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

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    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...
    85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
    e30 restoration and V8 swap
    24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

    Comment


      Shards of metal breaking off isn't wear... the joints were either not heat treated/engineered correctly for the application or your power level is too high for those joints for the long term.

      Comment


        Originally posted by JGood View Post
        After 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.

        I was up above it, Now I'm down in it ~ Entropy - A Build thread.
        @Zakspeed_US

        Comment


          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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          85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
          e30 restoration and V8 swap
          24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

          Comment


            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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            85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
            e30 restoration and V8 swap
            24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

            Comment


              ALSO, this crazy old 344i just hit 344k miles.


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              85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
              e30 restoration and V8 swap
              24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

              Comment


                Good stuff. Love this build and how far it’s come. I think I’ve read the whole thing through already, but have started again now that I’m making inroads on my own project. Very inspirational. Keep it up 👍

                Comment


                  The shop was right, Spicer 5-105x fits perfect. 1.00" cap diameter, 1.718" between c-clips.

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                  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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                  85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
                  e30 restoration and V8 swap
                  24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

                  Comment


                    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 Post
                    After 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.
                    I'm hearing you on this one - I did my M30 swap in about 6 weeks 8 years ago, and I doubt I'd have the drive & fitness to do it now (or the garage space as I moved house). I think if I was buying one now, I'd just be one of the BAT guys spending the $20k on a mint one up front.
                    My e30: OEM+ with M30B35

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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.
                      85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
                      e30 restoration and V8 swap
                      24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by JGood View Post
                        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.
                        Seats look good! Im sure that'll freshen up the interior nicely. I really enjoy mine as well.
                        85% of the time i have no idea what I'm doing

                        Comment


                          Originally posted by Slybeanx View Post

                          Seats look good! Im sure that'll freshen up the interior nicely. I really enjoy mine as well.
                          Thanks! What did you use to make the holes for all of the folding tabs? I had a hell of a time with that. I ended up sharpening a punch and pushing it through, then using dikes to open the hole up. Fresh razor blades didn't do much, I broke several trying to punch through. At least the leather is good haha. But a complete pain in the ass for how many tabs there are. I'd love to find a way to make the second seat go quicker (and easier on my hands).

                          85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
                          e30 restoration and V8 swap
                          24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

                          Comment


                            Hows the destruction and repair going? Still one of my fav E30's on the board.

                            I was up above it, Now I'm down in it ~ Entropy - A Build thread.
                            @Zakspeed_US

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by moatilliatta View Post
                              Hows 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.
                              85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
                              e30 restoration and V8 swap
                              24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

                              Comment


                                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.

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                                Last edited by JGood; 10-09-2022, 03:02 PM.
                                85 325e m60b44 6 speed / 89 535i
                                e30 restoration and V8 swap
                                24 Hours of Lemons e30 build

                                Comment

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