Alpine E30 Convertible Running Log
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I attempted to replace mine and failed. It made no difference so I think the board itself was bad. Welcome to the broken odometer club. I attempted to repair the odometer gears and it ended up working maybe 1 out of every 90 miles.
it makes for some really depressing fuel economy calculations
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I attempted to replace mine and failed. It made no difference so I think the board itself was bad. Welcome to the broken odometer club. I attempted to repair the odometer gears and it ended up working maybe 1 out of every 90 miles.
it makes for some really depressing fuel economy calculations
Yeah, I'm hoping the gear repair works. I've heard some horror stories on the main forums about similar problems to yours, broken motors, new gears stripping after a few miles, etc. I love actually having an odometer though, so I think I'd just go find a used working cluster, change the mileage to match mine, and run with it. Something about seeing the miles tick away...
SI board is way less important, but would be cool to have working.
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I'll pull the cluster to see which gear stripped and get it on order,
I would order the whole odometer gear set. When I took mine apart all of the gears were mushy. If I only replaced one gear it would have failed instantly right away.
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I would order the whole odometer gear set. When I took mine apart all of the gears were mushy. If I only replaced one gear it would have failed instantly right away.
Good to know. Will do. Did the complete replacement get it working correctly again, or did you have issues?
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Good to know. Will do. Did the complete replacement get it working correctly again, or did you have issues?
It worked straightaway. Keep track of the gears as you take them apart - or take a picture before you disassemble. When I replaced my gears I also reset my odometer back to zero to reflect my rebuilt engine since the actual mileage of the car was completely unknown.
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It worked straightaway. Keep track of the gears as you take them apart - or take a picture before you disassemble. When I replaced my gears I also reset my odometer back to zero to reflect my rebuilt engine since the actual mileage of the car was completely unknown.
Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to do that. Where'd you buy the replacements from?
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Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to do that. Where'd you buy the replacements from?
I got mine for garagistic. But I think they’re available from multiple places. Garagistic has them as a nice package and they have a diy on their site for them.
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Replaced the resistor tonight, fan works on all speeds. Success! Except, for some reason, it runs even when the fan speed is set to 0. It sounds like there is a slight speed difference from 1 to 0, makes me think it’s a short somewhere rather than a bad switch or something. Anybody had a similar experience? I think for now I’ll just pull the fuse during the summer when I don’t use the heater to prevent excess wear on the motor, I don’t particularly care to dig through the wiring harness to fix it.
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Replaced the resistor tonight, fan works on all speeds. Success! Except, for some reason, it runs even when the fan speed is set to 0. It sounds like there is a slight speed difference from 1 to 0, makes me think it’s a short somewhere rather than a bad switch or something. Anybody had a similar experience? I think for now I’ll just pull the fuse during the summer when I don’t use the heater to prevent excess wear on the motor, I don’t particularly care to dig through the wiring harness to fix it.
Is the recirc or AC button by chance on? If either of those are pressed, it’ll turn on low speed blower motor (even if your fan is set to 0)
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Is the recirc or AC button by chance on? If either of those are pressed, it’ll turn on low speed blower motor (even if your fan is set to 0)
I'll check that, one of them might be now that I think about it. Thanks!
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Pulled the car out of storage today, it started right on the first turn of the key like always. I ordered the Garagistic odometer gear set this winter and decided to take care of that right away to get an accurate mileage tally for this year. No pics of the removal, but I snapped a few of the busted gears and various inner workings. It looks like someone fried an idiot light and soldered a jumper from the light adjacent to it at some point, but it’s the brake lining light that isn’t working so I’m not going to take the time to fix it.
Broken bulb that someone just left in there:
Broken gears:
Looks like only a few teeth were broken on each gear, but it was more than enough to jam everything up. The motor gear was by far the worst of the three.
