Hello. My name is Dan, and today I doomsday prepped

straight6pwr

the new wheels are on, and the car is out for the season. i put her to work right away - no rest for the wicked.

hilariously, my skid plate's hoop bar is a great tie-down point. i'll be using that instead of threading in the tow hook for future kayak hauling.

there won't be any e30 projects this summer. summer/fall will be setting up the new(to me) garage to get ready for winter projects.

m42b32

straight6pwr said:

the new wheels are on, and the car is out for the season. i put her to work right away - no rest for the wicked.

hilariously, my skid plate's hoop bar is a great tie-down point. i'll be using that instead of threading in the tow hook for future kayak hauling.

there won't be any e30 projects this summer. summer/fall will be setting up the new(to me) garage to get ready for winter projects.

Looking good! The new wheels fit perfect!

straight6pwr

m42b32 said:

Looking good! The new wheels fit perfect!

thanks! even though they are knockoffs, i'm pretty happy. cleared all the brake stuff, fit on the hub properly, a socket fits over the lugs without 'tuner' bolts, etc, etc... all that unknown stuff you can get with cheap wheels.

straight6pwr

in May I had my powersteering go out on me while driving (i forgot to post it). luckily not while doing a critical maneuver, but it was disconcerting. the failure mode left me with stiff steering. it felt like if you've ever driven a car with no powersteering at low speed, except at every speed it was that heavy. anyways, i diagnosed it as a dead pump and ordered a reman unit. swapped in easy and works great. i think the shaft sheared in half, because the front spun freely.

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another update:

today I finally bit the bullet on a replacement driveshaft. i destroyed another csb (clunking under the car) and I finally gave in. again, its a reman unit, from an e36 328i manual car. e30 24v swaps with the e36 zf 5-speed can use either an early (1995 only) e36 m3 manual driveshaft or an e36 328i manual driveshaft. they have the correct length and the 4-bolt rear. both need to be combined with an e30 CSB due to the offset needed to keep the driveline straight.

top is the bad driveshaft with seizing joints, bottom is the replacement before I swapped the e30 CSB onto it. i think i covered this in a previous post, but the process is pretty simple to swap these on an e30. pull exhaust, remove heat shields, remove 4 nuts at the rear 4-bolt flange, the 3 giubo front bolts, and 2 bolts on the csb. the driveshaft then drops out. if you're swapping CSBs you need a big 3-jaw puller, a snap ring pliers, and a section of 1-1/4 PVC to tap the new bearing into place. don't forget to mark the alignment of the driveshaft halves if they arent already marked! everything is balance after assembly of the halves, so getting them back together the same is important.

im getting really good at pulling the driveshaft, this time the whole process only took about 90 minutes.

B C

Where did you source the reman?

gilber33

What kind of clunks were you getting with the driveshaft? I.e. what was happening when clunks were present? And how did it destroy your CSB? Was the bearing toast? Did it rip apart the rubber surround on it?

straight6pwr

B C said:

Where did you source the reman?

driveshaft: BuyAutoParts.com $350 w/free shipping. i basically cruised the internets until one went on sale, as I didnt want to pay 500-900 for a driveshaft.

gilber33 said:

What kind of clunks were you getting with the driveshaft? I.e. what was happening when clunks were present? And how did it destroy your CSB? Was the bearing toast? Did it rip apart the rubber surround on it?

a 'thunk thunk thunk' when accelerating from a stop. goes away in every other condition. even worse when accelerating and turning (loading up the back suspension causing the driveshaft to flex even more). pretty easy to tell it was coming from under the ebrake in the tunnel.the seizing driveshaft joints were causing the driveshaft to want to stay in a slight 'v' shape when spinning, causing it to hit the tunnel or the sides of the CSB bracket. after awhile if you leave it go, the metal bracket part of the CSB breaks and/or the rubber surround gets torn.

the first one i replaced looked like this, and the one i replaced yesterday broke in a similar way:

gilber33

straight6pwr said:

driveshaft: BuyAutoParts.com $350 w/free shipping. i basically cruised the internets until one went on sale, as I didnt want to pay 500-900 for a driveshaft.

