My '75 2002 Sleeper

[tinkwithanr]

Quick Teaser:


This mod is not for the faint of heart.

[MazterDizazter]

*whew* just made it through all 23 pages. That was 1.5hrs well spent! I'm absolutely floored by this project. I envy your fab skills and creativity greatly! I will say I was a little worried by how scatter-brained the project seemed to start out as (looks like the way I approach a project - trying to do everything at once - which means it never gets done) but once you got the chassis media blasted and fixed all the rust the project started to really take shape. I can't wait to see the finished product - best of luck!

[N2MYE30]

I dig the pedals but what really caught my eye was the peep window for the slave cylinder...haha...very cool.

[tinkwithanr]

*whew* just made it through all 23 pages. That was 1.5hrs well spent! I'm absolutely floored by this project. I envy your fab skills and creativity greatly! I will say I was a little worried by how scatter-brained the project seemed to start out as (looks like the way I approach a project - trying to do everything at once - which means it never gets done) but once you got the chassis media blasted and fixed all the rust the project started to really take shape. I can't wait to see the finished product - best of luck!

Thanks! I can see how it seems pretty all over the place, but keep in mind that most of this has been going on for the past two years, so it's been fairly spread out with a lot of thinking and planning (good and bad) in between. Crazy to think of where she started and where she will end up.

I dig the pedals but what really caught my eye was the peep window for the slave cylinder...haha...very cool.

I figure if I put it in there I'll never need to bleed it lol.

[craiggroves91]

Yup, I just threw the trans on there for making up the engine and trans mounts.

Got it, just trying to look out for you!

Great work

Love seeing your updates

[tinkwithanr]

So as I alluded to earlier, I decided to deleted the stock pedal assembly and replace it with a Tilton floor mount assembly. There were a number of reasons I decided to do this. First, the itb setup meant that the stock brake booster wouldn't fit anymore. Likewise, with the G260 trans in place, the stock throttle linkage would be very close to the outer bell housing. By switching to the Tilton setup I am able to avoid those issues.

The pedals in question are are Tilton 72-603, which is a three pedal assembly. The brake pedal uses a balance bar, which lets you adjust the bias front to rear from the driver seat (with the optional cable adjuster). It also keeps the front and rear brakes on separate master cylinders, so if one of the circuits ended up getting damaged I will still have brakes to help bring the car to a stop.




If you look at the above picture, you'll notice that the pedal pads are also adjustable. There are 4 vertical positions and three horizontal, for a total of 12 per pedal. I am also thinking of machining a new gas pedal pad to help with heel-toe driving. I'll wait until I can try it out before going down that road though.






In the next picture you can see the throttle linkage assembly. The linkage, like the rest of the pedal assembly, is completely adjustable. This will allow me to dial in the throttle plate position relative to the gas pedal, avoiding a laggy or on-off feeling.






Of course the new pedal assembly isn't without it's issues. Mainly the fact that the driver side frame rail goes right through the same area, so it needs to be cut out and rerouted. Also the clutch master cylinder is much further off to the right than the old setup, so much so that it sticks into the driver side footwell. If it end up interfering with the steering at full lock I'll need to make up a simple linkage that moves the clutch master cylinder up and over, away from the wheel/tire. I'll wait to make that decision until the front suspension is back in though.



Here is the pedal assembly bolted in place:






Here you can see clutch cylinder, it sticks into the wheel well an inch or so.






And here you can see how much of the frame rail/firewall needed to be trimmed out. The frame rail will be remade with 1/8" or 3/16" steel boxed and welded flush much like the motor mounts, but out of the way of the brake and clutch cylinders.






I also picked up a new tool to help strip the old tar and POR-15 off the floor boards so I can make sure they are clean and rust free.





And the progress after ~15 seconds of grinding:





Then I got the steering column support bearing tacked in place. Ironically it fit in the stock location of the old column mount, it just needed to be angle downward slightly.










Then I took a break from work and took a few pictures with my other '02. Once I get Fiona finished I want to paint this one as a 'mini-me' and it in her glovebox or center console area lol.












Thanks for looking!

[SirWolfian]

HOLY MACARONY, I wanted those pedals for my e30 trackster. so freaking expensive setup. I wish you the best man!

[kronus]

Could you have avoided a lot of the pedal issues by going with a hanging pedal setup instead of a floor-mount? Cool setup, either way.

[tinkwithanr]

Yes and no. I would have avoided the frame rail clearance issues, but all available hanging pedal setups are to long for the '02 and the master cylinders are all up in the windshield area. This results in needing to cut the pedal arms down and reweld them at a shorter length, messing with the pedal ratio for the brakes and clutch. Also I just prefer the feel of floor mount pedals in the '02, even if it's not the stock setup.

And they look sweet lol.

[Nick_S]

Read all 23 pages while wasting time at work and finishing my dinner while reading. Your fabrication skills are seriously on point. What an incredible build. Can't wait for the next update.

[I<3BMW]

This build is the best. I love seeing all the updates. Cant wait to see more progress.

[tinkwithanr]

Next up was to adapt my throttle cable to the pedal assembly. The throttle cable in question is a Lokar Stainless Steel bit. It's 4ft long, but can also be cut to length, so I just bought one that I knew would be a bit to long.






Here is the stock end of the throttle cable. Unfortunately the opening in the cable adapter is 3/16", and the pedal linkage is 1/4" wide. Also, the 'throat' of the adapter is very shallow, and so even if I widened it, it wouldn't allow the linkage to move through it's entire range of motion without binding.






And here is the end of the cable. It's got a crimped on bulb, so I can just slip off the old fitting and replace it with one that will work with the Tilton linkage.





So I started with a 0.75" rod of 304 stainless:






And 1 hour later ended up with this:





It's 1.5" long and turned down to 9/16 diameter. Then I machined 1/8" hole all the way through, followed by tapping it 1/4-28 thread 1" deep ending in a 3/16" diameter chamfer to match up with the bulb of the cable. It also has two flat spots milled onto it so it can be held with a 7/16" wrench.

Threaded end:






To install it first slide the cable through the end and sit the bulb at the bottom of the threaded section:







Then screw the heim joint into the threaded end and tighten the jam nut.






Lastly install the assembly onto the Tilton linkage.





With this end of the cable sorted out I just need to mount the outer shielding on the firewall and figure out the throttle body end of the cable.

[e30_neverstock]

what kind of bearing did you use for the steering column support bearing? i need to do the exact same thing on mine. but i have a e30 column in my 02.

[Zreberlcoe]

I mean I thought I could lathe...

[tinkwithanr]

what kind of bearing did you use for the steering column support bearing? i need to do the exact same thing on mine. but i have a e30 column in my 02.

It's just a stamped steel bearing from Mcmaster. The shaft on the steering column was 18mm diameter, which isn't a standard bearing size. So I took some 1" DOM tubing I had left over and welded it to the shaft so I could use a standard 1" i.d. bearing. The hardest part was making sure the DOM piece was perfectly concentric to the shaft when I welded it on.