ILC's E46 wagon

[i_love_cars]

ok fuck it we're doing this. The guy agreed to take 250 for the transmission which is at least $300 less than what ebay was gonna hit me for. Good job Spence. 

@YoungCR  i'm literally heading over to pick this up right after i make coffee and surf the web for a few more parts. So I'll likely be out that way by late morning maybe 10:30 or 11

[B C]

score!

[i_love_cars]

now i need a pedal assembly. Find me one of those plz k thx

The rest of the stuff like clutch, shifter hardware, etc. i'll just buy brand new

[i_love_cars]

[Jdesign]

YAssssssss!

[B C]

1. Nice clean transmission

2. What is the air line for?

3. Shame on BMV for still having the single shear shift rod design

[KaiserRolls]

Air lockers for rock crawling mode

[i_love_cars]

Snap said:

1. Nice clean transmission

2. What is the air line for?

3. Shame on BMV for still having the single shear shift rod design

pretty sure it's a vac line for the shift sensor but i haven't fully gone over everything yet

[YoungCR]

That was quick! Glad you scooped this up, I was out of town.

[i_love_cars]

I was up pretty late last night getting a spreadsheet together after going through parts diagrams. With a couple nice-to-haves like a ZHP shift knob, and assuming I get the $100 pedal assembly i'm talking to a guy on e46fanatics about, related maintenance such as new u-joint/motor mounts/trans mounts/input seal, etc., the total remaining parts list is $1340.41 at MSRP.  If I can source a used shifter assembly that knocks $150 off at least. Piecing together a full brand new shifter assembly is not cheap. 

My guess is with odds and ends, fluids, and the fact that I'm using this as an excuse to buy a transmission jack, I'll be in to this project for $2k. I think you could do this swap for $1000 or less no problem if you chose to cut some corners on refreshing mounts and such, or if you had a re-usable DMFW. 

Unfortunately in 1-2 weeks I'm starting a secondary contracting gig for 3 months so my billable hours per week are going to be about.....80 lol. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to complete this before winter. If nothing else I'm going to continue acquiring the important used parts like a pedal set and just sit on it all for a bit if i have to. I'm not sure yet.

[i_love_cars]

ehr mah gawd

the timing on this couldn't be better  http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1151113  

hopefully the guy messages me back. I said I'd take it all and have plenty of cash in hand ready to go

[m42b32]

Jeez, you are getting lucky on all these cheap parts showing up at the same time!

[i_love_cars]

m42b32 said:

Jeez, you are getting lucky on all these cheap parts showing up at the same time! 

i feel like it was meant to be. It's hard enough finding a manual wagon, but AWD too? and complete for partout? Crazy timing for sure. I'm just hoping he's got it all still and can put it on a pallet.

[Jdesign]

Lucky SOB. I feel like I have had the opposite luck the last 3 months lol.

[i_love_cars]

Attention: everyone.

Fuck AWD subframes. 

That is all.

[i_love_cars]

progress. Stopping for dinner and then pulling the trans or getting very close to it tonight

[Daggerty]

i_love_cars said:

progress. Stopping for dinner and then pulling the trans or getting very close to it tonight

Keep it coming

[B C]

Did the rear diff have to come out? Are you switching ratios or was it just easier for the driveshaft removal?

[i_love_cars]

Snap said:

Did the rear diff have to come out? Are you switching ratios or was it just easier for the driveshaft removal?

switching ratios definitely is one reason - i originally wasn't going to when I bought the 330xi trans, because sourcing the awd manual diffs was more legwork and technically unnecessary - the manual is a 3.23 and the auto is a 3.46. 

But since I'm getting a complete setup from the dude who's parting out his 325xiT manual, i figured i may as well put the 3.23 since I'll have them now and it will be proper as a more "complete" manual swap.

[i_love_cars]

Didn't get much time on this last night as I had to adjust my original plan which was to just use a support bar for the engine, then lower the trans and profit. There's no DIY on doing an AWD auto trans removal so I'm winging it and hoping that experience will guide me. I tested the waters to see how low the trans would go before hitting my stupid AWD subframe which is totally in the way of basically everything. So unfortunately because one of my goals is to do this without fully removing the front subframe, I need to raise the engine. So out came the hoist. 

The torque converter has been unbolted and the trans cross member is off. Supposedly the front diff comes out if you just remove the 4 main bolts on the subframe and also the engine mounts, when combined with the fact that the strut knuckle will be loose from removing the axles. You should be able to lower the subframe a few inches without undoing the 20 or so other bolts holding on random suspension shit on the stupid AWD subframe then, getting enough room to remove the diff. 

So knowing that, I think the first thing I'm gonna do here is try to keep it simple and just get the engine mounts out of the way and try to raise the engine and hope I get enough tilt on the trans to get the top bellhousing bolts. Assuming that works out, I'll put a jack under the subframe and remove those 4 mounting bolts and see if I can lower it enough to get the front diff out. 

I really, really, really don't want to take the front subframe off if I don't have to. I won't be getting to anything until late afternoon today but I will have a second set of hands helping me speed things along. I'm still planning to have everything removed including pedals and shifter by the end of the weekend.