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

[irish44j]

Got the new front Bilstein HDs in today. I would have liked to find some used ones, but everyone seems to be selling Sports rather than HDs, and I want to start getting things put together, which was waiting on front inserts, so I couldn't wait all winter. One of the few "big ticket" items I'm buying for this car, and I'm sure they'll be worth it.

Got one installed, piece of cake. Still need to rebuild the control arm balljoints, so it's just hanging out by itself right now.





the old top-hats are a bit nasty, lol


the new camber-adding top hats....moar negative!


you may notice that one of the top studs is missing, and that brings me to "dumb things done without thinking." Took about 5 seconds to press the studs out of the old top hats since the new ones didn't come with any. No problem. Then went to press them back into the new ones, shouldn't be a problem, right? Except I grabbed a backing socket that was a 1/4" drive, and didn't even think about it. So when I tightened the vise to press the studs in, the ends wedged into the 1/4" square and DOH....so now I need one new stud.....:(



Probably going to relax tonight and actually hang out with my wife (lol!). Tomorrow's plan is to pick up some diff and tranny fluids (Redline 75W90 and Redline MT90 is what I'm planning, though still going to do some research in the morning), fill up the diff, and put it back in the car along with one of the CV axles (the other one is shot, need to get a new one).

[irish44j]

open question: cut off the front wheel dust shields behind the rotor, or leave it? I know getting rid of it can help keep the brakes cooler, and if they're gone they won't get loose rocks caught in them.....if they're gone, more brake dust on suspension stuf but who cares about that. Any other downsides you can think of?

[irish44j]

was in a good mood after seeing the Eagles get their asses kicked, so figured I'd do one thing before bed....

Press/cut out the original control arm bushings from the "lollipop"


Then used much elbow grease to press in the new one with a bench vise, since I don't have a press here (that will be remedied soon). In advance I froze the bushing in the icebox and lubed up the lollipop with some dish soap. Went in fine most of the way, but the last 20% required a cheater bar on my vise...

mission was accomplished....


....but my trusty 5" vise, which has taken everything I could throw at it for 15 years, finally met its match

[kts]

whoa!

[irish44j]

lol.....luckily, just a day before that I told my wife that I could use a heavy-duty 6" vise for my upcoming birthday :)

[irish44j]

another day, another project.

First I went and picked up some gear oil so I could load the diff (and install new, non-rusty Torx plugs), and then installed it and one of the CV axles (I need to replace the other one and haven't bought a new one yet)





Once done, took a break from the BMW to switch my summer wheels on the WRX (with SP Sport 01s, not good in cold) back to my stockers (with Wintersport 3Ds), as well as to do an oil change on the WRX.





Then the UPS girl arrived (and she's quite cute, I might add) with a surprise delivery of a set of Moog balljoints. Surprising since I just ordered them yesterday and shipped UPS ground. But the place is only like 100 miles from here, so I guess it only took a day.



So change of schedule from doing Christmas lights to seeing if I could get a balljoint out without using a press (on the list of things I need also). Using a method that someone on Grassroots Motorsports told me, and also a Dremel to make that method easier, I managed to get the outer BJ out of one of the LCAs. I will, however, need a press or balljoint installation kit to put the new ones in. It was alot of work to do this one the non-press way, so I may just take the other 3 someplace that has a press and have them do it.

[irish44j]

I offhandedly mentioned the other day that a Harbor Freight press would be a useful birthday or Christmas present. Today after church my wife handed me her credit card and a HF 20% off coupon and said "happy birthday, go buy it and you can have it early."

Also picked up a "Master balljoint press/socket kit"

Every day I thank God for the Chinese, who brought us cheap industrial/shop tools that we can actually afford. Amazingly, this one went together fine....no wrong bolt holes, no misalignment (unlike my HF engine hoist).

[irish44j]

balljoints in (at least on one, so far). Piece of cake with the press and the balljoint adaptor pieces!



Also cleaned up the garage disaster area, looks nice now! Luckily I had saved a place over the last few years of setting up the garage just for the new press :)

[irish44j]

today's update, not much different from yesterday's.....but doing the second side was easier. Even though the subframe balljoint nut is pretty tough to access, I managed to get to it with 3 wobbly extensions and 3 straight extensions and it came off pretty easily....no spinning balljoint, no cutting needed! Everything else came apart pretty nicely as well, so it turned out being 10x easier than the passenger side, surprisingly.



