My Hoopte30 Project Attempt #6 - the painless way to earn cash back every day

[AWDBOB]

Might have to fab up an idler to increase the wrap on either the crank, compressor, or both?

I think i'm just a ham fisted ape and have been unable to get the tension perfect lol

I would, however, kill for an M20 serpentine belt conversion kit. Paging whodwho save us from der v belt

Do you have access to a welder? Grab a turnbuckle and a couple of pieces of threaded rod that fit it. Weld two curved pieces of round stock to the ends of the threaded rods then cut them to length and thread them into the turnbuckle, so it looks like )——≡≡≡——( . Tensioning tool, wind it in the whole way, place it between the pulleys, then expand it until the tension is just right and wind it in to remove it. A pain compared to a built in tensioner, but it would allow you to dial it in, tighten the compressor down, then remove the tool.

This is a great idea that I am going to pursue, thank you!

You could ratchet strap your seat post to your front tow hook to keep the tension on the bike?

I have an E30 hitch, maybe just add a kuat rack?

I have a hitch problem not a bike rack problem sadly. That' s a super duty 1UP rack, I could probably put a dirt bike on it in a pinch haha

I was initially trying to make the hitch fully bolt on/reversible so i could do a group buy for them, but I may just perma mount them on both cars with a 3rd anchor point and be done with it.

[AWDBOB]

I was close with my old neighbor who passed away (C10 guy in the background of my photos if you've been around for a while). The family decided it was time to consign his pride and joy, a '35 MB, which is rumored to have been ordered and used by the German military.

I helped them dig it out of its hiding place today, figured y'all would appreciate it.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[e30austin]

I was close with my old neighbor who passed away (C10 guy in the background of my photos if you've been around for a while). The family decided it was time to consign his pride and joy, a '35 MB, which is rumored to have been ordered and used by the German military.

I helped them dig it out of its hiding place today, figured y'all would appreciate it.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

WOAH. what a crazy piece of history to just be casually hanging out in a garage in Indiana. very very cool to see, thanks for sharing. this thread delivers, as per usual.

[prisonerofdoom83]

Must refrain from making jokes about neighbors bbq skills

[e30m3s54turbo]

I would like to collect thoseGerman emblems, I’m a big fan of WWi and WWII.

[82eye]

wild to see that.

[AWDBOB]

Glad y'all found that as cool as I did- just hanging out next door for 40yrs. They're going to send me the auction link when it's live, I'll post it here.

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Daily driver madness is still kicking my ass.

Had to do front uprights on the Xterra, engine mounts, outer tie rods, and then a full clutch hydro line/component replacement.

Finally got it all buttoned up and the drivers exhaust manifold fully broke off at the flange. My guess is it wasn't long for this world and jacking up the motor to do the engine mounts did it in.

So now I have a full exhaust job from manifolds back to figure out, meanwhile keeping her Outback and my daily sedan hoopty on the road. The Outback got front uprights, front swaybar bushings/endlinks, rear 02 sensor, trans fluid flush with Idemitsu Type HP ATF, and other odds and ends to hopefully remedy the final check engine light of the cali to fed emissions conversion project.

The things I do to avoid having car payments.....

Tapping xterra engine mount threads 1/8 turn at a time

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr


Billys, new springs, and shock mounts installed with new Moog outer tie rods.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr




Sedan hooptie has been getting hotter than I'd like despite me putting in a new tstat when I did the timing belt, so I bought a Mahle 80* tstat and tried out the $80 alloy ebay radiator since this thing is essentially a rolling parts car at this point.

Core is thinner than stock, construction appears to be surprisingly decent. Don't love the drain plug design, everything else checks out.

Car is now much happier. Was getting some belt squeal so I swapped belts out. That didn't change anything, so I may need to remove/wire wheel the drive pulleys. Belt alignment is fine, not sure what else it could be.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Ever since I got the '87 Sedan Hoopty on the road it has had manual brakes and a fading MC under consistent brake pressure (see: pedal fade at stop lights).

I assumed the booster was bad, made sure the check valve was good first which it was, so it was indeed a bad booster.

All of the cast iron ATE MCs/Boosters I pull off of parts cars are rusty messes, but I have a few good late Girling spares.

