kalum
Part of things
Posts: 30
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Love what you're doing to the car. It's been a great read. I'd love to get myself one of these one day.
Gutted how you keep getting messed around with these companies. Its a wonder how they stay in business with service like that.
Good luck with the MOT and the engine swap!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Aug 19, 2017 14:07:22 GMT
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Love what you're doing to the car. It's been a great read. I'd love to get myself one of these one day. Gutted how you keep getting messed around with these companies. Its a wonder how they stay in business with service like that. Good luck with the MOT and the engine swap! Thank you Its becoming an all too common occurrence sadly, I don't know if others have the same issues but it can be a right pain trying to find good bodyshops/garages etc. sometimes , its just pushing me to do more work myself on the cars really
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Aug 29, 2017 22:31:39 GMT
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Quick update Car now has an MOT Couple of advisories on front tyre wear (annoying as all the suspension had been changed and it was tracked!) and some rear bush wear which I'll take care of with the upcoming engine etc. swap. Since getting it back I've swapped a few of the black interior items in to get them out of the way in the house really. This photo does a terrible job of showing some of the bits I've changed.. In there are the black overhead handles, interior light and sunvisors.. Having seen the state of the headlining up close, I think I will take the opportunity to re-cover it as its just beginning to lift in some places. I'll also need to have it down to run the wiring up for the auto dim mirror and sunvisor lights (once I've removed the wiring from the 525i) Also just in the pic, I've now fitted the sports wood to the front doors as well Theres only two more bits of wood to change, theres a small piece on the centre console which is a bit of a pain to do and then theres the gearstick surround. I'm currently researching ways to re-lacquer this as its really scratched up and quite matte almost. I had a bit more of a crack on the 525i yesterday and got the dashboard out and removed the old aftermarket alarm. Next job will be heater out so I can choose between the two I have to go in the 520i (yeah remember that A/C retrofit idea from months ago? nah me neither...) then wiring out and god forbid, engine out. It's been taking me a while but had a bit of a drop in motivation to be honest. Now that the RX-7 is heading towards being sold, it'll free up some space and funds to be spent on this. First thing I'll be spending on is dragging out the rear subframe I have in the garage and giving it a paint up and polybush throughout which should be fun Hopefully lots of updates and exciting stuff to come!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 4, 2017 21:55:53 GMT
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Another quick update Got the RT centre caps back last week, the colour match isn't 100% with the alloy centres but I'm going to go with them for now and see how I get on. Tyres should be getting swapped on Wednesday so I will be sure to take many photos! Gave the pair of dailies a quick wash the other day, don't look too bad from a distance Once you get closer however, the odd bits reveal themselves.. The bubbling on the front wing has been slowly growing for some time I think. I'll keep an eye on it for now, don't really want to be throwing more bodywork money at the car right now. Although the front bumper is terrible for stone chips now so I'll think about saving up for a tidy up.. Something else I've been working on is sorting some winter wheels for the car as the RT's will not like salt and the flat stars will be being sold. Currently trying to sort some scrap roller wheels so I can get the sport 15" BBS off the 525i. In the meantime though I've made a start on the centre caps Going from this sort of thing To this Was only a quick job and the badges are cheapy imitations but they've turned out alright I reckon, should mean I can keep the car looking vaguely respectable through winter ;P
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 7, 2017 17:40:55 GMT
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 17, 2017 18:33:15 GMT
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Small update time Since fitting the new wheels (and getting rid of the 5mm shim style spacers) I've noticed that the 55mph steering wheel shimmy has gone! Which is a very welcome bonus Looking at the old wheels as I prepare to sell them, I notice that some of the wheel weights appear to be missing, which may be a contributing factor along with the spacers.. When I do come to spacing out the RT's, I'll invest in some hubcetric spacers, just to be sure. In actual work news, I dragged the spare 525i rear subframe out of the garage I bought this ages ago, its from a 525i Touring which I also took a load of AC parts from. The 525i has a different rear subframe to the 520i as it's designed to take the extra power. I could have dropped the subframe from the Sport, but it would be a big effort and would render the Sport shell immobile. So I can build up this spare subframe separately and slot it straight into the 520i when its ready. I've made a start on pulling off the calipers, discs and Anti roll bar. I also tried to get the pitman arm 'dogbones' off but I need to get a breaker bar as they're on tight! My plans for the rear subframe are to strip it right down, paint it and the trailing arms, then build up with new bushes, probably going to go for polybushes for the main mounting bushes, and rubber for the trailing arms, not sure yet. I'm considering a brake upgrade if I can find some 540i rears as these can come in vented form which would be nice. I'll be swapping in the LSD from the Sport and I'll also swap over the thicker ARB from the Sport. I'll probably get some braided brake hoses as well but I'm not sure about the lines, whether it will be possible to use the ones from the 520i if they're in good condition
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,251
Club RR Member Number: 160
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03Rich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Sept 17, 2017 18:44:46 GMT
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Pitman arms? Not on the rear.. Good work, it's nice to be able to build up a fresh 'whatever' on the floor ready to do a swap complete.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 17, 2017 18:58:10 GMT
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Pitman arms? Not on the rear.. Yeah I was thinking its not right either.. But even BMW themselves seem to refer to them as pitman arms, unless its a translation issue?
