Back in Black (now with s50 and bags)

[dillon7]

deal with the tie rods for e36 rack swap: e30 or e36 but only the WHOLE UNIT cannot mix match innner/outer between series. dope build looks like your dads got you hooked up:up:

ah gotcha, don't know how I missed that important piece of info.

Thanks!

Now the question is old e30 tie rods, new e30 tie rods, or e36 tie rods.

[misterCAFE]

deal with the tie rods for e36 rack swap: e30 or e36 but only the WHOLE UNIT cannot mix match innner/outer between series. dope build looks like your dads got you hooked up:up:

[dillon7]

Time for more updates.

First I got the car outside and degreased the bay and undercarriage.






Cleaned up my headers, driveshaft, and motor arm a little.




Then I decided to go ahead and pull the old seats out. A lot of you have been asking how they mounted and well, they are mounted pretty bad. The PO just drilled through the floorboard and stuck a bolt and nut on and called it quits...:hitler:




Anyways after gawking at the stupidity I got the seats out to reveal my extremely filthy carpet that will need cleaning soon. I didn't even bother with the awful wiring and just cut the wires, guess I'll have to go trace those all the way back soon but for now it will do.




Next up was to paint the seat belt clicks or whatever you call them.

I had some toyota TRD red paint laying around so I just used that. It came out pretty good.

Before:



After:




Then my Dad got home with the transmission and flywheel.

He fixed the bad seal and machined down the flywheel for me and also cleaned up the transmission.

All clean



Lovely flywheel



Inside of the transmission




Next up was to put the other motor arm on and get the engine attached to the hoist.






Last but not least was the e36 steering rack.

Got the old rack out with no problems.




Grinded off the perch and got the steering knuckle apart.






Went to go install the AKG kit and holes in the knuckle were too small so I had to drill those out to fit.




Then the a little ridge got in the way so I had to grind that off as well but after that I got the knuckle back together and assembled.




Next, I put the rack back in and tested to see if anything hit. I had a small place where I was rubbing on the knuckle so I grinded that down as well. After that everything felt good so I was good to go.






Then I went to go install the tie rod ends and well.....they wouldn't work.

The tie rod on the rack is male threaded along with the e30 tie rod ends so I have to figure something out. I'm kind of confused because everything I read just said put the old TRE on the new rack but never really posted pictures so I never thought anything of it. Any help here? Here are some pics.






That's it for now. More work to be done tomorrow. If somebody could comment on my tie rod situation that would be lovely. Thanks!

[dillon7]

I have that same box in my room lol

haha guess it's no surprise what it is then.

Woke up this morning and immedietly went to open my boxes, kind of like christmas haha.

First up is the "surprise". Rebuilt e36 rack. It's just so so clean.





Got the AKG kit so it will all fit.





Next up is the new Trans brace with condor mounts built by GunMetalGrey himself. Excellent quality, couldn't be happier.





Last but certainly not least is the most important the I bought, the engine wiring harness adapter. Andrew325is built it for me and he did an excellent job, I definitely recommend him to anybody here. He has everything labeled for me which is great because I absolutely suck at anything that has to do with wiring.







Ok time to stop being lazy and get off the computer and get to work.

[Ayman]

I have that same box in my room lol

[dillon7]

FINALLY GETTING SOME UPDATES

This week I have been dreaming of this weekend to come so I can finally work on the car. I was sitting in my dorm being a good college student looking at car parts when I got the greatest email of my life. I have one class on friday holding me back from coming home but at last my teacher emailed me and said class was cancelled enjoy your weekend! You know what that means right? Coming home Thursday night and starting my weekend early

Ok, on to the good stuff.

I got home and got to work immediately with my Dad (without him this would all be impossible or at least really slow so thanks Dad). Got all the stupid heat shields in front of the driveshaft off and then proceeded to pull and yank of the driveshaft and still not get it off :hitler:
Took a break from that and got the shifter linkage undone and little random wires and sensors off to get to the point where the driveshaft was the only thing attached.
We decided to lift the engine a little to get the DS out and just make life easier until we tried to figure out where to hook up the engine hoist. The front was easy of course but getting to the mounting point on the rear of the block was a PITA so we wrapped a strap around the intake manifold instead. Worked like a charm, raised the engine a little and got the DS out. Engine came out smoothly after that and we were good to go.

