It's like the Same but Different: My 528e build
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Front end was taken apart last night. Kinda funny how the 15" wheels make accessing the inner fender body screws that much harder haha. If I had 16's on the car I would have had to swap them out working on the ground in the shop.
Anyways I'm gonna bend out the core support for now but its eventually need to be replaced if the car ever gets painted. Its torn up on the bottom from a previous accident and in general the whole support is bent inward slightly. I have rust holes on both of the footwells going into the wheel well. This should probably be fixed before everything gets rotted out.
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patch it with fiberglass, and make a jon boat
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I got spring fever for driving this.
You and me both, sir! Keep up the great work.
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So we didn't get as far as we wanted today, the old trans is still in. I'm currently caught up on the top starter bolt that goes through the bell housing which is the only thing keeping the trans on the motor
I ended up giving up on it for the night but came close to accessing the bolt with a wobble extension. Just a quick update for tonight as I need to head to bed. Pics for progress but the shop kinda exploded haha.
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Yours should be through bolts with nuts to the starter right? Use a 3/8" box end wrench over the torx head with the engine at the normal height and use a ratchet with extension to turn the nut on the starter side. The wrench will turn until it hits the bell housing or firewall and stop allowing you to loosen the nut.
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Maybe that's my issue. I used all the old hardware when I swapped the trans from my last 528e into this car. The starter bolts through the bell housing are 17mm and the nut above the starter on the other side is a 15mm. I'll check the parts diagrams and see what it's supposed to be.
@Earl yes that's my roommates bandit stock 4cyl prepped neon. Its finally ready to race this spring so I'll technically be part of a nascar pit crew haha
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So the old trans is out! Bought a Gearwrench 120XP long handle flex head watched to use in combination with the extension and snap-on wobble ext to get that 15mm around to the nut. Ryan "Speizo" held the 17mm wrench on the other end and it came off! We dropped the trans afterwords and he pulled the clutch while I started on swapping the output flanges.
I upgraded to the bigger SETA driveshaft long ago when the driveshaft went out on the old burgundrot since I had one from my first car. Made a thin wall 30mm and got the flange nut off fine from the old trans but I ended up stripping the one on the new trans
Fortunately I've been through this before since the same thing happened when I did that swap originally. It was harder to brace the flange since the new trans still had the vibration dampener on so I get to cut through all of that next time. -
2 Months later....
I ended up never getting the flange off the replacement trans. After swearing so many damn times at the thing and giving up for a month I gave in and bought a replacement trans for my replacement trans
Got the flange right off on this one and swapped on the SETA/535i output flange. Went to pour in the royal purple 75W90 I bought and just as I was about finished with the 2nd bottle it all leaked out the output shaft seal 
"Royal Flush"Ordered up the seals and Redline MTL, as thats preferred fluid of the MyE28 community, but didn't have time to work on the car this weekend. This concludes buying every single component in clutch/trans! Now to throw it all back in.
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Haven't fired the motor for 3 months since it has no exhaust. With the way any of these projects go, at least in my shop, who knows haha.
All of these parts are replacing parts I shouldn't have put on the car in the first place but "I wanted to drive it". Throw out bearing was shot, master clutch cylinder leaked and the trans I pulled out of the car makes some funny noises when I spin the shafts so something for sure fell apart inside the trans hence why it ultimately became undriveable.
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All of these parts are replacing parts I shouldn't have put on the car in the first place but "I wanted to drive it".
Moral of the story is the 540 isn't being driven till a lot of work and money goes into her...
BMWCCA #499464
Current - 1995 540i/6 V 2.0 | Dead - 1995 540i/6 | Sold - 1995 318is
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Weekend Update
The trans is in! Hiccups included the removing trans seals, starter bolts, although better going in than taking out, and connecting the master cylinder hard line.
Cleaned up the back of the trans as best I could. The 3 oil seals were replaced and I managed to eventually get the old ones out with some drilling and creative flathead screwdriver usage. Next time I'll go buy a pick set.
Clutch is in, S/O to Andy for the clutch and John for the alignment tool. Old clutch wasn't in too bad of shape but the throwout bearing had seen better days.
Unfortunately I forgot to replace the pivot pin as I found it later in a different box. Hopefully that won't be an issue
Hard to see but just below the brake booster is where the master cylinder pokes through the firewall. Conveniently the fuel lines and brake lines run in that already tight space too. I ended up unbolting the master to give me more movement and eventually got the hard line threaded on. Because of the right angle just at the end of the line it makes it impossible to feed in through the fire wall.
Master mounted, along with the rest of the pedal box reassembled.
Bought my first M5 part
UUC stainless line. Same price as a new OEM rubber line so why not? Slave must be installed upside down for it to work which also allows for gravity bleeding the clutch line. Is there supposed to be a gap between the slave and bell housing? Forgot to check the old slave but the bell housing studs are on a raised surface which causes this.
Where I ended for tonight, Got the shifter in place but don't have things tightened down.
I foresee myself having a 3 day weekend with the holiday so I'll have plenty of time to wrap things up, get the front end together the way I want. Goal is to drive her to Lake Mills next Sunday for anyone who wants to join.
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