It's like the Same but Different: My 528e build
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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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just wanted to pipe in and say that yes, the clutch slave has a gap on alot or most of the bmw 5 speeds. it doesnt need to seal for any reason, so it doesnt sit flat against the bell housing.
i remember doing the clutch master on my e30, what a freakin nightmare that fitting is.
Dan
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^Thanks Dan.
So I had the car driving for about a month but then 2 weeks ago it stopped running. Ramsey and I thought it maybe had a bad ignition cap as his 528e had similar symptons. Car ran rough/slight miss on start up but then after idling for a bit it would run fine. So we tried switching the cap and rotor two sundays ago with brand new parts and it didn't change the performance. Car started but ran rough but after a minute I was able to take it up and down the block. After a few more minutes it ran worse than before.
Matt and I went to the shop today to drop off some things and I just wanted to swap the cap again to see if it made a difference. It did not so my thinking is that the fuel pump died. I've been basing all my time off the old adage "Your fuel problems are likely in your ignition" but the car would "miss" slightly during shifts and I had a fuel pump die while shifting in my E36. At some point I'll order a fuel pressure gauge to get a proper diagnosis.
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She lives again. Gotta beat the 375mi/3 week running streak of last year lol. Turns out my interesting running issues were a bad battery. Ben replaced the battery, fuel pump and trans mounts for me on Tuesday and the car fired up once it got fuel. Running nice and smooth now that it had some fresh gas and seafoam cycled through.
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New record! 1 month and 1 day until I was stranded yesterday. Car had been running poorly on and off for a variety of reasons but quit yesterday after I got off the highway. The fuel rail is wet and I'm guessing the temp sensor is out too. Besides the motor this car really needs a suspension refresh. As always I'll work on it whenever I have time but this is at the bottom of the projects list now again
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Congrats on the new record
I have a new blue two pin temp sensor if thats what your eta needs
yup! I'll buy it whenever I see you next.
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Well I haven't touched this car in almost a year...
Recently parting out a E28 made me realize I forgot how much more enjoyable they are to work on for me. Not that the e34's are horrible but it gave me the motivation to get working on this again.
MEPEH injectors seems to be going through some changes. I know some of you guys have gotten rebuilt injectors from there but they currently just have rebuild kits listed. Given everything else in the fuel system is new and roughly 240k on the motor it's time to refresh the injector set if they all pass a resistance test.
Granted the parts will be here this week, I won't actually have the time for about a month to touch the car between moving out of my apartment and a canoe trip to the boundary waters.
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