Pitchblack Motorsports Rally e30 318i (now with M50) - and some Porsche 924S stuff.

[Smrtpunk]

Awesome, thanks so much for the reply!


Ian

[irish44j]

picked up a new rear wheel bearing today and almost botched it big-time (and we'll see, I still may have). This is what comes with thinking something is easy and not taking your time to make sure you're going through the right steps in the right order.

so, got the bearing


new vs. old


installing the new bearing was a breeze with the bearing tool, went in no problem. Came to a point where it didn't seem to want to go in farther (in retrospect, I think the press fitting was just barely hitting th spindle, rather than the bearing hitting the backing lip).Yeah, outer of the bearing flush with the hub face, right....OF COURSE! :P


and the hub went on fine too.


it was at this point that I realized that the bearing wasn't in all the way. Of course I remembered this once I realized that I hadn't put the snap-ring into the groove, as it was sitting on the ground next to me. DAMMIT. Hub gonna have to come off, of course.

So at least it would come off easy since it went in so easy, right? Well, yeah. It came off easy. Unfortunately, when it came off it came off with the outside inner bearing race on it, and in the process broke off the little plastic interior tabs that hold the race onto the bearing. OH SHIT.

So, not ready to just give up and go buy another $70 bearing, thought it out a bit, after getting all the little broken plastic tabs out of the bearing (not difficult, they were still there, just partly broken). From what I can tell the main job of the little plastic piece is just to hold the bearing inner race there when the bearing is off the car in the box, so it doesn't all fall apart. Once on the car, the hub holds the inner race in position by my logic, and the plastic piece basically does nothing at all at that point. Since it's pretty weak plastic, I can't imagine it's actually holding anything together once it's all assembled anyhow. I'm quite positive the broken pieces make no contact with the balls or any other moving part of the bearing. If I can crack it pressing out the hub, any real force applied to it during driving would surey do the same.

So....I pressed the remaining bearing fully into the spindle, put the snap-ring in, and re-instaled the hub (with the outer part of the inner race still seated on it). In short, everything SEEMS to have gone back together fine. There is no play in the bearing, no noise, and it operates completely smooth. I put the axle back in (surprisingly easy this time) and took it for a good 10-minute drive up to about 70mph. No noise, no issues that I can tell with the bearing.

So, we'll see how it holds up.

In related....the new muffler sounds great. Not loud, but just loud enough to know its there and make the car not sound so wussy. Also it seems that the IS springs did their job and the back of the car does sit a bit lower. You can feel the difference while driving, a bit more "lean back" sitting there. Can't tell if it really changed the handling of the car at all, but the car handled fine and predictable pushing through some hard turns.

So, we'll see if I dodged a bullet or not. If not, at least I know I can do a bearing job pretty quickly now if I have to re-replace it. I'm going to return Viet's bearing kit, but will hit Harbor Frieght this weekend and get one fo my own, since it worked like a charm.

[irish44j]

so one little package today....a cheap secondhand shift light. Why? Not because I drag race or anything (hah, not with an M10). Mostly because I have a tendency to short-shift because I constantly overestimate what rpms I'm at (I do this in all my cars except the WRX for some reason), and I really hate boucing off the limiter since in many cases that's a waste of time. So having the light will let me stay in gear longer before shifting I think. Either way, it was cheap so if it ends up being worthless, no big loss. Will install tomorrow.

[FunfGan]

I got your fan for you, btw.

[irish44j]

fab. Got your stuff in the car already.

oh, and might be picking up an M42 this weekend, to stick away until the winter :)

[FunfGan]

I saw :)

[irish44j]

just so happens that it is within a mile of where I live, conveniently.

[FunfGan]

Dang! Nice. Build that thing :D

[irish44j]

Today went and picked up a spare fuel lifter pump from a local, and then did a quick install of my cheapo shift light. Install was easy, wiring was easy, etc. It works as it should. Very exciting, right? lol..