New gears installed:
Spittin’ chiclets:
The only mildly difficult part of the job was removing the brass sleeve that was press fit onto the motor shaft. This required patience as to not wreck the motor (hopefully I didn’t, I haven’t tested yet), but it eventually came off using a side cutters and needle nose to crush the bushing at 90 degree angles until it loosened and slipped off.
I tried my best to push as little as possible when installing the new drive gear, but we’ll see if I wrecked it tomorrow.
Other than that, it’s just nice to have it back on the road. I forgot how sharp and light it feels compared to the e34, it’s a blast and still never fails to put a smile on my face. Solid FCAB’s and a manual swap are next on the project list, although the swap probably won’t happen until this fall or winter. I’ll replace the fuel tank, some brake lines and subframe bushings while I’m in there as well. I’ve been eyeing a Continental/VDO head unit as well, the current craptastic JVC is on its last legs.
See y’all at the picnic!
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It verks! Back to ticking away the miles. The check light in the cluster along with the ABS light both work now too, which is cool. Only took a decade
.Put a little over a hundred miles on it today while heading up to Devil’s lake to hike, did about 10 miles there in a little over four hours. It was an absolutely perfect day for it too.
In other news, my brother picked up a 1970 Honda CL100 for $20 last year, and has been getting it running and back into streetable shape when he has the time for it. Tonight he got around to pulling the piston and cylinder, and figured out what the source of his oil consumption was. This is the compression ring, and he said it was all still in there thankfully. Bore isn’t scored either, I’m amazing it ran as well as it did like this.
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It verks! Back to ticking away the miles. The check light in the cluster along with the ABS light both work now too, which is cool. Only took a decade
.Put a little over a hundred miles on it today while heading up to Devil’s lake to hike, did about 10 miles there in a little over four hours. It was an absolutely perfect day for it too.
In other news, my brother picked up a 1970 Honda CL100 for $20 last year, and has been getting it running and back into streetable shape when he has the time for it. Tonight he got around to pulling the piston and cylinder, and figured out what the source of his oil consumption was. This is the compression ring, and he said it was all still in there thankfully. Bore isn’t scored either, I’m amazing it ran as well as it did like this.
It converted itself to 2 stroke! Keeps the skeeters away.
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Recently rolled past 201,000 miles. I haven’t been driving this as much as I should, but I haven’t been keeping it at my apartment and time to drive it is not as available as I’d like.
About a month ago I installed the lowering springs and sport shocks I picked up from @timmer at the e30 picnic (thanks again!), and I’m really digging the new height and ride.
Definitely firm, but not overly harsh or bouncy and very go-kart like. It’s a blast and so responsive, but I’ve been struggling with how low the oil pan now sits (truthfully, most of the reason I haven’t driven it much) so I decided to grab a skid plate from HIKFab thru bimmerworld along with a muffler hanger kit and some fresh front wheel bearings. If anyone here is capable with a welder and would be willing to install the skidplate for me, I would happily compensate you for it.
All that stuff will go on in a few weeks, and I’ll be (hopefully) back and ready to go for peak driving season. Then, it’ll be back apart for a new fuel tank, manual trans swap, diff swap, and subframe bushing replacement this winter.
Speaking of, if anyone has a lead on garage space or a decent storage facility that is preferably in the greater MKE area, let me know. I can make Madison work too, but the closer to Pewaukee the better. Heated and with electric would be a plus, but not necessary. Would rent year round and use for storage and wrenching.
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For oil pan protection I went down the route of:
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For oil pan protection I went down the route of:
I’ve always wanted to try an X-brace to see if it would tighten up the car a little bit, maybe I’ll get one after the skidplate is installed and see if it fits. Did you notice a difference? If they won’t work together, I might try my hand a fabricating my own brace around the plate.
Right now the oil pan protection is a higher priority, with how much driving I do on broken pavement and unpredictable surfaces I need to have that peace of mind. I wince every time I drive over a large pavement heave or even a slightly protruding manhole cover now, and that sucks. I don’t want to have to care as much and just drive the damn thing.
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