Alpine White Zender Kit E24 633CSI

Jdesign

This just in!!!

New O2 sensor and Oil filter from the brown delivery gods. I failed and should have ordered a valve cover gasket too.

B C

You are a mad scientist, my friend! Vacuum leaks are always the go-to for those kinds of problems but they are always tedious to track down. Check the throttle position switch to make sure it is showing the ecu the proper throttle position during idle.

Jdesign

Snap said:

You are a mad scientist, my friend! Vacuum leaks are always the go-to for those kinds of problems but they are always tedious to track down. Check the throttle position switch to make sure it is showing the ecu the proper throttle position during idle.

From what I have read according to the Internets (AKA my mad scientist kit) vacuum leaks will indeed cause this thing to run awful. Its the first on the list of the DIY guide I have been following, so I have already replaced the smaller vacuum lines, but have yet to move onto the larger valve cover breather lines and the brake booster lines. Those are to be replaced next as they seem really hard and brittle.

Jdesign

Well, I completed more work on this last night. I drove it a little further and it seems to drive much better when its cold vs. warm. Besides that it drives fairly well but the steering components really need some attention. I put it on the lift and took another gander.

Control arm ball joint
Tie rod center joint
Tie rod support joint
Out side tie rod assembly
Front springs are still broken
Strut bellows

Are all bad.

I did install new sway bar links up front as it was obvious they were bad.

After that I removed as many vaccum hoses as I could find, and scrubbed them with brushes and degreaser to inspect them for cracks and rotting. I was hoping to just replace some hoses to aid with the vacuum leaks, but it seems most of the hoses are specialty hoses so I had to order those that needed to be replaced. Surprisingly there was only one that had an obvious leak.

After all of this, I felt like the car needed its first bath in many years. I did a double wash, but the paint is in dire need of a cut and buff, so that will be next on the agenda.

Earl

Honestly with the grilles painted trim black and the front end put on, this thing would still look great as is=)

Jdesign

Earl said:

Honestly with the grilles painted trim black and the front end put on, this thing would still look great as is=)

I need to get the grills off so I can paint them. They have studs molded onto the back side and they are spinning inside of the grills because the nuts are rusted to them. On top of that there is no room to cut them off without destroying the grills. So I keep putting this off, but I want to do it soooo bad.

YoungCR

You should be able to just drill out the screws. IF its the same style as the e28 grills those Phillips just screw into a plastic tab that goes into the core support. That or the screws themselves are plastic too. Double check the parts diagram haha.

B C

So no rack and pinion steering?! If so, today I learned something new

V8 E39s dont have it either

Earl

Snap said:

So no rack and pinion steering?! If so, today I learned something new

V8 E39s dont have it either

steering box ftw. E34's don't have a rack and pinion either.

Jdesign

Snap said:

So no rack and pinion steering?! If so, today I learned something new

V8 E39s dont have it either

Looks like you learned something and so did I!! I had no idea about E39 v8's. E24's use a gearbox and linkage system.

YoungCR said:

You should be able to just drill out the screws. IF its the same style as the e28 grills those Phillips just screw into a plastic tab that goes into the core support. That or the screws themselves are plastic too. Double check the parts diagram haha.

Well...... My e30 is like your describing, and so is this. BUT it also has ONE stud on the backside along with the screws. Here you can see someone also had the same issue highlighted in red...

Jdesign

Well I was wrong. There are two studs on the backside that attach to the corner light buckets, not the grills. I removed them with impact driver, spinning them really fast, heating the studs up to the point plastic would giveaway and I could pull out the corner lights.

I then removed the grills and the kidneys, which unfortunately will have to be replaced instead of repainted for two reasons. One is that the kidneys are dented and I rather save time and replace them vs. sanding and using filler to fix them. The other reason is that there is polished trim on the grills that has been painted over, and the amount of work to successfully strip that paint isn't worth it. Bigcoupe has a bunch of ppl parting out 6er's so I don't think I will have a hard time finding cheap replacements.

Besides that, I also buffed the bumper and cleaned all of the trim that goes with it and remounted it to the car. To buff it I screwed it to a wooden table off of the car and went to town with some polish. I really wanted to tuck the bumpers on this thing, but now I am thinking Im just going to leave them because they are so ridiculous its kind of awesome.

Mounting the bumper I also found that I'm missing brackets, and/or the entire lower valance that the Zender lip bolts to. Also the brakets I have, someone used the shittiest hardware ever, so they are all rusted so bad they are just rust blobs.So if anyone know of an E24 sitting in a salvage yard, or getting parted, let me know.