always go back later if it is not exactly the way you want it..

Yeah, true but I do think the length is way to big to use it as is. I'm pretty sure I'll have to get it shortent.
Maybe I can get away with leaving the height as is.

[rzerob]

I would get it to work first then you can perfect as you go. These projects are never ending so you can always go back later if it is not exactly the way you want it..

[D.Martijn]

Any progress on the steering rack swap?

I've had the chance to measure both steering racks and the iX subframe.

After putting the measurement reports into Solidworks, I came to the following conclusion.

To get the X3 steering shaft/cylinder in the same position as the original iX steering rack, the X3 steering rack mounting points need 7,8mm removed.
When removing this amount from the mounting holes, there is even more clearance issues with this stump on the X3 rack and subframe.
I could mill a pocket to get clearance, the iX subframe has plenty of reinforcement ribs, so I think it shouldn't be a problem


I centered the rack from the inner holes of the rack, not sure how to explain this, but the plane/surface where the inner tie rod ball joint hits the rack. Somehow these pockets aren't the same depth, 18,7 and 22,5mm respectively.

New holes need to be drilled to mount the rack as well. 3mm more towards the rear and each hole 4mm more inward.

Now, to get the same bumpsteer as the original.

iX rack has 70,2mm travel/each side
X3 has 80,9mm travel/each side

Total length iX = 617mm ; total length X3 = 672.8mm)

So to get the same length, the X3 needs to have 27,9mm removed

Then, 80,9 - 27,9 = 53mm travel
-> 17,15mm less travel than the iX rack, only then you will get the same bumpsteer as original.


Question now, anyone that has an idea how much the 7,8mm height will have in bumpsteer? Should I just try and run the X3 rack without making any changes to it first and go from there.?

Cheers!

[D.Martijn]

So I was planning on rebuilding the transmission of the iX only didn't expect that I would already pul it from under the car today. Luckily everything came apart quite easy.
And I didn't break any studs on the exhaust manifold this time either!

Being that it was my forth transfercase removal, you would expect that I now know what extensions and swivels I need. nope.
Still a pain in the ass to remove it, for the upper bolt, on the passenger side, I was able to use this combination. I decided to take a picture as I won't remember this next time!
Transfercase still looks great after two years under the car. The black grease on it is from handling it under the car, no leaks!





Might have to replace this clip as it's a little twisted, wouldn't want to loose my ability to shift on a drive..
Also the rear (and maybe front) bushings wil get replaced with a poly version instead of the delring that is not fitted. to hopefully keep some of the noise down (if there is any after the trans rebuild..)


Next was the transmission, some long extensions made it very easy to remove the torx bolts
Replaced seals are still dry, only the selector shaft seal is seeping a little
[





An old colleagues of a friend rebuilds transmission at work, he also does in his spare time. He told me if I wanted I can come and assist him with rebuilding my transmission.
That's an offer that I can't turn down right.. good time to learn a bit more about rebuilding a transmission!

[D.Martijn]

Couple of pictures of last meet & drive I did with the iX

[D.Martijn]

Any progress on the steering rack swap?

I haven't yet. I plan on tackling this project in the winter together with removing my transmission to get it rebuild

[iXguido]

Any progress on the steering rack swap?

[kreinholtz]

Thanks man. I'll reach out to both of these guys. If he's not making the blades a few of us might tackle the project here in SoCal. Will keep you all posted. A buddy of mine is restoring a Mercedes e320 (W124) Cabriolet. There are quite a few parts that need to be printed or created as they are no longer available so I may have talked him into adding the wiper blades to the build list :)

[D.Martijn]

Hi there. Great post. I have been working on getting my HLWW system working on my e30 and have almost everything I need with the exception of the parts you mentioned: 61631359531. Can I get more info on how to get a set of these? Also need a better way to get the wiper blade replacements. Thanks! K

Hey man!

Sorry for my late reply.
Thanks for the nice comment! I'm glad that you enjoyed my thread.

For the wiper motor shaft seal I found this guy, as far as I know you can only contact him via facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013242129282

This person on Ebay sold me the wiper shaft end caps

https://www.benl.ebay.be/usr/sergekolon?ul_noapp=true

As of now I can't seem to find the guy who sold me the new wiper blades. But the first guy on Facebook was talking that he might also remake these parts.
So maybe you can ask him.?

Anyway I hope I could help you in the right direction.

[kreinholtz]

Hi there. Great post. I have been working on getting my HLWW system working on my e30 and have almost everything I need with the exception of the parts you mentioned: 61631359531. Can I get more info on how to get a set of these? Also need a better way to get the wiper blade replacements. Thanks! K

[D.Martijn]

I was going to ask for the part # for that upper spring pad, but when I looked at the post again on my laptop I see you perfectly positioned the part # in the photo (33531091952). Thanks! Looks like a 22mm spring pad.

I used E46 14.5mm spring pads (up from stock 7.5mm) on my rear springs to get a little extra height. The 7mm pad increase netted a half inch (12.7 mm) of ride height due to the suspension geometry. This spring pad looks like another good option for those wanting to raising/leveling the rear of the car.

Oh yeah, what a coincidence! My uncles was holding them, I pretty sure he didn't notice that there were numbers on the side ;)

He told me the car felt different (positive) but I'm not sure what/how. I'll have to test drive it myself sometime..