Then spent a couple hours helping a buddy de-mod his Legacy GT, in a rush since he needed to bring it to be traded in before 6 today 2 hours south in Richmond. Never swapped swaybars and a few other things so fast....

on a side note, this is virtually the exact car that I went looking to buy in '08, but I couldn't find one in a M/T....so I bought the WRX instead :)

[irish44j]

Got my new magnetics from izoomgraphics.com (where I've ordered car vinyl/magnetics for about a decade). I've always hated the red and white ones I have and wanted something that looks a bit better on the e30, and with the correct classing.

Sometimes you just gotta splurge on something nice rather than DIY'ing it, lol

[irish44j]

well, was really looking forward to 2 days of rallycross this weekend with a driver's school/test&tune on Saturday and competition on Sunday (and I have tomorrow-friday-off work). BUT it appears the weather isn't going to cooperate, with a 50/50 chance it will get cancelled tomorrow morning due to thunderstorms all weekend. Though, knowing the weather forecasters around here there's just as good a chance that it will snow, or be sunny and 80 degrees.

I have to say, it's a bit annoying that a rallycross gets cancelled for rain (what are we, NASCAR?) when the local autocrosses will undoubtedly run as usual, in the wet. That said, Summit Point rallycross course is all clay and I'm told that when it gets real wet it's bascially an ice rink and/or mud pit (or both) and the 2WD cars have serious problems. Not that I really care, I'd have a great time anyhow....and maybe I would be closer to the leaders, lol.....but if cancelled it will be rescheduled for the next week, so looks like I'll be doing honey-do projects around the house this weekend and will get to have another week of anticipation.

or it will happen. We'll see tomorrow.

IN the meantime, took some time to do some work on the other project car, the GT6. Haven't done anything on it since last summer, so feeling a bit bad :)

WHen I got the e30 momo steering wheel (a steal deal) I also picked up another Momo, classic-style in a slightly larger size, for the GT6. Needed to replace the crappy Mountney wheel currently on it, which is pretty flexy and I very much dislike. Only problem is the Momo won't fit the Mountney hub, and Momo doesn't make a hub these days that fits the small Triumphs, or at least I can't find any.

But, thanks to some tips from the guys on GRM, I found a place that makes hubs for the small Triumphs that fit Momo (and other 6-hole) steering wheels. So for about $75 got a great hub from Crowder's Customizing (in Summerville SC). Awesome quality and look, with the contact for the horn as well (which the Mountney was missing).



compared to the old Mountney



While I was at it, decided to rebuild the steering column, which had a bit of play in the bushings. I replaced the bushings last summer, but they're cheap aftermarket ones that didn't fit perfectly or snugly. I did some improvisation (no comment) and got everything snugged up, and now the steering feels good and tight.





And then re-installed everything and set up the new wheel. Sexy.





And since now I have a working horn button, decided to actually install some horns. Luckily last time at the junkyard I picked up a pair of stock BMW Fiamm horns (which I like the sound of). They fit perfectly in the GT6's stock mounting locations on left and right of the grille



for the wiring, I used some off of my spare e30 harness, lol.

The GT6 is a bit of a hassle to work on for a number of reasons, but one part of it that is AWESOME to work on is the engine bay......

[Nick_S]

Always look forward to updates in this thread...even if they're not for your E30 :up:

[FunfGan]

Yes, GT6 Content :)

[irish44j]

Yes, GT6 Content :)

the GT6 build thread is much more extensive than this one, lol

http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl?m-1206842587/

[irish44j]

I know it's gonna rain all weekend (btw, the event is postponed til next weekend), but felt like it was a good day to do a wash and wax and cruise for a bit, since was cleaning the other cars anyhow. Plus this car probably hasn't been waxed in a decade and I want to protect the so-so paint as well as possible.

look not bad, eh? yeah, probably looks the same in photos, lol


then went and hit the backwoods roads in Clifton, Va. Including the famous "Bunnyman Bridge" rail tunnel. Which of course as soon as I got out to take a pic someone came down the road and had to wait for me, haha.