1979 BMW E12

Likewise, thanks! I assume you were there for new years eve then. Hope it was a good 'kuier'! Yes this time of year isn't the best, especially if you have to work, I'm not in SA at the moment. I am away quite often so that also makes progress a bit slower than one would like... Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

After reading a few new posts on RR I feel the sudden urge to bring this page up to date as well 

Progress is painful, but I’m back at work so I have some time for internetting and updates for a change. I was only able to spend a few hours working on the car about two weeks ago when I was home so I haven’t made any massive strides...

The mission this time round was to work out where the snag was with the starter and why it wasn’t engaging the ring gear properly. My uncle had a look at the solenoid after the previous failed start attempt late last year and found no real problems other than it needing some lubricant perhaps. So the first task at hand was to put it all back together and give it another go the moment I got back home late in January. So one morning with my wife also sceptically looking on I cranked the starter and with no surprises, the same grinding noise. Still no luck. So pretty disappointed I had to trade the troubleshooting/time consuming tipe of pleasures of car tinkering for resuming renovations and getting our bathrooms sorted. 

Once I had made some progress inside the house and was able to start focussing my attention on the car again, I got in touch with the auto electrician who serviced the starter and alternator a few months ago once more to see if they had time to come and take a look. They didn’t... Next auto electrician please.

After brief consideration of spending hours trying to work out if I had the correct original starter for the car or if the correct ring gear had been refitted or if there were other electrical gremlins I thought it best to get professional assistance instead. I only had a few days left at home so I had to make the most of it. Hat in hand I went to Autolek. The guy there, Benjamin asked me to bring the car in but couldn’t promise much as he was pretty high in demand and didn’t really have too much time available. After a few more friendly words exchanged, he offered to come and have a look at home to see if we could make something happen. Not long after or conversation he arrived, did some tests, and concluded that it could only be the starter itself, battery and everything else was A-ok. Phew! Disappointing after spending about R2000 on getting the alternator and starter ‘fixed’ up with the previous bunch. 
Wednesday, two days later Ben is back with the starter in serviceable condition to his satisfaction and we try again. No luck. Still only grinding noises.
Conclusion: The bendix must be incorrect if the ring gear is the original. 

Friday, I get a call from Bennie, he’s managed to source a new modern starter with two different options for the bendix, 24 and 25mm gear. He seems pretty confident that the larger gear will do the trick. So a while later where at it again, new starter in and crank... That was probabaly he nicest thing I’ve heard since my first cars exhaust tone in 3rd on a favourite stretch of uphill tar 15 years ago! But no, she didn’t start - the starter just sounded amazing, like it meant business! I was quite chuffed.

Bennie being the super helpful kind of person he’s turning out to be, then carried on troubleshooting the no-start ailment. First on the list was no fire. When asked about the coil I immediately started to feel like the real novice that I am - realising we may have cooked it on a long and frustrated starting attempt in December. A quick check however reveals it to be serviceable, but weak. So that’ll need replacing too at some stage. Next focus was the plug leads, distributor and points. excessive play on the distributor main shaft meant that the timing wasn’t consistent so he set the points gap a bit wider for the purpose of the test. 

Ben wasn’t happy with the NGK suppressors on the plug leads either so we removed the NGK suppressors on the plug leads and replaced them with the old original Bakelite ones. They had an 8th of the resistance of the ngk ones, so all of a sudden we had spark again.



A quick test start and a slight rotation of the distributor, voila! She starts! But as usual, the excitement was short lived... no videos sorry.



Idling only lasted a few seconds, long enough to advance the distributor and blow off the oil filter again!   After cleaning the worst of the oil spill and topping up the oil, we tried once more to make sure I hadn’t idiotically fitted the filter poorly, but she did it again. So three strikes on the oil filter brings us to the next issue to require some attention. Ben reckons the oil pressure relief valve on the pump is the culprit. That job though will have to wait until April when I get time next.

While skimming over some of my previous posts before writing this one I noticed the snag list which I came up with after the first failed start attempt a few months ago and I realised that most of those, in fact all of them have now been sorted or at least seen a reasonable amount of attention which deem them less head-achey!

Starter sounded terrible -Has now been replaced with new unit.

