Alpine E30 Convertible Running Log
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https://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi
looks like the closest trans is in Iowa. If it really is out of a 52k mi car id consider that being worth the $850 price tag… not many listed right now and they’re all that expensive. Idk what people are asking for swap kits these days but it used to be $800 for everything all day long.
I think I told you I took inventory of the vins at Gibson’s, I’ll go throw those in the junk yard thread. I know there was 1 or two e30’s this past fall. Honestly I would just find a trans, pedal box and driveshaft and order everything else new. Maybe a good used flywheel too but I wouldn’t bother with used clutch hydraulics.
That was the plan, no sense in putting anything but new hydraulics and clutch components in there. I was going to find a stock single mass and get it resurfaced/lightened, and then get a used driveshaft, trans, pedal box and trans brace. You’re telling me, I found one in Waukesha for altogether too much money and one in Detroit for a more reasonable price. Definitely let me know the VIN’s for the cars at Gibson’s, might get lucky there.
@P_Roloff I will have the entire pedal assembly from my car in the next few days once I finish up my pedal swap. Its out of the car already, but I want to make sure everything works before I sell it all off.
Noted, I’m seeing that airbag and non airbag pedalboxes are pretty different but if anyone here can confirm that the clutch pedal swaps over, I might be game.
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I really suck at taking photos…
Subframe is completely removed from the car as of today. Getting the aluminum sleeves of the bushings out of the body was a struggle, the drivers side wouldn’t budge using the standard lag bolt and 1/2” rod method, and I ended up snapping the top section of the sleeve off inside the bore in the body. 5 minutes with the trusty Milwaukee die grinder and the broken piece was out, and the other sleeve eventually popped loose after driving in the lag bolt and hitting the bolt head side to side until it released from the bore. Had a heck of a time getting the subframe down off of the driveshaft as well, but it’s done, and now the real fun can start!
I sourced a full manual swap kit already, hoping to get it within the month as the guy I’m buying from has yet to remove it from the parts car. I’ll be getting the stock single mass lightened and resurfaced before install, does anyone have firsthand experience with a good target weight and local shops to have the work done at?
Otherwise, next items on the list are installing the new subframe bushings and diff, pulling the driveshaft, exhaust, and fuel tank, and then the trans can come out. Hoping to get to that later this week or this weekend, we’ll see how things go. I’m generally just excited to be making progress, my goal is to be finished in early April so I have a solid month to shake the car down before heading to NC in late May.
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I had an m20 flywheel lightened, resurfaced, and balanced by C&S in Butler.
it wasnt cheap, but machining the ring off the back of the flywheel gets you somewhere close to 13 lb.
You will have gear rattle in neutral but it revs nice
Good to know. Is this the infamous getrag rattle I always hear about? It’s just an annoying noise and not indicative of anything worse correct?
@MattY and I had the same experience on the calypso coupe. Lag bolt trick worked on one side and had to cut out another.
I was expecting worse to be honest. After I broke the first one I figured the second would be the same regardless of strategy so I just whacked the lag bolt back and forth underneath to save time and it just popped out clean. I was also surprised at how little time it took to get the busted aluminum piece out, other people must’ve been using chisels and drills or something. A couple burr bits was all it took for me.
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Good to know. Is this the infamous getrag rattle I always hear about? It’s just an annoying noise and not indicative of anything worse correct?
yes, you will get gear rattle in any gearbox when you have a lightweight single mass flywheel. It is an inevitability. Multiplate clutches make their own weird noises. Manual transmissions always have and always will be just a little bit clunky in certain conditions. I was always curious to see if Redline shockproof oil would cushion the gears and reduce the noise. Ultimately its the same reason why it’s stupid to run a solid flex disk or “guibo” which the entire damn world spells incorrectly and I will never forgive them. Lets all agree to call it a flex disk and never say anything that rhymes with guido.
Engine power output is in pulses and the deceleration between pulses opens up the gear lash. This is less prominent with a heavier flywheel as there is less deceleration between pulses. It’s happening in every gearbox, just less noticable/audible. The dual mass flywheel eliminates this.
Embrace the fact that its manual. Dont expect perfection. Install a really good shifter, freshen up everything you can, and make the experience of rowing gears as magical as it can be.
