Alpine E30 Convertible Running Log
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Replaced the resistor tonight, fan works on all speeds. Success! Except, for some reason, it runs even when the fan speed is set to 0. It sounds like there is a slight speed difference from 1 to 0, makes me think it’s a short somewhere rather than a bad switch or something. Anybody had a similar experience? I think for now I’ll just pull the fuse during the summer when I don’t use the heater to prevent excess wear on the motor, I don’t particularly care to dig through the wiring harness to fix it.
Is the recirc or AC button by chance on? If either of those are pressed, it’ll turn on low speed blower motor (even if your fan is set to 0)
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Is the recirc or AC button by chance on? If either of those are pressed, it’ll turn on low speed blower motor (even if your fan is set to 0)
I'll check that, one of them might be now that I think about it. Thanks!
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Pulled the car out of storage today, it started right on the first turn of the key like always. I ordered the Garagistic odometer gear set this winter and decided to take care of that right away to get an accurate mileage tally for this year. No pics of the removal, but I snapped a few of the busted gears and various inner workings. It looks like someone fried an idiot light and soldered a jumper from the light adjacent to it at some point, but it’s the brake lining light that isn’t working so I’m not going to take the time to fix it.
Broken bulb that someone just left in there:
Broken gears:
Looks like only a few teeth were broken on each gear, but it was more than enough to jam everything up. The motor gear was by far the worst of the three.
New gears installed:
Spittin’ chiclets:
The only mildly difficult part of the job was removing the brass sleeve that was press fit onto the motor shaft. This required patience as to not wreck the motor (hopefully I didn’t, I haven’t tested yet), but it eventually came off using a side cutters and needle nose to crush the bushing at 90 degree angles until it loosened and slipped off.
I tried my best to push as little as possible when installing the new drive gear, but we’ll see if I wrecked it tomorrow.
Other than that, it’s just nice to have it back on the road. I forgot how sharp and light it feels compared to the e34, it’s a blast and still never fails to put a smile on my face. Solid FCAB’s and a manual swap are next on the project list, although the swap probably won’t happen until this fall or winter. I’ll replace the fuel tank, some brake lines and subframe bushings while I’m in there as well. I’ve been eyeing a Continental/VDO head unit as well, the current craptastic JVC is on its last legs.
See y’all at the picnic!
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It verks! Back to ticking away the miles. The check light in the cluster along with the ABS light both work now too, which is cool. Only took a decade
.Put a little over a hundred miles on it today while heading up to Devil’s lake to hike, did about 10 miles there in a little over four hours. It was an absolutely perfect day for it too.
In other news, my brother picked up a 1970 Honda CL100 for $20 last year, and has been getting it running and back into streetable shape when he has the time for it. Tonight he got around to pulling the piston and cylinder, and figured out what the source of his oil consumption was. This is the compression ring, and he said it was all still in there thankfully. Bore isn’t scored either, I’m amazing it ran as well as it did like this.
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It verks! Back to ticking away the miles. The check light in the cluster along with the ABS light both work now too, which is cool. Only took a decade
.Put a little over a hundred miles on it today while heading up to Devil’s lake to hike, did about 10 miles there in a little over four hours. It was an absolutely perfect day for it too.
In other news, my brother picked up a 1970 Honda CL100 for $20 last year, and has been getting it running and back into streetable shape when he has the time for it. Tonight he got around to pulling the piston and cylinder, and figured out what the source of his oil consumption was. This is the compression ring, and he said it was all still in there thankfully. Bore isn’t scored either, I’m amazing it ran as well as it did like this.
It converted itself to 2 stroke! Keeps the skeeters away.
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Recently rolled past 201,000 miles. I haven’t been driving this as much as I should, but I haven’t been keeping it at my apartment and time to drive it is not as available as I’d like.
About a month ago I installed the lowering springs and sport shocks I picked up from @timmer at the e30 picnic (thanks again!), and I’m really digging the new height and ride.
