Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Were there things that you didn't like? How was the power? Able to pass to get around people, driving on the on-ramp fun?

Well, I would echo Simon's feelings to some degree. I think he's over exaggerating the power deficiency. As far as - "Able to pass to get around people, driving on the on-ramp fun?" - yes most definitely. The 8k rpm limit is most welcome. With some choice mods (like any car) I can see it would be quite a handful. The handling/suspension/brakes were already great even on a 140k mile car that probably needed some decent maintenance. If you went stiff bushings, sticky tires, short shifter, lightweight flywheel and catback exhaust it would transform the car.

Wow, what a thread! Great read and loved seeing the odyssey.

One thing to note - I see your missing the alternator ducting. I had mine die at the track the other day, I was lucky and managed to find a replacement nearby same day - it may or may not be related, but figured long periods of time at high RPM probably doesn't help, and they did come with cooling from factory.

Thank you! Yes I don't have the cooling duct on there, and believe it or not I've had it this way for 10+ years without any problem. But that said I'm thinking it would be easy to just put a silicone elbow on it and make another vent through the headlight backing plate

[TeXJ]

Well, I would echo Simon's feelings to some degree. I think he's over exaggerating the power deficiency. As far as - "Able to pass to get around people, driving on the on-ramp fun?" - yes most definitely. The 8k rpm limit is most welcome. With some choice mods (like any car) I can see it would be quite a handful. The handling/suspension/brakes were already great even on a 140k mile car that probably needed some decent maintenance. If you went stiff bushings, sticky tires, short shifter, lightweight flywheel and catback exhaust it would transform the car.

Thanks!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

As usual the updates are behind the actual progress. Put the car on the ground yesterday. Should be driving this weekend.

Here we have control arms blasted ready for paint



And here's everything hand assembled with ball joints pressed into the arms



I added this small bracket to the control arm mount for the brake line



Unfortunately after all the adjustments to suspension in the front, I could not get control arm - exhaust - swaybar clearance without grinding a small indent into the control arm. It was either that or doing the same to the exhaust. Unfortunately, when I made the new exhaust I did it with the swaybar at an angle (due to how it was mounted) and now am trying to correct the geometry which is putting things on a path to interfere. Naturally, I noticed the interference only now that I'd already painted the damn thing and bolted it in place.....



Here we have the diff mostly disassembled getting ready for blasting.



Primer in the garden paint booth



Ancillary parts getting prepped for blasting



Everything painted nice and clean!



These updates are brought to you by the beer of the weekend and one of my personal favorites - Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Albie325]

Just had to wire wheel clean a bunch of rusty parts on my e46 for paint and reinstall, that blast booth is money. And a good Heffeweissbier at the end of a long hot day in the garage cannot be beat, love Weihenstephaner! Paulaner and Ayinger are probably my favs with Weihenstaphaner a close third. Looking good brotha

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Progress

Test fitting new 70mm flares from Jumdoo. Rear looks good.



Front looks good. Cleco pins are awesome!



Fresh e36 diff cover and picked up a set of seal drivers. Should've done this ages ago to go with the press.



New AKG bushings pressed into the cover.

Today's update brought to you by Erdinger - another favorite german hefe



I'd say the LSD was way overdue for service. The pressure plates/ramps were pretty well gouged and the dog plates and friction plates are toast










Luckily I had a spare LSD unit stashed so I stole the pressure plates/ramps from that and replaced the clutches with a 3 clutch kit I bought from thayer a few years ago.



For the e36 double ear diff cover you need to swap the speed ring to the e36 ring... pretty obvious why. It's much smaller diameter. The sensor also needs to be an e36 sensor which is much shorter.




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[Digitalwave]

3 clutch setup? How do you like it? I need to refresh my diff.

[2mAn]

Ahhh COME ON CHARLIE. Get everyone else caught up!!....

[Sh3rpak!ng]

3 clutch setup? How do you like it? I need to refresh my diff.

too soon to say... I just drove it for the first time this weekend and was not pushing the car at all. Need to relearn it's character and get used to different noises. And probably should schedule an autocross soon so I can really test the car's limits and how its changed.

I'm actually considering upgrading the diff further since I will likely need to take it apart again soon. I screwed up when disassembling and reassembling by not marking the input flange/nut and had trouble getting the flange and nut torqued with proper preload. I want to redo it with a new crush sleeve to ensure I don't wear out the bearings prematurely. I also noticed the thrust washers were pretty worn too... if I'm going to do this again I might as well do different ramp angles and replace a few more parts.

Ahhh COME ON CHARLIE. Get everyone else caught up!!....

hahahaha patience..... tapatalk only lets me tediously post 9 photos at a time

[Digitalwave]

Why did you take the input flange off? To do it right you have to re-set the lash, which seems like a major PITA.

Did you already have 3 in there? It looked like you had 3 old ones.

I need to at least put new clutches in mine, but I am weary of "changing" the setup short of just putting a Kaaz or OS Giken in there. Would you recommend buying new thrust plates to go with the new clutches, or just flipping them over?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Why did you take the input flange off? To do it right you have to re-set the lash, which seems like a major PITA.

Did you already have 3 in there? It looked like you had 3 old ones.

I need to at least put new clutches in mine, but I am weary of "changing" the setup short of just putting a Kaaz or OS Giken in there. Would you recommend buying new thrust plates to go with the new clutches, or just flipping them over?

Took the input flange off to replace the seal. I definitely need to do more research on all things related to differential rebuilds - I am not an expert by any means. Just a monkey with more tools than experience :P

I understood that lash is set with some shims, and preload/final torque is set via slowly tightening the nut/flange as it crushes the sleeve, which maintains torque on the nut and allows you to slowly work up the preload tension on the taper bearing. I could be completely wrong though.

I had 2 clutches before. It's the LSD "pumpkin" from an e36 which was oem used when I installed it years ago.

Thrust plates - you mean the dog plates? When you have 2 friction discs you can do that since one side of the thrust/dog plate is up against the bellville washer. But probably best to just replace them. Sorry I just noticed I mixed up terminology. Meant to say earlier that the bellville washers were worn. My thrust/dog plates were trashed along with the clutches/friction discs.

[jeenyus]

so if i want to replace my input flange (because it got bent in shipping) i know i need to mark the nut, but that's about all i understand. What else do i need to note before removing the flange?

[Sh3rpak!ng]

so if i want to replace my input flange (because it got bent in shipping) i know i need to mark the nut, but that's about all i understand. What else do i need to note before removing the flange?

Honestly I'd prefer not to be a reference source for diff service instructions since I'm still learning and already messed up my own parts haha :P Just do some research and you'll find some posts and threads that'll set you straight.

[Digitalwave]

If you are replacing the input shaft then you won't have a point of reference, so marking the nut is kind of useless.

[jeenyus]

If you are replacing the input shaft then you won't have a point of reference, so marking the nut is kind of useless.

not the shaft, just the flange itself where the four bolts connect the drive shaft and the diff together.

[pandaboo911]

Ugh this car is just so sick. If you ever plan on doing any trackdays in Norcal hit me up!