1979 BMW E12

Hi, I have a BMW e12 1979 right hand drive automatic, looks the same as yours, I'm looking for a complete brake servo as mine is completely missing from the car, I would really apricate if you can send me any contacts from where I can get this part you can mail me on ;-
ttautocentres@hotmail.co.uk

many thanks Indi.

 

That ute/pick up/bakkie in the back ground has an interesting canopy on it. Anyway I really like your Bimma. It's a great classic model
and they go sooo well. Our 528 of the same vintage in baby poo green was a great car to drive.
Good luck with it

Its been a while since I've updated things here...



Carrying on from where I left off, the only item on the last list that has seen attention was the excessive play on the steering wheel. I ordered a new bush from BMW... The reason for the excessive play can clearly be seen in the top left pic.





After that was sorted, I just tried to get some mileage on the car to run the motor in to start easing up a bit. In the process I found another well experienced mechanic who had lots of wisdom to share.

With my first visit I had two issues which needed attention:

1.The gearbox wasn’t changing over unless I back off on the accelerator.

2. There was also a loud whine coming from the area of the intake manifold.

The gear change issue had to do with the kickdown linkage – unfortunately I cant remember the specifics.

The whine turned out to be suction. The bottom surface of the carb wasn't a 100% flat. Luckily this was easily remedied with a thicker gasket.

Another few hundred kilometers later, I still wasn't happy with the fuel economy and engine felt like it was hesitating, like its not getting fuel or getting flooded when you try and accelerate.

In the mean time I had ordered two more cosmetic bits from a 2nd-hand dealer in Cape Town:




These are just crazy expensive, maybe one day when the paint and everything is all done Ill consider a new grille if there are any available at that stage still!

November last year saw the first 1000kms done and so it was time to do the first service. I took the car back to my newly found local specialist to do that, see to the hesitation and fit the new (old) original style valve cover. It still needs some TLC but time is often a problem nowadays.

After I got the car back from service with new valve cover fitted, and different jets fitted to the carb I noticed a small fuel leak...

Ill make a note here of the new jet sizes when and if I find where I noted it down. The engine seems to be running much smoother now though, so so far its a win.




New oil cap,valve cover and new capnuts to tidy things up...

Funny how things go but in Feb this year my dad was in need of some temporary transport (much like I was 10 years ago and ended up with this car), so I lent him the car for a few months, then lockdown happened. The car is still with him in the Karoo, (again!) but I’m planning a trip in September to go and retrieve it.

Looking at the to-do lists and goals set very early in this thread it seems “Phase 1 – driving and roadworthied” is now done and dusted. I've learned loads so far and hopefully from here on out the driving pleasures will start outweighing the mechanical headaches.

That's all for now.
J

Thanks Matt,

Yes hanging in there, it certainly is a long term relationship.

I really like the colour of that E21, it does look like very neat example. I am also having doubts about going all out on the old 3 speed automatic, not sure why I did that. A 4-speed manual definitely is starting to look attractive, but I do wonder if there aren't any other more modern options for faster highway cruizing. From about 90km/h up the 3 speed doesn't really sound like it wants to give any more go. That's a consideration for a few years from now though, till then the auto will have to do.

J 

November 2020

This was a spin off from the previous altenator bush effort. I decided to ditch the old alternator which clearly wasn’t the original anyway.
After reading through the Zeebuck website link I went out looking for a replacement alternator and found a suitable 80Amp unit out of a 1983 320i


www.zeebuck.com/bimmers/bmvseite/
A few things to work out then to fit this new alternator;

I welded up a very crude bracket at the time to just try and get the pulleys aligned because neither of the brackets I have did that. As we all know temporary fixes often turn into more permanent solutions and here we are almost 3 yrs later... Anyway, the original bracket on my engine is secured by a really long bolt that inserts from the front of the engine and to remove the bracket one needs to first remove the fan/radiator or just the pulley - I don't remember so well anymore but  its a job. I made my bracket with a slot on the bottom mounting hole instead so that I don't have to repeat this whole process every time I want to remove the alternator or bracket for cleaning etc… I'll either get a custom bracket made up or revisit using the bracket that came with it. Hopefully I can get the alternator cleaned up in the next few weeks to wrap up this chapter.

More progress, June 2022 -


Blower motor cleaned up, refitted.