The '87 325i is one of the cars with the weird horizontal pressure regulator (1156716) that mounts to the MC studs and hangs out under the MC. On the '87, both F/R lines run into this valve.

RealOEM says this valve is used from 7/86 to 6/87.

I grabbed a known good late Girling MC/booster and bolted it up. Brake line fitting sizes were the same, ATE brake master res mounted up the same, etc.

However, I noticed that the late Girling MC front port was stamped 17, and rear was stamped 22 (Front = Vor/V, Rear = Hinter/H).

On the 87 ATE MC the front port was stamped 20, and the rear 17, indicating the F/R lines may be switched on this MC.

I grabbed a spare ABS unit from an '89 and made sure the 87 and 89 ABS unit ports had the same inputs and outputs, which they did.

WHICH MEANS the '87 MC has reversed F/R ports. Following the flow in the horizontal pressure regulator I realized the regulator redirects the flow to the ABS unit.

All of the p/n's for early cars with ABS seem to be lumped under 1154918, but this means there are two early MCs, one with reversed ports for the 7/86 to 6/87 cars that received the weird reversed pressure regulator, and one without. As far as I can tell, the reversed port early 7/86 to 6/87 MC with weird pressure regulator is 1154405 and the normal port early MC with ABS without weird valve is 1154918. Despite that p/n on bimmerworld being listed for cars "without ABS", 1154918 is listed on RealOEM as "with ABS". I verified the ports are the same as the late MC on the 1154918 early ATE MC without the weird pressure regulator.

I now have boosted brakes and a strong MC, but I kept the '87 pressure regulator which is reversing the flow, so I have a 17mm front bore MC and a 22mm rear bore.

Brakes feel incredible compared to the non functional old setup, but they still feel very weird with this switched.

Anyway, I wanted to post my findings about this "one year" MC that I had no idea exists (which, fun fact, uses the same ATE MC reservoir as I've seen on some '88 cars).

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr


Another '87 I had on the shelf with cut lines
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The 1154918 ports

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All done

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[moatilliatta]

Curious if you get the Billy Bounce.

Transportation trifecta.

[AWDBOB]

Curious if you get the Billy Bounce.

Transportation trifecta.

I am anti front billy hd/sports, but I don't mind the stiffness in the rear. Helps drown out the destroyed trailing arm bushings lol

edit: I drove my buddies car last month that was refreshed by Ben Thongsai in Chicago with B4s all the way around and OE Sports and it felt great for daily spec. Plush and supportive like a nice bra, but without the typical Billy harshness.

This car has OE sports and KYBs up front, 50406 sports and B8s in the rear and its great for a rolling parts car. I did texas holdem this way too and it was good.

Granted, this is no comparison to OG hoopty with touring GC plates/coilovers, konis and spring rates that feel just right, but it's a fine affordable setup for a daily.

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I'm still battling our DD struggles.... Xterra needs ball joints badly, so I wanted to get hooptie sedan daily-able in the meantime so I can take the xterra off the road to fix. Once it's all finished up and aligned I'm going to list it for sale and see if I can't get into a 6MT crosstrek or something.... if i can find a blown up first gen crosstrek I'll FB25 swap it. I'm over the body on frame cube 14mpg SUV life, and keeping it on the road past 200k when our other vehicle is a needy 05 outback seems futile. I can do one daily shitbox, not two. I need AWD/Manual/10yrs old, and Subaru is really the only thing holding down the fort on that these days, as much as I don't like them.

Turns out when you use your nastiest rusty pulleys and don't clean them up you get poor results. I was 99.9% sure I cleaned all of this up before install but I didn't.

Nothing but the best $4 belts for my rolling parts car. Cleaned everything up and it's happy. AC quietly blasting on the way to bike this evening

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

Blower fan exploded yesterday- installed one I pulled off of a parts car that looked to have been recently replaced. Adjusted the new belts while I was in there.

Replaced an expanding nut (what firewall rust?).

Hooptie daily life! Steering still feels super weird, pretty sure it's the rack or a USM bearing.

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr
Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr

[AWDBOB]

I was downtown tonight and the sky was prodigious

Untitled by bimmertown, on Flickr