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,251
Club RR Member Number: 160
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03Rich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Sept 17, 2017 19:40:17 GMT
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Odd translation issue but I can't see what it even does. Looks like a little link that joins the trailing arm to the subframe in an odd way?
ETA Wonder if it's some kind of passive rear steering, hence BMW calling it a pitman arm?
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Last Edit: Sept 17, 2017 19:41:14 GMT by Rich
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 18, 2017 8:29:43 GMT
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According to the internets, they serve to limit the lateral movement of the trailing arms as they move up and down, which keeps the toe geometry in check
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,251
Club RR Member Number: 160
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03Rich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Sept 18, 2017 11:05:07 GMT
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Nice, sounds like someone has thought about that. Makes sense that they are nonsensically called pitman arms.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Sept 19, 2017 20:19:21 GMT
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I think the E32s also have those "Pitman arms" too ; they can be responsible for wheel shimmy too I understand. It's good to see some progress on this. Love what you're doing to the car. It's been a great read. I'd love to get myself one of these one day. Gutted how you keep getting messed around with these companies. Its a wonder how they stay in business with service like that. Good luck with the MOT and the engine swap! Thank you Its becoming an all too common occurrence sadly, I don't know if others have the same issues but it can be a right pain trying to find good bodyshops/garages etc. sometimes , its just pushing me to do more work myself on the cars really In the past I've had issues with certain bodyshops. I now go to a bloke who is known for being a little pricier. But I do seem to get less broken by him and a car that works right when it comes out to be fair and he's always stuck to or beaten his timescales. I used to use a place that was cheapish but they could never seem to contain overspray ; in the case of my Stag the underside of the car (including my new steering rack, lower arms and the inside of the tyres became a little white as did the shafts of my KWv3s on my 944 Turbo; with the latter the conversation may have been heated... Don't worry about the mojo count, it'll come back. FWIW I came very very close to selling my M3 a few months ago ; it went wrong a bit and it was becoming a royal money pit, enough for me to consider buying an end of line Fiesta ST on finance. I would love to say I was joking on the last part but it really got me to the end of my tether. As some silly singer said, keep the faith .
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 19, 2017 21:47:44 GMT
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I think the E32s also have those "Pitman arms" too ; they can be responsible for wheel shimmy too I understand. It's good to see some progress on this. Thank you Its becoming an all too common occurrence sadly, I don't know if others have the same issues but it can be a right pain trying to find good bodyshops/garages etc. sometimes , its just pushing me to do more work myself on the cars really In the past I've had issues with certain bodyshops. I now go to a bloke who is known for being a little pricier. But I do seem to get less broken by him and a car that works right when it comes out to be fair and he's always stuck to or beaten his timescales. I used to use a place that was cheapish but they could never seem to contain overspray ; in the case of my Stag the underside of the car (including my new steering rack, lower arms and the inside of the tyres became a little white as did the shafts of my KWv3s on my 944 Turbo; with the latter the conversation may have been heated... Don't worry about the mojo count, it'll come back. FWIW I came very very close to selling my M3 a few months ago ; it went wrong a bit and it was becoming a royal money pit, enough for me to consider buying an end of line Fiesta ST on finance. I would love to say I was joking on the last part but it really got me to the end of my tether. As some silly singer said, keep the faith . Sounds entirely likely, I think the E32 and E34 are fairly similar in suspension design, although its usually the front end stuff thats to blame for shimmy, including the 'real' pitman arm! When it comes to tidying up the BMW paintwork I may give you a shout re: bodyshops if you've got a guy who's good. After all the trials and tribulations I'll be happy to spend a little more to get a good job done thats for sure Mojo has returned somewhat, having the RX7 returning to a usable state has helped with that although I really need someone to buy the thing so I can make progress more quickly on the BMW, even just pricing up bushes and cv boots etc. for the rear axle soon starts to build the cost up...
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Sept 19, 2017 22:13:26 GMT
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FWIW when I changed the rear subframe bushes for SuperPro items the entire drive of my E46 was transformed. While it was a pricey job that I did as I was reinforcing the Rear Axle Carrier Panel (RACP) it certainly felt worth it! Tramlining stopped completely, throttle response strangely felt sharper and I trusted the car alot more than I ever did.
Downsides? I do have a little more drivetrain noise/vibration when accelerating. I don't know if this is down to the bushes or becuase the back of the car was disturbed ; I'd be lying if I said it was dead silent before, but some friends don't even notice it! I'd have hope by going for the SuperPro items it would not have been case. Bar that slight increase in vibration it's one of the 2, maybe 3 best things I'd done on the car.
