Ended up being the axle. Some pretty significant wear on the leading edge of the drive direction of the inner and outer pieces, to the point where there was some shards of metal floating around in the grease. Not sure what caused this though. This wasn't far from catastrophic failure...
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The complete repair, rebuild, repaint, and v8 swap of my early model sedan
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Originally posted by JGood View PostAfter a few days of doing some pretty significant work, which I haven't done in a few years, I have no idea how I built this car in 8 months back in 2011-2012. That was all night every night, and every weekend. I could never do that now, my body can't handle it.
HA! You still got it. Just out of touch....
But I know that feeling. When the next big project car is done, I wont sell. Just keep driving, maintain and enjoy. I hope.
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First carnage of 2020! I acquired a drivetrain clunk, which I found to be play in a u-joint on the rear piece of the driveshaft. This shaft is actually a reman of some sort that I bought used years ago, it has replaceable u-joints. The inner surfaces of the shaft were machined to accept inner u-joint clips. I had the front half of the shaft modified, a 540i flange was welded on to mate with the Getrag 420g. So, I figured I would just swap out the u-joints. But, I don't have a clue what joints they are. The number on the cross (1275) appears to be a Neapco 1-1275 joint. All of the dimensions that I took line up with what is advertised for this joint: inner clip style, clip-to-clip distance, and cap diameter. However, that is an Agriculture PTO shaft joint, rated for 25hp at 540rpm. Lol. So I took it to a drivshaft shop, they seem to think a Spicer 5-105X will fit, even though the dimensions that I measured are slightly off from what I found on that joint. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow when they get the joint and install it.
I also noticed my driveshaft has become quite twisted.... So I need to look into a front section replacement eventually. Considering swapping to an e46 M6 Getrag 420g output flange, so I can run an OEM e36 M3 automatic driveshaft. If I learned anything on this car, it's that aftermarket and custom parts are generally a PITA. If there is a way to use OEM shit, do it.
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In the meantime, I got a used driveshaft rear section from a local guy, tossed it in, and all seems well. So if the u-joint replacement falls through, this should work. He also gave me a Garagistic secondary diff mount. It's designed for the Z3M cover, so I had to do a bit of cutting and grinding. The one mounting tab was too short too, so it wouldn't even work with that cover as designed. Not to mention the trunk floor bracket not being resized to accommodate the spacing. I had to add a section to get the proper length. I'll also need to get the proper softer diff bushing to match the other diff bushing. I'm not too worried about it for now, as the steel mounting tabs are only bolted to the body, and there is a layer of undercoating and seam sealer separating the metal. If anything, I bet this stiffer bushing adds less NVH than the softer bushing on the stock mount.
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The shop was right, Spicer 5-105x fits perfect. 1.00" cap diameter, 1.718" between c-clips.
The only thing preventing this driveshaft from being a good permanent solution is the fact that the middle splined section is twisting, and I assume it will eventually break. I'd like to find a machine shop that can do the machining required on that middle piece to accept this u-joint. If I could have a couple of those pieces modified to keep as spares, I'd feel a lot better about this driveshaft as a long term solution. At that point, with removable u-joints, I could just replace the center section every few years as needed.
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Good to see the car is still being put to good use after all these years JGood! Have always admired your car & love seeing how swaps hold up in the long term.
Originally posted by JGood View PostAfter a few days of doing some pretty significant work, which I haven't done in a few years, I have no idea how I built this car in 8 months back in 2011-2012. That was all night every night, and every weekend. I could never do that now, my body can't handle it.
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Decided to finally do something about my interior. I ordered the lseat.com sport seat kit. Did the passenger seat, spent probably about 10 hours on it. I'm going to take a week and let my hands and back recover before doing the driver side. This is not a fun job.
I'm happy with how the passenger seat turned out. I didn't hit it with a heat gun yet, which should get rid of most of the wrinkles. Although there aren't many, so I'm not worried about it. I've got a bit of slop at the top of the side bolsters near the head rest, not sure what happened there. That's really the only thing I'm not satisfied with. Still light years better than what I had... and only $400. The old leather was stiff as plywood, so sitting in this seat was so incredibly nice.3 Photos
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Originally posted by JGood View PostDecided to finally do something about my interior. I ordered the lseat.com sport seat kit. Did the passenger seat, spent probably about 10 hours on it. I'm going to take a week and let my hands and back recover before doing the driver side. This is not a fun job.
I'm happy with how the passenger seat turned out. I didn't hit it with a heat gun yet, which should get rid of most of the wrinkles. Although there aren't many, so I'm not worried about it. I've got a bit of slop at the top of the side bolsters near the head rest, not sure what happened there. That's really the only thing I'm not satisfied with. Still light years better than what I had... and only $400. The old leather was stiff as plywood, so sitting in this seat was so incredibly nice.85% of the time i have no idea what I'm doing
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Originally posted by Slybeanx View Post
Seats look good! Im sure that'll freshen up the interior nicely. I really enjoy mine as well.
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Originally posted by moatilliatta View PostHows the destruction and repair going? Still one of my fav E30's on the board.
Funny you ask. I took the rusted ass dumpster fire out for a 2 hour drive on some extremely salty south eastern PA roads today. I installed a new air filter last week, which is the only thing I’ve really done in probably 3 months. It’s probably my most reliable vehicle at this point. My e34 has a fueling issue and the exhaust system fell off my Silverado while I was driving it lol.2 Photos
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A few weeks ago I was on the highway, and all of a sudden got a pretty bad misfire. No CEL, just down on power. Got it home, did a compression test, 220 psi on all cylinders except 5 & 6 (front 2 on passenger side) only had about 70psi. Did a leakdown test, 100% leakage across those cylinders, indicating a blown fire ring. Tore the engine apart, confirm the fire ring was gone. Cylinder 1, 2, & 3 on the other side didn't look far behind.
Last edited by JGood; 10-09-2022, 03:02 PM.
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