The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan

[JGood]

I'm not sure. Was doing ~70mph and the drivers side inner joint sort of exploded. I had to coast/limp the car 1/2 a mile to get off the highway (1am, pitch black, no shoulder), the axle was banging around like crazy, by the time I was stopped there wasn't much evidence left. All 6 axle bolts were broken, the cage and balls were gone, and the axle was just laying on my exhaust.

CA Tuned already has a replacement on the way, and I'll be sending mine back for them to look at. I don't see any unusual wear in the joint parts that I still have. There was no clunking, or any signs that something was about to happen. I beat the crap out of the car earlier in the day, had no issues. Rear suspension alignment seems fine, wheel bearings and diff are fine. Doesn't make any sense. The outer joint seems to move around fine (although I'm sure it's life has been compromised from that 1/2 mile of torture). My other axle is perfectly fine as well.

[JGood]

In other news, my oil leak that I worked so hard to diagnose has stopped. Completely. Not a single drop of oil from that seal in 200+ miles. I did nothing to stop it, one day it was leaking, the next day it stopped.

I think my car senses my frustration and has now began working during the night to repair itself. That might be further fueled by jealousy, due to the fact that I've only been working on the 24 Hours of Lemons car lately. Sort of like a marriage where the husband finally realizes his wife is serious about leaving him if he doesn't get his shit together. Knowing she flirts with that asshole at work doesn't help, so he gets his shit together. My car got it's shit together.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I don't see any unusual wear in the joint parts that I still have. There was no clunking, or any signs that something was about to happen. I beat the crap out of the car earlier in the day, had no issues. Rear suspension alignment seems fine, wheel bearings and diff are fine. Doesn't make any sense. The outer joint seems to move around fine (although I'm sure it's life has been compromised from that 1/2 mile of torture). My other axle is perfectly fine as well.

I broke a CV joint in the Fiero at a drag strip once. It uses one piece CV joints, so the inner joint cup and splines into the diff are one piece of metal. The splines where it goes into the diff side gear twisted right off. I replaced the cup and went on with life.

A couple of months later, I was leaving a stop light fairly gently and suddenly had no go in any gear. I pulled the joint apart and the tripod inside has split into three parts. It was obviously accumulated stress that broke it, rather than anything I did that day. As a CV joint rotates at an angle, every revolution is a stress cycle... if you cracked something inside the joint a while back, the cyclical stress could have caused it to fail later going down the highway not doing anything in particular.

[JGood]

I broke a CV joint in the Fiero at a drag strip once. It uses one piece CV joints, so the inner joint cup and splines into the diff are one piece of metal. The splines where it goes into the diff side gear twisted right off. I replaced the cup and went on with life.

A couple of months later, I was leaving a stop light fairly gently and suddenly had no go in any gear. I pulled the joint apart and the tripod inside has split into three parts. It was obviously accumulated stress that broke it, rather than anything I did that day. As a CV joint rotates at an angle, every revolution is a stress cycle... if you cracked something inside the joint a while back, the cyclical stress could have caused it to fail later going down the highway not doing anything in particular.

Ahh, that makes sense. I'm just curious what I did to damage it. I do beat on the car a lot, but they've had these same axles on cars making a lot more power then me, probably with more traction as well, and who probably did more miles then me. Maybe just a defect of some sort. I'm not afraid to give them another shot, that's for sure.

The only strange thing I noticed is when I first installed them, when I slowly lowered the car to the ground, both axles 'popped' once, almost like the joints were binded a bit and broke free after a lot of pressure from the suspension collapsing them. Hopefully that wasn't an issue.

The other issue I was concerned about was a bit of rotational play in the joints themselves. From what I understood, CV joints have a zero-tolerance policy with regards to rotational play. But I can definitely rotate mine a degree or two, and hear an audible click. However, my other e30 has the same play (although, that's with 200k mile stock axles, that could be wear and tear).

[P Arkus]

Interesting. I'm curious to know what CA Tuned says once they check out the busted axle.

I think my car senses my frustration and has now began working during the night to repair itself. That might be further fueled by jealousy, due to the fact that I've only been working on the 24 Hours of Lemons car lately. Sort of like a marriage where the husband finally realizes his wife is serious about leaving him if he doesn't get his shit together. Knowing she flirts with that asshole at work doesn't help, so he gets his shit together. My car got it's shit together.

This made my day. I'll make sure next time my car starts acting up, i'll buy another project car

[GDA]

It has been said many times and in many ways, but it needs to be said again. Truly epic build and one that was hard earned. The results are well deserved.

Your posts and stories on wins and challenges helped me get through the tough times on my build.