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Slow progress is still progress! Work has been nuts for me lately, but I found some time today to get out to do some work on the car. Managed to get the diff disconnected from the subframe (confirming in the process that the existing diff is FUDGED), and got the old subframe bushings out and the new poly ones in. I knew the diff had a shot I out bearing, but upon turning the output flanges it appears that the gears or bearings in the carrier are roached, it’s super chunky and has a lot of resistance to movement. Kinda curious how much fluid is actually left in it, but not looking forward to the smell when I find out. Should make a good welded diff at any rate. Old crusty stuff:
New nice stuff (including the 3.73 LSD I bought from @rampelsauce:
Thanks to @YoungCR, I had the correct tools for the job, the right puller made this pretty pain-free. I used a torch to heat up the bushings from the outside and just applied force with the pusher until they popped out. One bushing was pretty cracked and deteriorated but stayed in one piece, while the other was completely torn in two. The new bushings should make a huge difference after seeing that, and thank goodness for the easy install of poly!
I can’t remember if I updated here, but I picked up a full manual swap a few weeks ago from a local guy. I ended up paying more than I thought it was all worth especially considering condition, but I really want to get this back on the road quickly so sacrificed had to be made. I discovered however that the driveshaft u-joints were borked after I got home that night, and thankfully after some coaxing the seller gave me a refund on that (sold it all to me as good-condition, working, no issues with anything for a price that reflected it, so I was I think justifiably a little upset about it). So I’m still looking for a good g260 manual driveshaft if anyone has one laying around. And before anyone asks, yes, I’m planning to reseal the G260 before installing. Seller claimed that it shifted well and didn’t suffer from any grinding or gear pop-outs, so fingers crossed that’s actually the case.
Other random news: scored a console with a Husco armrest for $10 the other night along with some sweet e34 parts, excited about that! It needs the cover replaced but I believe replacements can be sourced; otherwise, I have family that does upholstery so I could potentially go that route too. (E34 parts were rear headrests and a power rear sunshade if anyone cares)
Next on the list: Drop the exhaust and driveshaft, then pull the fuel tank and replace. Then, it’ll be on to removing the trans and starting to put things back together.
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Edit: ignore me on the diff studs I see them now lol
Any plans to replace the clutches in the diff while it’s out?
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Edit: ignore me on the diff studs I see them now lol
Any plans to replace the clutches in the diff while it’s out?
No plans as of right now. I plan to check breakaway torque while it’s out, and if it’s poor I’ll drop it and rebuild it later. I truthfully bought it more for the ratio and overall condition, and I really don’t need to spend more time/money on it right now when there’s so much else to get back together. Now that all the fasteners are fresh it should be relatively easy to drop if needed.
Still looking for a good used driveshaft for this swap (hint hint nudge nudge, if any of you hoarders have one let me know), and stumbled upon this:
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/bmw,1990,325i,2.5l+l6,1011700,drivetrain,drive+shaft,2308
Just slightly more expensive than the rebuild services for a stock driveshaft, and from a little digging they appear to have serviceable u-joints as well. I’m almost thinking I should just grab this and be done with it, any thoughts?
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If it has serviceable unjoints and is less than a rebuild, the cost over a used driveshaft seems worth the investment to me if you can swing it now. Rebuilds will be far cheaper.
also forgot to reply sooner but glad the bushing job wasn’t too much of a pain! Really surprised one came out in one piece for you.
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If it has serviceable unjoints and is less than a rebuild, the cost over a used driveshaft seems worth the investment to me if you can swing it now. Rebuilds will be far cheaper.
also forgot to reply sooner but glad the bushing job wasn’t too much of a pain! Really surprised one came out in one piece for you.
That’s my thought. I think it’d just be worth not having to worry about them for a long time, even finding a used one in any condition right now is tough.
Yeah, it went super smooth! Glad I got the practice run with the e30 bushings outside the car, I think this spring I’ll be doing the e34 ones but potentially leaving the subframe in the car to do it. I’m a bit torn, I’m not sure if I want to pull the whole subframe and do RTAB’s at the same time. I’ll already have the struts off as well… decisions, decisions.
