my E30 story
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Rowley, you're forgetting you drive a 4 door E30, not a 2 door.
yes? There is no difference.
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ill see what i come up with tomorrow for the template.
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I got my spark plug wires today. The only problem is, that i don't know where which wire goes to which on the distributer cap.
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I got my spark plug wires today. The only problem is, that i don't know where which wire goes to which on the distributer cap.
Google the firing order. If I was at the shop I could tell you

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Searching right now.
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I got my spark plug wires today. The only problem is, that i don't know where which wire goes to which on the distributer cap.
the firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4 and the distributor rotor rotates clockwise. Cylinder 1 is nearest to the drive belts. If you aren't able to get the wires figured out between now and noon tomorrow I can take a picture/jot down what it is on my car.
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I still don't get it. Everything says the cap is numbered. I think I got the only one that does have numbers.
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I found a picture. There were no numbers on it I swear. I got it to work and the car seems back to normal.
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Yeah, it runs pretty well
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Update, I tried getting the diff out today, but I don't feel like taking out the driveshaft right now, and my heat is running out. I'll try and tackle it tomorrow if I feel like it.
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Update, I tried getting the diff out today, but I don't feel like taking out the driveshaft right now, and my heat is running out. I'll try and tackle it tomorrow if I feel like it.
And so it starts

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Hahaha jake you need to come motivate me with beer now.
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Hahaha jake you need to come motivate me with beer now.
If only I could tag Joe somehow...
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I unbolted the drive shaft from the diff and then the part in the middle and it still wouldn't come out. Is there some trick? I couldn't get it out to save my life.
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http://www.davelength.net/car/diff_swap.html
This little writeup does a fine job of explaining what needs to be done. The particular hangup you are having can be resolved with what he says here towards the bottom of the page:
"The bolts screw down through the bracket into the top of the differential. You can get to the lower two with either the ratchet or the combo wrench. The top two (towards the rear of the car) can only be accessed with the combo wrench, since there is not much room between the bracket and the bottom of the car. Make sure that the floor jack is positioned to hold the differential once you start to take the bolts out. Once the bolts are out, slowly let the jack down, balancing the differential with your hand. The back of the diff will need to drop down just far enough to get the mount below the mount bracket, then the diff will need to move towards the rear of the car, to separate it from the driveshaft. Once the driveshaft bolts are clear, slowly lower the differential all the way down. At this point you can pull the jack and diff out from under the car, and set the differential on the ground."
If that isnt working out too well then you will need to loosen the collar nut on the driveshaft. You can see it in the picture below, it is just behind the center support bearing. When you loosen the collar nut on the driveshaft you can collapse the driveshaft about 3" which is plenty enough to separate it from the diff input flange. Getting to the driveshaft means possibly dropping the exhaust, and dropping the heat shields which can be a little tedious, but the fact that the PO of your car pad-locked the trunk means he may have done some other nutty things like removed the heat shields under the car which would make it easy to access that collar nut. It may be worth a quick look. Hopefully you dont have to deal with the driveshaft at all but loosening the collar nut is another option you have if the normal diff removal method just isnt working.

Just a note in general. The two-piece driveshaft is balanced as a unit. The last time I pulled my diff, the collar nut wasnt quite tight enough and the rear half of the driveshaft came out with the diff. Luckily my driveshaft is only a year old and the balancing alignment stickers are still on there and easily visible, but if you find yourself ever needing to remove the driveshaft, make sure to make a mark on each piece with paint so that you can re-align the shafts properly. Otherwise you will get some nasty vibrations at freeway speeds.
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