Long journeys actually felt pleasurable now ; it's a better long distance car now over even the 944 of mine and the MkIV Mondeo 2.5T of my dad's which previously pipped it.
Given that your subframe bushes are older I'd certainly recommend the SuperPro items if they are available, or RevShift/PowerFlex if SP are not.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 20, 2017 21:07:10 GMT
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Right lets try and ride the wave of new found mojo! Breaker bar turned up in the post today so I could crack on with the subframe some more. (After about 5 years now of messing about with old cars, I'm really not sure how or why its taken me this long to get a breaker bar, its a godsend haha) Got the pitmans off first, these are absolutely shagged with loads of play, I'll be interested to see what the ones on my 520i look like when I get the rear subframe off that I had the subframe flipped upside down to get to those, so while I was there I also removed the stubs of old cut off brake hoses The little ball on the arm in the above pic was part of this system Which I believe is the ride height sensor for self levelling rear suspension. As this subframe came from a 525i Touring, SLS would have been fitted as standard. My 520i (along with the 518i and 525td/tds) doesn't get it, which I'm not too sad about really. I like a retrofit, but SLS is one thing I can happily live without The next job was disconnecting the driveshafts from the diff, a bit of a faff this, but once I'd sorted out a little technique to stop the shafts from rotating it wasn't too difficult (breaker bar was certainly required though! Battery rattle gun was no use here) With both shafts unbolted, it was just a case of removing the 3 bolts which hold the diff to the subframe. 1 at the front and 2 at the rear sides of the diff respectively. Its a heavy old thing and rewarded my efforts by having a little leak on the driveway ¬¬ I think next job will be to disconnect the driveshafts at the other end as well as it will be easier to do this with the trailing arms still fitted to the subframe. I also need to drill out the bolts for the ABS sensors as they're rounded, and theres nothing stopping me from removing the trailing arms now either. Brake lines will be discarded and renewed later, brake dirt shields will also be thrown as they're damaged. I also need to look into the best way to remove/install new bushes, a bush puller kit? one of those small garage hydraulic presses?..
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gazjon
Part of things
Posts: 632
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Sept 20, 2017 21:44:51 GMT
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Right lets try and ride the wave of new found mojo! Its a heavy old thing and rewarded my efforts by having a little leak on the driveway ¬¬ I wasn't sure if you meant you or the diff at first lol. Top work and yaay for mojo
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Mk2 Cavalier saloon Mk4 Astra Van z20let
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 20, 2017 21:57:04 GMT
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Right lets try and ride the wave of new found mojo! Its a heavy old thing and rewarded my efforts by having a little leak on the driveway ¬¬ I wasn't sure if you meant you or the diff at first lol. Top work and yaay for mojo
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 24, 2017 16:44:48 GMT
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Made some more good progress on this over the weekend. My main job was grappling with the driveshafts, the issue was stopping the axles turning while I undid the bolts but got there in the end. The bolts to get the trailing arm off were a bit easier thankfully Then today I went back and sorted the other side as well, leaving me with a pretty much bare subframe My plans for this are to give it a good clean, wire brush and then some POR15 to tidy it up. I need to press the mounting bushes out somehow, and I'm thinking of doing the diff mounting bushes as well which will be fun.. Once new bushes are fitted though it will be all ready to go The trailing arms will get a similar treatment although I have a bit more disassembly to do on those as I wrecked the brake dirt shields/backplates when I dragged the whole thing out of the garage... so I'll need to swap some on (probably from the 520i when the time comes) I also made a nice little purchase on ebay in the week, namely this An M tech II steering wheel, quite rare to find these in E34 fitment (although this would also fit in an E36) I haven't put it on just yet, apparently there is a slight mod to the wiring to do to make sure the horn will still work, but it'll be going in very soon
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Sept 29, 2017 15:42:29 GMT
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That wheel will be a lovely touch!
As for the car I wasn't so sure of the looks after seeing this thread ; I have never been the keenest bloke when it comes to aftermarket lights these days. But I didn grow up during the Max Power generation. However it does look good rolling into the workplace!
However, that exhaust is pretty loud! Not bad sounding at all, but certainly not discreet by any stretch!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,867
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Sept 29, 2017 21:24:49 GMT
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That wheel will be a lovely touch! As for the car I wasn't so sure of the looks after seeing this thread ; I have never been the keenest bloke when it comes to aftermarket lights these days. But I didn grow up during the Max Power generation. However it does look good rolling into the workplace! However, that exhaust is pretty loud! Not bad sounding at all, but certainly not discreet by any stretch! Haha yes it is a little loud... The RX7 is quiet by comparison! Its not too bad at motorway speeds but there are certainly a couple resonant frequencies in the rev range that are really quite anti-social
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