My project 84 318i

[Digitalwave]

Euro bumpers would be killer on that car. Gold/black always looks good. Has the car been repainted?

[wycoco]

I'm still trippin out on those wheels. They're so BB-esk. I want to find me a set now, heh.

[Ray Smoodiver]

sickness

[Jean]

Wow, thanks for all the nice comments! :)

Car does not appear to be repainted, I am sure PO would have told me otherwise to get more $ from the sale lol..

So, I tucked the rear bumpers in and I might paint them black next and get 87ish? style plastic trim with smaller lights and hopefully it will sit tighter around the bumper w/o huge gaps like now.



I think rear bumper was much easier to do once I figured out where the third nut was that held the bumper shocks .



Also, picked up a set of used seats from a junk yard ($12.49 each) but need to find another so I can make a good one or atleast find a bolster or two :(



Next task is to figure out how to convert rear drums to disks and then source an e30 m3 rack :)

[Jean]

Little update for this restoration project ...

Car will be ready for alingment once new tie rods and offset e36 m3 bushings are installed


Trottle cable on the car is so old it was actually sticking at WOT, this should fix it .

New tstat, water pump and radiator will be installed soon


Happy New Year r3v!

[adept]

Very nice job man

[T3rd Ferguson]

so you sold those wheels, no?

[Jean]

so you sold those wheels, no?

Correct, it's on a set of bottlecaps for now until I decide what wheels to get.

[Jean]

In the middle of replacing rad and water pump, test fitted a valance . Looks like i'll need different air ducts as the current ones don't line up and I just replaced it, doh.

[veks]

shes a keeper.

[Jean]

Nothing special compared to some other nicer e30s on this forum, but for now this will have to do. I might swap the dash later for a later style w/out the o2 light though..



Replaced the water pump and radiator today, installed electrical fan and tossed the fan clutch junk away. I am fighting with the alternator mounting bracket/bushings and looks like i'll need to order more bushings before I can finish this up and i'll replace the power steering pump bracket and bushings at the same time...

[turbo_negro69]

yo whats up jean!
cars coming along nicely.:up:

[Jean]

what's up Wuilman!

So, I drained the fuel tank in order to replace the lower fuel tank hose and pulled the vdo fuel level sending unit out from the pump.

I noticed this hose was showing it's age when the car was on the lift and finally got it replaced, not to much space there but weren't too bad. I didn't want to take chances with it leaking etc...

I took this one out to see if there is anything I can do with it as it's not reporting the fuel level correctly, but the low fuel light function of it is dead on though.



Center pin and top pin (in this picture) control the fuel gauge as if you short them out it pegs the gauge. With DMM set to Ohm's it reads from 3.9 ohms to 72.8 ohms depending on the level (I tilted it with my hands and measured a couple of times, you can hear it's sensor moving). I don't know if this is a correct range (3.9 - 72.8) or not, anybody know ?

The other pin acts more like an ON and OFF switch, so I am thinking it's connected to the low fuel light on the fuel gauge and it's ok.

[Lof8]

lookin real nice, Jean. I'm looking forward to seeing it with that front valence.

[Jean]

This was posted on another forum and might be of use, tells you how to check if the gauge is working properly to narrow down where the problem is.

From - http://www.e30tech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35976
Sounds like the sender's resistance doesn't change gradually with float position. Rather it changes abruptly. The 70 Ohms gives you "empty" and 3 Ohms gives you "full". So, what you're saying then is you're only getting around 25 Ohms when you should be getting 70 Ohms.

It's either the sender or the gauge is screwed up. Go to radioshack and buy some 150 and 100 Ohm resistors (pack of 5). Put the resistors in parallel and turn on the ignition key. See where the needle lands.

5 x 15O Ohms connected in parallel = 30 Ohms
3 x 150 in parallel = 50 Ohms
2 x 150 in parallel = 75 Ohms

5 x 100 = 20 Ohms

Resistor / (# in parallel) = total resistance.

Hook resistors in parallel by twisting the leads on two resistors together. Connect one end to the ground pin on the connector for the sender. Connect the other end to the center pin on the connector. Turn on the ignition key.

The other option is to buy a variable resistor (a pot) and use it instead of the multiple resistor trick.

You should see the following
74 Ohms -> empty
35 Ohms -> at 1/4 + 1/16 tank
24 Ohms -> at 1/2 tank
16 Ohms -> at 1/2 + 1/8 tank
11 Ohms -> 3/4 tank
5 Ohms -> full