Pushed the car outside so now it's ready to get all cleaned up and degreased.





Next was getting the flywheel out. Of course the transmission had those torque bolts instead of regular ones and there were two different sized bolts. We thought there was no way that out of the 3 torque sockets we had that we would have the right now. Well guess who's lucky day it was? Mine! Had the right two sizes and the transmission came off with a breeze. Got the clutch out and then the flywheel so we are smooth sailing from here.

random clutch pic



There is way too much good news so far in this update for a 27 year old car so time to hit you with the bad stuff.

Couple pieces on the DS are shot so those will need replacing.





Also the transmission had some oil in it so guessing I have a bad seal in there somewhere. I'm taking it to my Dad's shop to have it looked at a little more.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow I have a lot more work to do and plenty of updates.

The current state of the garage is this.



And the mystery brown box surprise for tomorrow. (it's not exciting I just thought I would add some spice to the story)





Thanks for reading and STAY TUNED BECAUSE THINGS ARE ACTUALLY GETTING EXCITING!

[JCarp90]

bad aaaaaaaaaaassss

[dillon7]

ok so did a little more research and went with this rebuilt rack

http://shop.rackdoctor.net/main.sc

Did this for two reasons.

1. they got excellent reviews (way better than ebay)

2. Right in the price range I was looking for

3. The shop is 4 hours away from me so shipping will be fast.

I also ordered the AKG kit for the swap so now I have everything good to go. I'm not replacing power steering hoses or reservoir yet, just going to see how this does first.

The transmission bracket arrived last week at my house and the engine wiring adapter is getting shipped out tomorrow so needless to say I'm pretty excited that it has all come together.

It's going to be quite a weekend with the rack and engine swap, pretty stoked though!

[dillon7]

Since my steering rack is junk and I need a new one I figured I might as well do the e36 rack swap while I have the engine out. I've got everything I need for the swap except for the e36 rack itself..I've been looking on ebay and found this "brand new" rack, it's the price I'm looking for just kind of nervous since I'm guessing it's not oem. Any feedback or ideas? http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-3-SERIES...-/290530259899

or this one?

http://shop.rackdoctor.net/1992-1995-BMW-325is-Rack-and-Pinion-17495-786-325is.htm?productId=49

[fresh_TD]

haha ya they are pretty big. They are hella comfy though. I feel like they would be much better in a sedan.

Speaking of, I have a 4dr ix and I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago and a someone posted pictures of an e24 interior in cardinal red which is the same color I have in my e30..went to check them out and decided not to get them, they were too big..I'm still searching for cardinal red front seats
Here's a pics of the seats from the e24



Sent from my GS4 Active

[dillon7]

Man, these seats look fucking huge in the e30..lol..Yes he probably modified the rail for sure

Sent from my GS4 Active

haha ya they are pretty big. They are hella comfy though. I feel like they would be much better in a sedan.

[fresh_TD]

I mean they are in the car...how? I have no idea...But they are bolted in and work. I'm guessing the PO modified an e30 seat rail to fit them. I would sell the seat rail along with the seats.

Man, these seats look fucking huge in the e30..lol..Yes he probably modified the rail for sure

Sent from my GS4 Active

[dillon7]

Ok my bad....straight bolt in? He sure about that? ?

Sent from my GS4 Active

I mean they are in the car...how? I have no idea...But they are bolted in and work. I'm guessing the PO modified an e30 seat rail to fit them. I would sell the seat rail along with the seats.

[fresh_TD]

hes not selling these. OP is selling e39 five series seats that apparently bolt into an e30

Ok my bad....straight bolt in? He sure about that? ?

Sent from my GS4 Active

[dillon7]

Can I get these seats from you?

Sent from my GS4 Active

hes not selling these. OP is selling e39 five series seats that apparently bolt into an e30

This ^^

You should buy them ;D