Again, epic build and one that inspires others.

[P Arkus]

Even though i've read bits and parts of this build thread numerous times, this was the first time I decided to spend the time and read all 70 pages from the beginning. I dont even know the right words to use to describe how inspirational this has been. Going into my first engine swap, and it being an M60 swap, I feel like a complete waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles with all the crap i've been moaning and groaning over.

You on the other hand, tore the car down completely, chopped major components out, learned how to weld so you could fix it, and just simply went to work. Not only that, but you did an M60 swap before most of the parts were pre-fabricated, built your own paint booth in your garage, painted the car yourself with the help of friends, then rebuilt the v8 into a hybrid monster. Now you have one of the nicest E30's, with loads of sentimental value and as much of a pain as it may be at times, i'm sure you still have a shit eatin grin on your face each time you do a burnout.

Just based on what you have gone through in the past 4 years, i'm realizing my swap should be a piece of cake and I need to just go to town on it like you did. Congrats on building such a beautiful car. I always loved it and thought it was amazing, but now I have such a new appreciation for it. Thanks for the inspiration man and never stop!!!

[JGood]

Thanks so much for the kind words guys, and I'm glad my struggles can be a form of motivation for others! Just as I owe my motivation to some of the other builds, like Garey's.

[JGood]

This weekend I worked on electrical stuff.

I had an aftermarket temp sensor/relay/wiring kit installed, and it looked like a rats nest of shit under the hood. No need for that, the factory setup works great. I installed a new OEM temp switch, traced out the wires and put new connectors on them, and ran new wires to the fan. Works perfect! I'm going to also bypass the A/C pressure switches so that I can turn the fan on manually with the A/C button if I want.

I also found that my brake fluid level switch wasn't wired correctly. I traced out the correct wires and got that fixed.

I installed a lighted rear view mirror. I'm not happy with it... yet. It vibrates a lot more then the normal mirror. I read that it's supposed to have an extra leg with a rubber foot that pushes into the windshield for support. Mine doesn't have any of that. So I may ditch it, or try to make my own rubber foot to wedge in there.

I also installed stock premium front tweeters and speakers. Had to run wires in the doors and everything. Sounds so much better!

Rolled over 320k! I tore the car apart for the swap/resto at 295k, so I'm at 25k already since June 2012.

[JGood]

I found that the fiber optic wire for the hvac middle slider light was broke. Does anyone know of any reasonably easy repair? I tried heat shrinking them together, it does sort of work, but kinks when I move it past half way and is pretty dim due to the rough break. I thought maybe a crimp connector would work, but they have a separator tab in the middle.

[dillonsb]

I had this big long annoying post typed out about how this entire thread has encouraged me to keep pushing through with my car but it magically erased itself.

Short version:

So, I have spent the last six years building muscle cars with my father and when it came time for me to do my own thing I was burnt out on the whole "American Muscle" thing. First car was a 66 mustang, it was alright- got rid of it because it had no A/C and my girlfriend would not even get in it because of that. She didn't understand. Fast forward to the 21 year old me now, ready to buy my first project. I have an uncle who is a die hard Mercedes fan now but used to always tell me about the 2002 he drove when he was my age. He then pointed me in the direction of an e30, he said you can make this car do whatever you want to do. So the hunt began, you can see my crap attempts to find one on r3v, I was new and had no idea. Eventually I found one close to home though (~200 miles away or so) and decided it had to be that one. Come to find out it wasn't the car a man lead me to believe it was and I have been battling little problem after little problem. Once I finally felt I had things sorted and it was fit enough to drive daily it hit me. Electrical problems. I got so frustrated because I was so used to fixing whatever car I had on my own and knowing what to do and how to trouble shoot. By now you are probably asking, "what does this have to do with my thread?" This is what, I got mad, garaged my car and let it sit there for about a week after being five months into little buttoning up work with it. I enjoy reading threads on here and wanted to see and hear about other people having better luck and doing exciting things so I searched, v8 swap.

Sure, there is still almost nothing in common but that does not matter. This build, restoration, and experience has inspired me more than any other 70 page anything could have. Sure, my beloved car is still in the garage technically but I am in there with it working towards the end goal. I'm not promising a m60 swap buttttttttttt I can say I'm no longer looking to go 24v.

Thanks JGood, you killed it. Sorry for the long post, man.

[JGood]

Got a GoPro.....

[TimeMachinE30]

That's silly fast.

[JGood]

Playing around with JHower08's e34 M5:
(Disregard my gf, she literally giggles non stop when I go full throttle. I had to edit out half of the footage haha)





30-130:

[fight4life28]

Great looking car, saw it at bimmerfest last year!