LSD now in place

I was on my own and so it was a bit of a struggle to get the diff back inside the frame and sitting in the right place. The MC jack helped a lot, that, two hands and a foot. Bolted it down with the strengthened front bracket and two rear mounting bolts. Then it was time to attach the two output shafts to the diff and torque up the M8 torx bolts. Then the propeller shaft bolted on with 4 M10 bolts. 

Because I replaced the rear nearside wheel bearing I also had to put back the hub assembly, inserting the output shaft through the hub and tightening the hub nut to drag it through as far as possible before tightening the mounting bolts. Once that was done I could put the disc back on and then the brake caliper.

I'll drive it for a few km's and then tighten up the hub nut as well as shafts bolts, diff bolts etc.

Here's the limited slip diff bolted in place. There are a few cables to clean up and then the rear cover can be put back. There's no fuse that cuts voltage to the fuel pump so I'm thinking of adding a cut-off so it's easy to work on the engine and check compression etc. without having to remove the rear carpet, rear panel etc. to unplug the leads to the pump.

Update: I added rivnuts to the rear panel as well as the one covering the tank. Quite a nice solution although I overdid it with the number of them but that was because I originally over did it with the rivets!

Boot carpet will cover it all anyway.

A little cold at -1 but anyway took the car out for a quick spin around the block to warm her up and check the diff and installation. No chance to put the diff through it's paces, that'll have to wait for dry and above +5. Great to get the little car out before the snow comes.  Hopefully the weekend will be nice enough for a drive to Rosenhill. Maybe I need to put the winter tyres on beforehand though.

 

Snow arrived, jobs no way finished

Well it wasn't long before snow fell. Wasn't a lot but covered the ground with a centimeter. Doesn't really matter as the jobs aren't complete anyway. 

I got the new rear wheel bearing in place. The final part of the bearing I pressed in using the locking ring which I had put in place to know exactly how far to press. Once part of the ring slipped into the groove I knew it was far enough.

Removed the boot carpet and cover revealing the petrol tank and cover for diff, reversing light control box etc. It's been off and on so many times I should use riv nuts instead - I'll put it on the to-do list! 

Then it was on to removing the drive shaft and half shafts. They all came off comparatively easy. Then it was a case of lifting out the diff but which way?

The offside half shaft removed (left hand drive)

I twisted it around and started to drop it out under the car between the chassis frame, not easy as it's pretty heavy. Use the motorcycle lift to gradually lower it. BUT hit a problem when I found out the diff was approx. 3mm too wide so got stuck in the frame! What to do? It wouldn't go out through the top because of hand brake cables, wires etc. not out of the side because of the rear suspension mount bolts were put in as advised, facing forward which meant they couldn't be removed because the tank was in the way! Then started emptying the tank of 20 litres of fuel (should have used it up before I took it off the road I hear you say!) but gave up as it's very time consuming to then remove the tank mounts, tank etc.

I then decided it was possible to grind the diff case very slightly where the case joined the rear diff cover without any damage to its integrity. Did several passes to only take away the minimum required (see arrow)

Lowered nice and gently on the MC lift.

Comparison check between original on the left and the LSD. I had an idea it was a medium case but gambled it was small when comparing photos from the ebay advert.

Looks good

Ground down approx. 3mm from the new case, hopefully it's enough to get it through the frame!

Wire brushed all the flaking paint away and then painted with rust remover.

Aluminium and black engine paint plus replaced gasket, drain and fill plugs and seals as well as sensor seal and retaining ring. Then torqued up the bolts. Also swapped the diff sensor with the new one I bought a couple of years ago. 

Looks nice and clean. Next step is to refill with LSD diff oil and get it back into position in the car ....

... To be on the safe side and recommended by the BMW parts department I bought a tube of Loctite 5970, opened the case again and put it on both parts of the diff with the gasket in between. Then tightened to 70nm which wasn't mentioned in the workshop manual but I decided it should probably be around that. Tightened up the drain plug to 70nm, layed the diff flat on the bench and filled with approx. 1.1 litres of Limited Slip oil 75W-140

Swedish price about £25 a litre.

Just up to the filler.

As a matter of interest and while I could get to the fuel pump connector I tested the engine compression.

Directly after I rebuilt the engine:

Compression after running engine was:

Cylinder 1 = 16 bar (232 PSI)

Cylinder 2 = 15 bar (217)

Cylinder 3 = 16 bar (232)

Cylinder 4 = 15 bar (217)

After 3000km it looks like this:

Compression with warm engine:

Cylinder 1 = 16 bar (232 PSI)

Cylinder 2 = 16.2 bar (235)

Cylinder 3 = 16 bar (232)

Cylinder 4 = 16 bar (232)

So I would say it looks very good.