A minor job but still important, it was super dusty in there and it was bugging me that the surface rust on the cover plate (where the hood rubber rubs) - was adorning the engine bay. I removed it and the blower, cleaned it all up and gave it a quick dressing of matt black before closing it up again.


Electronic ignition fitted -






It was mentioned at one point that there is too much play on the distributor (which meant servicing or replacement) and that carb tuning cannot be done properly unless the timing was set more accurately. I was getting quite annoyed by the fact that the car always stinks of fuel even after all that has been done. I thought it good to start with the timing first so I opted for a replacement and went with the 123 Ignition distributor. I have programmed a few curves for the 123 and it definitely has made a huge improvement on idle and performance on the whole. The heavy fuel smell is still there unfortunately and the fuel economy is rubbish. My next thoughts to remedy that is to check fuel pressure and float levels in the carb and if that’s good I’ll start educating myself more on the basics of carb tuning. Perhaps a fuel pressure regulator and return line back to the tank is a solution but more education needed here too.



One afternoon while checking the rocker clearances the new valve cover could finally go on as well so now the picture is starting to come together slowly. With that all now sorted the engine sounds and performs a lot better – albeit the constant smell of fuel.

Some more light work completed in the last few months.

No expensive bits bought or big body shop exercises just yet though.

I have continued cleaning the grille - with all the patch paint that this car has endured over the years there is a lot of overspray on the trim, especially on the grille. I had previously completed the one side of the grille so I thought id better get the other side to match. I used thinners and a rag and rubbed till shiny, now the dull plastic and the paint overspray is mostly gone.

Removed, 




Cleaned up & refitted


The driver’s door was annoying me too. The hinge catch was not catching the door on opening. Seeing as I had already stripped the golden doors I just cleaned and fitted that so long. It's amazing how many little things you find to fix once you start driving more, long term I guess that’s called refining and is what preserves these cars.

Catch comparison


Fitted


I think that’s mostly it for the work done since 2020. Its nothing too major but it is still progress. I continue to enjoy tackling the projects little by little with big ambition and I now have a better picture in mind of where I’m heading with this so that is enough to keep me going.


I think the first phase of the project as set out before is mostly done now –

The engine is back in the car, it runs and drives fairly well, most essential mechanical issues are sorted.

A few minor niggles remain but that should come right as the process continues.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So, I think we are positively into Phase two now.


The main goals are to replace and upgrade components where necessary and start the prep work on the body work before we can move to the third and final phase of the build.



New thoughts

Carb upgrade on the horizon - I have pretty much settled on the single Weber DCOE 45 and Lynx manifold
Aircon upgrade/install - The car used to have an a/c, I still have some components except for the expensive ones! The BluntTech bracket, Sanden 508 compressor and a condenser looks to be what's needed, possibly some new hoses if mine are found to be leaky.
Power steering - A bit more research needed here.

Then once that's done I'd like to;


Source a 5 speed gearbox and do a manual conversion

Engine work – Up the compression and fit a cam that is more suited to fast road car use.

Seats need to be replaced, am hoping to find e28 recarros or e39 sports seats

Metal work is starting to move up on the priority list



That is a rough plan with some nice to haves. The reality will no doubt be different so lets see how we get on with this going forward.

This also ended up in my driveway in August. My grandfathers 1983 W123 230e which has been garaged for most of its life has now been passed on to me.



It will definitely need some TLC, but that'll get its own thread at some point.

Back to the BMW for now...

Fuel consumption and stink;

After much internet based research I decided that fuel pressure has to be the culprit. The fuel pump I installed a few years ago was surley putting out too much fuel however Ive never liked the idea of a noisy electric fuel pump. Now however I think in terms of keeping the engine bay looking more BMW it may have been the better route to go. Be that as it may, I settled on a malpassi filter king regualtor with filter.



I bought a pressure gauge and plumbed it in to confirm my suspicions before installing the FPR and to no surprise, the fuel pressure was way too high!


I flipped this bracket around to make space for the FPR but its still quite crude, though it'll do for now.

Webers only require between 2.5 and 3 Psi but this pump was delivering almost double that at 5.2 Psi. I have a pic somewhere but cant find it now...

So I tweaked the pressure to 2.7 Psi - with an instantly noticeable difference. Smoother idling, no more fuel stink, much improved performance. I wont be surprised if the fuel economy is way better too but I couldn't help but drive with a slightly heavy foot for the first while because the car is just so much more responsive.




Another good result. Finally.