Definitely firm, but not overly harsh or bouncy and very go-kart like. It’s a blast and so responsive, but I’ve been struggling with how low the oil pan now sits (truthfully, most of the reason I haven’t driven it much) so I decided to grab a skid plate from HIKFab thru bimmerworld along with a muffler hanger kit and some fresh front wheel bearings. If anyone here is capable with a welder and would be willing to install the skidplate for me, I would happily compensate you for it.
All that stuff will go on in a few weeks, and I’ll be (hopefully) back and ready to go for peak driving season. Then, it’ll be back apart for a new fuel tank, manual trans swap, diff swap, and subframe bushing replacement this winter.
Speaking of, if anyone has a lead on garage space or a decent storage facility that is preferably in the greater MKE area, let me know. I can make Madison work too, but the closer to Pewaukee the better. Heated and with electric would be a plus, but not necessary. Would rent year round and use for storage and wrenching.
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For oil pan protection I went down the route of:
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For oil pan protection I went down the route of:
I’ve always wanted to try an X-brace to see if it would tighten up the car a little bit, maybe I’ll get one after the skidplate is installed and see if it fits. Did you notice a difference? If they won’t work together, I might try my hand a fabricating my own brace around the plate.
Right now the oil pan protection is a higher priority, with how much driving I do on broken pavement and unpredictable surfaces I need to have that peace of mind. I wince every time I drive over a large pavement heave or even a slightly protruding manhole cover now, and that sucks. I don’t want to have to care as much and just drive the damn thing.
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I’ve always wanted to try an X-brace to see if it would tighten up the car a little bit, maybe I’ll get one after the skidplate is installed and see if it fits. Did you notice a difference? If they won’t work together, I might try my hand a fabricating my own brace around the plate.
Right now the oil pan protection is a higher priority, with how much driving I do on broken pavement and unpredictable surfaces I need to have that peace of mind. I wince every time I drive over a large pavement heave or even a slightly protruding manhole cover now, and that sucks. I don’t want to have to care as much and just drive the damn thing.
My X brace was installed prior to my ownership so I havnt really run without coilovers, x brace and strut tower brace. From my understanding the e30 verts are known to be much more flexible and I dont feel that way about my car...if that helps.
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New ride height looks perfect!
Speaking of, if anyone has a lead on garage space or a decent storage facility that is preferably in the greater MKE area, let me know. I can make Madison work too, but the closer to Pewaukee the better. Heated and with electric would be a plus, but not necessary. Would rent year round and use for storage and wrenching.
Speaking from experience, the farter away from the city you can be the better. You'll find much bigger options for a lot less money if you can be out of the Milwaukee metro area. Small shop spaces like two car garages and such where wrenching is allowed are out there but it takes some searching. I found all three of my rental garages through craigslist, so that or marketplace is probably the best bet (if you can wade through all the crap on there).
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Pretty sure this car ended the season with around 204,000 miles, had the electric fan fail in October so it got parked for the most part after that. Got a lot of good use out of it though, especially once @Jdesign lent me his wind deflector. IMO, it’s a must have for vert owners, it feels similar to driving a regular car with the sunroof down when it’s installed, it’s amazing.
Anywho, this car is getting a bit of an overhaul this winter. Subframe is already almost out to get poly bushings installed, I picked up a 3.73 LSD from @rampelsauce this fall so that’s going in, also with a fresh poly bushing. RTAB’s were replaced a few years ago with the rear wheel bearings, so I’ll be leaving those. By the spring all of the major bushings in the car will have been replaced, really excited for that.
Also on the list is a new fuel tank, new electric fan, timing belt and water pump service, and a smoke test to finally chase some pesky vacuum leaks. Oh, and a manual swap
if anyone has a full swap kit for a m20 or parts for a swap, let me know. The current plan is to get it back together and down to NC for the vintage in May, so I have my work cut out for me. -
https://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi
looks like the closest trans is in Iowa. If it really is out of a 52k mi car id consider that being worth the $850 price tag… not many listed right now and they’re all that expensive. Idk what people are asking for swap kits these days but it used to be $800 for everything all day long.