Winter Jobs started

Hi and welcome. 

As the weather has been going downhill for the last month the road trips have become quite rare. I even have to put the battery on charge as the small number of ancillaries, clock etc. seem to drain the battery after 2 weeks. After having a great deal of fun doing a days Caterham drifting course down at Nürburgring at the beginning of October I decided to buy a limited slip diff. Checked around and with  the help of Dave found one on ebay.de in Germany. It’s a 3,45 25% lsd  from a BMW 320i.

Markings: S=LSD 3,45 Ratio

I presumed my current one was a medium case but turned out it’s small. Anyway I received it within 5 days and started cleaning it up, ready to replace any parts that looked worn. It actually looks great so will only replace oil, drain plug washer etc. Speed sensor is cracked so will take the one from by old diff. 

Looks pretty old and rusty, well it would I suppose. A lick of paint will help.

Took it to the local car wash for a jet clean.

Speed sensor and retaining plate will be replaced.

Internals look very good so I won't change anything and run it for a while.

Will check for oil leaks once it's been in the car a while.

While checking for a noise and a wobbly ride I've been noticing for quite a few months I realised it was the nearside rear bearing that was worn badly. I pressed this in myself almost 7 years ago. Replaced the offside 3 years ago as it was damaged. So looks like I may have over done this one too during pressing it in.

Off again!

Just have to look through the blog to see what I did last time! 

Ordered diff parts from BMW so hopefully in the next few week or so the "new" diff and new bearing will be in the car and I'll have some time to try it out before snow arrives :-)

Drifting attempt

While on a business trip to Frankfurt I took the opportunity to drive over to Nürburg which took about 2 hours. Stayed the night in an Airbnb and then spent whole of the next day at Nürburgring doing a Caterham drifting course. A fairly good day of driving around cones on a parking lot. It could have been better with less people. Too many people, ie 20 + with just two cars meant that there was an hour wait between driving. I would estimate that I drove around the track approximately 16 times, each lap taking around 45 seconds. At 295€ it would have been better and more worthwhile with more one-on-one tuition. There were possibilities to get last minute tips while the safety belt and steering wheel were put in place but nothing noteworthy. 

Another aspect that was not so good was the scoring based only on time only and not on style. The idea, at least for me, was to learn how to drift and not get around the track as fast as possible. Of course with professional drifting one can do that but not while one is learning. Anyway it still made me decide to get my little car kitted out with an LSD.

Besiktning (MOT) again

Well it was time again for this year’s MOT test. The rules have now been changed so instead of the yearly check which had to be done during a particular period of the year depending on the last digit in the registration number, it can be done at any time but no longer than 14months since the last successful test. 

Anyway the weather was forecast to be good on Friday but typically it was wrong and it rained! Had to drive there with the soft top on, which wasn’t an issue for me but was for the guy who was testing the car. As other small car owners will know there is not a great deal of space to get in or out and this space is halved when the roof is on. Not going into too many details it wasn’t easy for the guy to drive it let alone get in and out.

Brakes were very even.

One point that did annoy me was it almost failed on the rear lights not being reflective. The technician said “you’re going to have to add two reflectors on the rear”. I said it has passed every test over the last 6 years so how come it fails today! “No idea, but you have to do it!” Another test guy tries with a different torch and says “It has reflectors, look!”. Problem was the first guy had a dodgy batteries in his torch! Nearly failed because of that!

Nice and clean under here!

Anyway everything on it passed so that was a relief for another 14 months. Actually I wasn’t really expecting it to fail. It’s well looked after and I always replace parts that show any signs of wear. Quite a few things changed last winter so it’s basically good for a couple of years.

Well that was summer ...

Hi, it's been a long time since I was online so I thought  I'd let you know that the car passed the MOT back in March. The car was 5 months late from last year so it received a körförbud ie. it was not allowed on the road (officially). Finally the weather turned for the better in March so I could drive it to the MOT station. It passed with flying colours. But because of the late MOT it means the next one has to be done in the next 6 weeks. Actually have it booked in on Friday so fingers crossed.

It has been running really well since the last tune up and the fuel consumption has improved greatly. The supercharger screams exactly as it should when accelerating hard and it fly’s just like it should with a few extra HP! I didn’t have so much  time to drive it over the summer, no long trips this year but one never knows what’s going to happen next year. Nothing planned at the moment for winter projects. A little paint required here and there. The Prosport dials could be changed but nothing else that really requires attention. It’s been a short season when it comes to driving so I don’t feel the need to strip it down and do major jobs; I’m only longing for the spring again!