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The first of the parts are showing up! Still need to place my order with FCP for the bulk of the manual transmission items (clutch, master, slave, etc.) but ordered my DSSR and selector today joint from Ireland engineering, driveshaft, clutch pivot pin and fuel tank from Rockauto, trans mounts from AKG, and shifter stuff from McMaster. Shooting to fab that up this weekend with the help of @m42b32’s excellent write up, I drove his car last year and fell in love with the shifter enough that I had to have my own. Also, the price of OEM shift levers seems to have increased significantly, and I see no reason to spend more for an inferior end result.
Anywho, the fuel tank showed up today, and I thought I would give my initial impressions since I really haven’t seen much info online about the tank I bought. If anyone has looked recently on Rockauto, the Spectra tank that seems to be the first choice is out of stock, with the only available option being from Liland Global. Didn’t have much choice, so bit the bullet.
Packaging was kinda shitty, no bubble wrap or protection but other than a few bent tabs, everything seems to be in one piece. All of the small fittings have foam protectors on them to prevent overspray and clogging of lines, which I thought was a nice touch. Some waviness can be seen in a few spots on the tank but overall it seems to be an okay product for the money. The finish is pretty uniform and seems to be relatively thick and tough, and the metal itself is of reasonable thickness. I will probably POR the seam before I install it to try to eke a little more life out of it, but that’s probably not strictly necessary. My only real gripe so far is some small bits of debris in the tank shown in the images, but it’s nothing the fuel filter won’t take out.
I’ll post another update when I go to install it, and another when it comes time to fill it! Fingers crossed!
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Got some more work done today, but more of a one step forward, 1.5 steps back deal.
I successfully pulled the tank, no thanks to the engineer that specced those horrible ass crimp fittings to all the fuel lines (I have choice words I’d like to use, but won’t). They do their job fine but are such a pain when it comes time to replacing and removing things.
Anywho, got the tank down, all the lines and senders/pump and whatnot transferred to the new tank. Fit was pretty solid, the new mounting grommets fit in snugly, the sender and pump fit tightly, and all bracketry mounts right up. My only gripe is that the tank thickness appears to be different between the replacement and OEM one where the senders mount, so you cannot use new OEM o-rings; thankfully, they include slightly thinner o-rings in the packaging, but something worth noting. Otherwise, barring the lack of drain plug everything seems to be more than up to snuff. The holes all seem to line up well with the mounting points on the body, finish is nice, all the inlets/outlets are in the correct spots. Honestly, if they had painted it black, you could’ve told me it was genuine BMW and I might’ve believed you.
So that was a win, but when disconnecting the fuel lines to remove the tank I noticed that my fuel hard lines were pretty crusty.
So those need to be done. I have no desire to burn this car down or worse, and it seems foolish to not take the opportunity to fix it all while it’s disconnected. In the same vein, I noticed the rear brake lines were also getting pretty gnarly. I replaced the hard lines on the trailing arms a few years ago but never touched the soft or hard lines upstream of that, and they’re pretty bad (soft lines have hairline cracks, hard line junctions look like they spent time on the titanic, etc.). So the plan is to either buy all new OEM hardlines from FCP and bend them myself, or install the ChaseBays hard line delete that just runs soft lines all the way back and to the trailing arms. It takes it down to three total lines for the whole rear brake system after the ABS pump, and I’m weighing whether the cost is worth the simplicity it adds. Any thoughts? Potential concerns about longevity?
In other news, got the e34 into full winter mode just in time for spring, oh well. Mudflaps got added to keep crap off the rockers, and roof rack installed to carry the old fuel tank
what, did you think I was going to put it in the backseat?
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Depending on your OCD level, oem steel line is gonna be hard to bend making it that much harder to match up. I’ve always gone with copper-nickel for it’s ease of use and even then it’s hard to match the curves/angles. If you wanna make your own lines, I have the Eastwood flaring tool which makes that job 1000% easier. The only difficult part I remember from that job on the calypso was the 3 way tee in the rear took quite a bit of work to remove and clean up. The flares were seized for us at least so had to cut the line short and put the tee in the vice to use a socket on the flare. Idk if those tees are available new but that would save a lot of work too.