I think I told you I took inventory of the vins at Gibson’s, I’ll go throw those in the junk yard thread. I know there was 1 or two e30’s this past fall. Honestly I would just find a trans, pedal box and driveshaft and order everything else new. Maybe a good used flywheel too but I wouldn’t bother with used clutch hydraulics.
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@P_Roloff I will have the entire pedal assembly from my car in the next few days once I finish up my pedal swap. Its out of the car already, but I want to make sure everything works before I sell it all off.
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🥳SOLD BMW E24 633CSI - BMW M30B32 🧪SOLD HCH ES9 - 1.3 LDA
👽BMW E30 325IC - Toyota 1JZ-GTE ⏰ HONDA EF9 CIVIC SI - JDM B18C5
☠️BMW E36 318i - Ford 5.0 FE302 🚴♂️ GT-Labomba - 26x2.75 Freeride
🤹♀️SOLD BMW E36/7 Z3 - BMW M54B25 🧓SOLD BMW E10 2002 - BMW M10M05 -
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looks like the closest trans is in Iowa. If it really is out of a 52k mi car id consider that being worth the $850 price tag… not many listed right now and they’re all that expensive. Idk what people are asking for swap kits these days but it used to be $800 for everything all day long.
I think I told you I took inventory of the vins at Gibson’s, I’ll go throw those in the junk yard thread. I know there was 1 or two e30’s this past fall. Honestly I would just find a trans, pedal box and driveshaft and order everything else new. Maybe a good used flywheel too but I wouldn’t bother with used clutch hydraulics.
That was the plan, no sense in putting anything but new hydraulics and clutch components in there. I was going to find a stock single mass and get it resurfaced/lightened, and then get a used driveshaft, trans, pedal box and trans brace. You’re telling me, I found one in Waukesha for altogether too much money and one in Detroit for a more reasonable price. Definitely let me know the VIN’s for the cars at Gibson’s, might get lucky there.
@P_Roloff I will have the entire pedal assembly from my car in the next few days once I finish up my pedal swap. Its out of the car already, but I want to make sure everything works before I sell it all off.
Noted, I’m seeing that airbag and non airbag pedalboxes are pretty different but if anyone here can confirm that the clutch pedal swaps over, I might be game.
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I really suck at taking photos…
Subframe is completely removed from the car as of today. Getting the aluminum sleeves of the bushings out of the body was a struggle, the drivers side wouldn’t budge using the standard lag bolt and 1/2” rod method, and I ended up snapping the top section of the sleeve off inside the bore in the body. 5 minutes with the trusty Milwaukee die grinder and the broken piece was out, and the other sleeve eventually popped loose after driving in the lag bolt and hitting the bolt head side to side until it released from the bore. Had a heck of a time getting the subframe down off of the driveshaft as well, but it’s done, and now the real fun can start!
I sourced a full manual swap kit already, hoping to get it within the month as the guy I’m buying from has yet to remove it from the parts car. I’ll be getting the stock single mass lightened and resurfaced before install, does anyone have firsthand experience with a good target weight and local shops to have the work done at?
Otherwise, next items on the list are installing the new subframe bushings and diff, pulling the driveshaft, exhaust, and fuel tank, and then the trans can come out. Hoping to get to that later this week or this weekend, we’ll see how things go. I’m generally just excited to be making progress, my goal is to be finished in early April so I have a solid month to shake the car down before heading to NC in late May.
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I had an m20 flywheel lightened, resurfaced, and balanced by C&S in Butler.
it wasnt cheap, but machining the ring off the back of the flywheel gets you somewhere close to 13 lb.
You will have gear rattle in neutral but it revs nice
Good to know. Is this the infamous getrag rattle I always hear about? It’s just an annoying noise and not indicative of anything worse correct?
@MattY and I had the same experience on the calypso coupe. Lag bolt trick worked on one side and had to cut out another.
I was expecting worse to be honest. After I broke the first one I figured the second would be the same regardless of strategy so I just whacked the lag bolt back and forth underneath to save time and it just popped out clean. I was also surprised at how little time it took to get the busted aluminum piece out, other people must’ve been using chisels and drills or something. A couple burr bits was all it took for me.
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