Snow stops MOT

Hi, After spending  a few hours fixing the last challenges and then polishing the whole car, I didn't want to go out wet roads to get the MOT done. It's still around zero with more snow last night so I'll have to leave it for the time being.

The roll bar is back from Dambo lak and bolted in place. It was cleaned up, rust removed and then freshly powder coated - looks great. I then took the silencer to get polished up as it was really affected by the over-heating that has been occurring. Hopefully now the engine is  rebuilt and the tuning done it'll keep looking bright and shiny longer.

Roll bar looking good. Should it be chromed I wonder?

Exhaust looks much better now. Hope it lasts!

Console in place with the new oil temperature gauge which works great, hovering about 100-110oC but haven't put the car through its paces yet. As mentioned I would like to change all the dials to white background to be more visible during sunny days. They won't be Pro-Sport. 

I also added a line of silicon between the front wings and the mud flaps to stop water etc. running between them, that way the mud flaps stay cleaner longer. 

Itching to get out and drive it but realise, like building the car, a lot of patience is required! The weather actually improved on yesterday so took a drive to a Drop-In MOT station but they had no time. Ian and I went for a spin to Rose instead. Have an MOT time on Wednesday this week, see how that goes, as well as the weather :-)

Getting close to the MOT (Besiktning)

We have had a couple of beautiful sunny days, a sign of impending Spring. Complete blue skies and the almost forgotten warmth of the sun, it's my favourite time of the year. I was out last Sunday for the first drive of the year and the first drive since I took it off the road in October. A friend helped me with bleeding the brakes, putting in the passenger carpet and seat back in place and then it was time for a spin. "Oh what a feelin' " Temperature was around 0 degrees but very much bearable. 

Realised a few things needed fixing before the MOT. Steering wheel was not centred so indicator was not cancelling correctly. Brakes needed an extra bleed so Fredrik and I did that during the week. Windscreen wiper motor and spindles were in place but forgot the blades! 

During the week there was snow and chill that froze it to ice. No chance in driving so fixed the problems yesterday. But wasn't bad enough to stop me taking a drive to Rosenhill.

Took her for a car wash, always looks great afterwards.

Something was wrong though as no fuel gauge, rev counter, windscreen wipers were behaving eratically and no reversing light. Turned out that I had blown a fuse while putting on the wiper blades; they got stuck while testing them. Quick change of fuse and all was back working again.

Also put the winter tyres on as it was zero. Had a great coffee and sandwich at Rosenhill but no motorbikes, cylists or other enthusiast cars there yet. Another month or so perhaps.

Now it's all ready for the MOT, hopefully in the next couple of weeks and hopefully there won't be any problems.

A few more fixes

I've taken things slow and easy since the last update. The offside rear caliper had to be cleaned up and opened to be able to get the new disk between the brakes shoes.

The piston had to be screwed out to be able to clean it up.

Finally out

When putting the piston back put the sealing ring on first

Then push the skirt of the seal into the groove of the piston housing, while the main part of the seal is still around the piston.

Once it's located onto the bolt, gradually turn it clockwise.

Almost in

New pads in place ready to put back. Handbrake arm on the right.

Trying to tidy up some of the spagetti wiring. Maybe I mentioned this before but if I had my time again, I'd redo the whole lot!

Spagetti from another angle

Wanted to have a way of checking the oil temperature so decided to add a Y-Adapter-M12x15-x-M12x15-x-18-NPT to allow the original pressure sensor along side the temp sensor.

The first stage of putting in an oil temperature gauge. The brass Y-adapter goes in place of the oil pressure sensor.

The temperature sensor was quite long so had to drill out the adapter a little to accomodate it.

Pressure sensor goes back in. Had to remove the inlet manifold and SC to be able to reach the outlet for the pressure gauge.

Very little space for the adapter so it had to be put in place before the sensors were screwed in. Had to add two brass washers so the adapter when tightened, ended up facing the right way.

Temperature sensor in and wired up. Now have to put the SC etc back on - for the 10th time!

The oil temperature gauge is not great but better than the Prosport gauges. They were quite expensive for all of them and now after only a few years the plastic covering the displays is scratched so all difficult to read. It's not like I haven't taken care of them. Maybe next winter I'll invest in real glass gauges. 

Front offside steering and new brake disk and caliper in place.

I finally removed the MAF and replaced with a straight pipe to the airfilter. MAF not needed anymore because of the new setup, temp sensor and vacuum sensor on the inlet manifold as well as the after market ECU.

Added plugs and sockets so the console can be removed easily

Gradually putting bits back.