a 'thunk thunk thunk' when accelerating from a stop. goes away in every other condition. even worse when accelerating and turning (loading up the back suspension causing the driveshaft to flex even more). pretty easy to tell it was coming from under the ebrake in the tunnel.the seizing driveshaft joints were causing the driveshaft to want to stay in a slight 'v' shape when spinning, causing it to hit the tunnel or the sides of the CSB bracket. after awhile if you leave it go, the metal bracket part of the CSB breaks and/or the rubber surround gets torn.

the first one i replaced looked like this, and the one i replaced yesterday broke in a similar way:

Thanks for the explanation! My drivetrain still has some noises, but nothing remotely similar to that. I think the car just has drivetrain noises and I have to learn to accept that. I believe it might be some excess lash in the diff (or maybe completely normal and I’m a paranoid psychopath).

B C

gilber33 said:

Thanks for the explanation! My drivetrain still has some noises, but nothing remotely similar to that. I think the car just has drivetrain noises and I have to learn to accept that. I believe it might be some excess lash in the diff (or maybe completely normal and I’m a paranoid psychopath).

As I mentioned before, you would probably be horrified by the sounds my diff makes, which are completely normal. They are inherent to clutch-type diffs

Smooth driving can make them unnoticable but backing out of a parking spot will almost always make noises.

Some clunks can be from the driveshaft and CSB but there is also an inordinate amount of gear lash in our old transmissions as well.

Get a louder exhaust

gilber33

B C said:

As I mentioned before, you would probably be horrified by the sounds my diff makes, which are completely normal. They are inherent to clutch-type diffs

Smooth driving can make them unnoticable but backing out of a parking spot will almost always make noises.

Some clunks can be from the driveshaft and CSB but there is also an inordinate amount of gear lash in our old transmissions as well.

Get a louder exhaust

Backing out the garage and driveway is when it’s the loudest.

I was planning on opening up the exhaust at some point. I can always keep the stereo cranked too.

straight6pwr

lol i everytime i close my windows in the e30 while driving for a phone call, there seems to be even more tire/diff noise from the back of the car and I'm like

gilber33

It’s loud when the windows are open. It’s loud when the windows are closed. I tell myself this is normal it’s an old car it’s supposed to sound all clunky.

straight6pwr

yeah, its hard to have a conversation on the freeway

which i like. its just music, no blah blah blah

Jdesign

My car use to make a ton of noise when I had the top down....

.

I fixed it by putting a car cover on it and never driving it. SURPRISE! No more noise.

straight6pwr

did a rear wheel bearing a month ago, will post that here when i get a chance

but in the mean time, cleaned the car one last time this weekend. storage wheels will go on in the next day or so and she go into the garage for a few projects over the wenterz

straight6pwr

so the main project over the winter is going to be to pull the rear subframe out, much like @gilber33

i mainly need to do the bushings, and the chassis-to-subframe SS brake lines, but will be doing the 'while you're in there things', as well.

i also dug up my previous to:do list and skimmed it to remaining items. don't know if i'll do any of this, but one can hope.

find washer fluid pump/sensor wiring, or add it. reconnect washer tank to hood hoses.
wire in electric fan correctly. https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=210783
Buy ignition cylinder/key to match VIN.
Shadowline window trim.

HipMF

Nice festoon lighting.

If worshiping at the church of the flaming bushing isn't your style, and you're not in a rush to get started, I could send you the subframe bushing puller that I made:

straight6pwr

Mike, that would be awesome. PM sent.

gilber33

I'm assuming as a seasoned e30 owner you already know how to do the entire thing blindfolded - but if you have any questions, let me know since I just dealt with it all.

My first reaction while I was doing it was all of the write-ups online are complete bullshit and it's not as easy and quick as they make it out to be. It sucked.

Boris3

HipMF said:

If worshiping at the church of the flaming bushing isn't your style, and you're not in a rush to get started, I could send you the subframe bushing puller that I made:

If by any chance this is the Harbor Freight pitman arm puller (ground down a bit) plus plumbing pipe cap and you supply your own two/three jaw puller DIY tool, I've still got the first two pieces that were floating around the group as a shared tool a while back. It "works" as long as your bushing are not original and really stuck in there. I'd be happy to send it on to anyone who needs. I even have a new cap since I trashed the old one.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1389953-A-better-subframe-bushing-puller

WIBIMMERS

Hello. My name is Dan, and today I doomsday prepped