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Depending on your OCD level, oem steel line is gonna be hard to bend making it that much harder to match up. I’ve always gone with copper-nickel for it’s ease of use and even then it’s hard to match the curves/angles. If you wanna make your own lines, I have the Eastwood flaring tool which makes that job 1000% easier. The only difficult part I remember from that job on the calypso was the 3 way tee in the rear took quite a bit of work to remove and clean up. The flares were seized for us at least so had to cut the line short and put the tee in the vice to use a socket on the flare. Idk if those tees are available new but that would save a lot of work too.
Noted, good to know. I’m perhaps unnecessarily wary of flaring my own lines, but it’s an option for sure. Might’ve been the shitty kits I used in the past though too. Bending the trailing arm line wasn’t too bad from what I remember, but I suppose these lines are a bit more complicated. I’ll let you know! It’s probably going to come down to price, if the OEM lines and fittings come out to be more than $150 or so I might just get the chase bays setup to be done with it.
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OEM lines don’t show up pre bent, at least for the long run to the rear brakes
on my old red e30 I ran chase bays line for the main rear run, it was quick and easy
my current car I went the copper nickel route and re did all the front line and flared stuff. Also super easy to work with
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^ thats the same tee used in the stock position in the rear. I hear ya on the diy flaring, you’re right though the tools have always been the problem. The split die style flaring tool makes perfect flares about 95% of the time. The only time it doesn’t work is because the line wasn’t square. Remembering to put the flare nut on the line is the hardest part
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^ thats the same tee used in the stock position in the rear. I hear ya on the diy flaring, you’re right though the tools have always been the problem. The split die style flaring tool makes perfect flares about 95% of the time. The only time it doesn’t work is because the line wasn’t square. Remembering to put the flare nut on the line is the hardest part
That is the exact part for the rear T lol, wanted a m10 bubble flare fitting, figured that would be the easiest to find
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Man, it’s been a bit since I posted on this. Mostly because I haven’t touched it since last post really
I swore I’d never let a project sit but here I am.
Two weekends ago I finished bending all the rear hardlines after I kinked one of the short ones last spring and got frustrated and stopped working on it (I also got stupid busy, but hey). Fuel system can now go back in, subframe after that, and then the car can come back down and get re-situated for the manual swap! I decided to go engine-out for that one since the oil pan gasket needs replacement, the timing belt is due, and 80% of everything else is already disconnected.
Excited to hopefully make more progress this winter spring when I have time, I’d like to get it done before June so I can enjoy it and shake it down before a planned Blue Ridge parkway road trip this fall. Hoping that once the rear end is back together things will progress more quickly.
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Sheesh, long overdue for an update here.
I’ve been lagging on getting this done; the spring ended up being completely full (like, every single weekend from January to May) with water ski team maintenance stuff, and the season went until May to now. The team hasn’t had an official member dedicated to fleet main fence in a long time so the backlog was enormous. Like, waterlogged and rusting boat trailer bearings that haven’t been repacked in a decade, rotting trailer floor, and broken bilge pumps and blowers, enormous.
I’m finally getting a chance to get back into cars though thankfully, and have made some good progress! It feels amazing to be finally getting somewhere.
Fuel tank is back in and the tank-adjacent stuff is plumbed in. I’m holding off on installing the fuel hardlines until the engine comes out and goes back in so I don’t accidentally damage them. My brake hardlines seem to fit nicely though, which is exciting!
And tonight, for the first time in something like 20 months, the car’s subframe and chassis were reunited. Big stuff! My only concern so far is that the fuel tank neck is contacting the subframe because of the subframe riser bushings; it doesn’t seem to be severe though, so I’m probably going to leave it. Don’t have much of a choice I guess.
Engine oil has been drained, PS hoses disconnected, a/c lines are unhooked, and all fuel/intake/other things have been disconnected in the bay other than the starter ground strap, oil cooler lines, coolant hoses, and the DME. The plan is to button up the rear end ASAP and get it back on four wheels so that I can reposition it, then yank the engine and get cracking on the swap stuff/timing belt. Also planning to get the HIKfab skidplate welded on by @rampelsauce while the engine is out, should make it a snap to weld and repaint.
Hoping to make a lot of progress this fall. I’d love to get it done, but I’ve made promises like that before (look at how long it’s been sitting). It WILL get done before next summer; the ski team is doing an 80’s themed show and it’d be sacrilege to not have the quintessential 80’s car not running for it.
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