Alternator questionable /new bushes to stop wobble - New bushes and bolts fitted and alternator serviced. Although wobble is still there it should at least charge the battery for now. New alternator episode to follow 

Old fuel. Fuel tank cap problem - Replacement tank fitted with new fuel lines and clamps. New lock set and fuel cap fitted.

Leaky carburettor - Now serviced and properly set up

Ignition switch broken, hot-wiring for starts isn’t great. - New ignition cables ordered and arrived, waiting to be installed.

That’s all for now.

J

Hey Ken, yes the starter was replaced by a brand new Bosch gear reduction unit. I didn't know such a thing existed. Pretty frustrated seeing as I specifically went to my local Bosch dealership to ask about newer replacement units or rebuilt ones before I went about fixing the old starter and alternator. They just told me no, all I can do is try to find a good second hand one for my car or repair it. Muppets! 

But yes, this gear reduction unit uses about 50% less power compared to the old direct drive starter and its smaller and lighter.

As for the alternator, the one on my car isn't the right one for the car. It doesn't fit the mounting bracket properly and hence the wobble. Either the mounting bracket isn't the original or the bush insert isn't the original because it was cut shorter to fit the bracket. So, I need a new alternator or I need to modify the bracket and then try and extend the bush to its original length... I don't feel up for going through all the trouble of working out what the correct alternator should be and if I need to repair the bush or modify the bracket if I cant find the original part, especially seeing as here in SA we had these cars built as "Completely Knocked Down" kits and most of the time VIN or engine number searches don't deliver much at all, not even at the BMW dealership! I have even taken this up with BMW Germany, but no surprises there either. So I'will try the new alternator route first and then possibly get a complete harness repair and re-wrap done as well to sort out the electrical side of things.

Thanks Ken, that's decent of you, though I'm past that point now. Seeing as there will be a few bits that aren't original, I'm happy to just put a new alternator on and fabricate a new bracket to match. If I get stuck, I'll get back to you!

So I still haven't achieved much here. I was at home in April and didn't get much time for the car, hopefully in the next few weeks I will have a bit more to show...

So Ben had mentioned previously that there was a small possibility the oil filter could be the wrong one and the reason it kept being pushed out. I thought I'd give that idea a go seeing as I didn't have the time to pull the engine and inspect the oil pump. The replacement filter I had bought was of almost identical measurements to the previous GUD filter so I figured it was a waste of time, I couldn't help myself either way though - so I gave it one more shot.



This time though I was better prepared and strapped a grocery bag around the oil filter mount just in case there would be another oil spill to clean up. Well worth the effort then as the bit of oil seen in the clip was almost all that managed to get past my defenses.

So yes now I have triple confirmed that there really is an issue with the oil pump and that is priority number one. Hopefully in about two weeks I'll have some time to see to that.

Subtle, very subtle.

So this is the part of the thread a few posts up that was missing...

Not huge progress but I managed to install and connect up the new ignition cable unit to the lock/barrel under the steering wheel.


Before:

Above, not the best angle, the large shaft running across the image is the steering column. The ignition barrel minus wiring is seen top middle.


So now no more hot wiring starts

During:


After:


Not the best pics, I know. I had tried previously to remove the old barrel/wire connection with no luck. Fortunately Paul gave me a heads up what to look for just a few days before I tackled the job. Inside a tiny wax covered/sealed access hole, was a little grub screw on the side of the casing which held the unit in place. If you know that, then it's a pretty simple task.

I also took the car round for a few quotes at body shops to get the metal work and paint done, only one quote in so far so I'll go see a few more places once she's back on the road and less hassle to move around.







Now were up to date to about two months ago.

More to follow.

Carrying on where I left off then…



That evening I put the battery on charge and topped up the oil the next morning to attempt startup once again. I must say that turning a key feels a lot more civilized than crossing wires to get the engine to turn over.







So there it is finally, she runs! Its not as smooth as it should be, obviously the timing is a bit off but I'm hoping for nothing more major than a dodgy ignition lead.


I didn’t want to start it up immediately again because the oil pressure light wasn’t going out. Fortunately Ben was available to come round and have a look. It turned out only to be wires connected up to the wrong terminals so now the oil pressure light goes out and the alternator is charging as well – small victories but its progress!