Also had a pretty easy time getting the balljoints out of this arm with the press and getting the new ones in. And the new M3 offset bushing in the lollipop.



The balljoints in the arm were COMPLETELY and entirely shot....no wonder the front end was super-sloppy driving this car home....



Tomorrow's plan is to put the whole front end together and "within 30 minutes of assembly" (for the sake of the offset bushings) get it down on the front wheels (and will drop the jackstands in the back to make the back sit stock-ish height for even weight).



Still waiting on a new CV axle for the rear, and an ebrake acutator. Then I can finish up with the rear end as well. Car still won't be able to drive until after Christmas, since the wife is getting me a Z3 shifter kit, so I'm keeping the driveshaft and exhaust out until that's done.



Out with the old, in with the new!

[irish44j]

I'm actually pretty pleased with myself after tonight's project. THe last step to getting the front suspension back together was getting the new M3 offset bushings/lollipops onto the LCA. After reading horror stories about this I wasn't looking forward to it, especially having to do both quickly and get the car on the ground to set the bushings.

After a few attempts at doing it by hand, then with a BFH, neither of those made any kind of progress at all....the fit is damn tight, especially with the solid rubber bushing.

So....the next step was to rig up some kind of ghetto-fabulous tool to pull it on there.
the parts: a really long threaded rod, cut in half, some nuts and washers, a drilled-out L-bracket sitting around in a parts drawer, and.....

a 1970 Triumph GT6 hub, still with the bearing still on it :)

The hub happened to have a perfect inner diameter for pressing the bushing/lollipop on - and of course already has a really strong/stiff flange with perfectly spaced holes in it :)

It was slightly cumbersome, but actually worked like a charm and I got both of them on in about 5 minutes each. Would have been faster, but can't use the impact while the kid is asleep!



Then I quickly got the car back on the ground to set the bushings. Since I"m still missing a rear axle and the hub isn't all put together yet, I couldn't put on the right rear tire. But I wanted the car to sit as level and near-stock as possible, so...

[irish44j]

not much new to report this week. Have had to stay late in the office recently and everything a bit hectic with Christmas coming up, shopping, etc.

Still trying to round up a few minor parts on the cheap to finish up putting the suspension/brakes all together. Made a bit of progress today with a full set of FREE brake pads (only paid for shipping) from a Grassroots Motorsports member. They're Jurids, so basically OEM stuff, but will work fine for the time being to get the car on the road. Eventually will put something more performance-oriented on the car, but right now that's one less thing I have to actually buy!

They're used, but as you can see they're near full thickness. Not bad for free!

[FunfGan]

Awesome progress!

[irish44j]

Well, not thinking I just realized that I still haven't transferred the title for this car from the previous owner, and the title says it has to be done in 30 days after sale date. So will hit DMV (Va.) tomorrow and see what they say. I really hope this isn't going to be a major issue, but who knows....

Got a few cosmetic things done recently:

Blacked out the rear bumper finally



And got two of the four euroweaves cleaned up and painted. Trying to match the gray hood color. It's fairly close but will be able to tell better once they're on the car out in the sun..

[irish44j]

Since the previous owner of my e30 was nice enough to leave me a box of parts that included full refresh of the shifter linkage, decided to tackle that tonight, since I know the wife is getting me a Z3 shifter for Christmas, so might as well do it all at once. Yay for free/new parts.



So I take apart the shifter console and sheet metal shift bracket, only to find THIS: the two front mount brackets. See how many problems you can see with this pic

<img src="http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j85/irish44j/BMW%20318i%20RallyCross%20Project/DSCN2930.jpg" alt="" />

I wondered why the shifter was so extremely sloppier than anything I've ever felt in my life.

Now here is what the mount brackets are SUPPOSED to look like



Keep in mind, whoever last worked on this part of the car (I think to do the rear transmission seal) also managed to leave two of the driveshaft bolts loose (cross-threaded the nuts), so I had wicked vibrations at any speed over 30mph driving the car home.

To boot, one of the threaded holes into the transmission casing was stripped/cross-threaded as well, so to re-install everything I had to drill it out and heli-coil it. That was alot of fun in a tight spot.....

But it's all freshened up now with all new bushings, mounts, grommets, o-rings, etc and ready for the Z3 shifter now.

[Exodus_2pt0]

That looks just as nice as my master OTC adapter set/press.... But I would be embarrassed to say how much I paid... *cough*five+*cough*

Definitely will be keeping an eye on this thread. Your e30 looks very much like mine (that will be towed to me on friday for a heart transplant)