Driveline Installed and Miscellaneous Other Stuff…

I started out the work this week by buttoning up the heater valve installation. When i refurbished my heater box, I either misplaced, lost or threw out all the hardware needed to bolt in the heater valve. No big deal, it was all about 3 cents from the dealer, but it was definitely specialty hardware. Square M5 nuts that slide into the plastic work perfectly don’t just sit on most hardware shelves. So once that stuff showed up, I put it all together as shown on the left. The Bracket that normally holds the two pipes is NLA, so I will have to fashion one from some other metal on my own. No biggie.

I installed this thing, and got the new grommet installed on the firewall that surrounds the heater pipes. The easiest way of doing this is with dish soap. I know it sounds funny, but lube it up and it slides right in.

I bought an E28 Oil Cooler becuase it has a larger capacity and I didn’t have an Oil Cooler. So I mounted it up to factory locations with some custom rubber bushings. It’s not quite level. I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it like this or drill/fabricate a mount that allows it to mount perfectly level. I’m leaning towards leaving it as is, but we’ll see.

Now I need to figure out the plumbing on this thing.  That’s one of the last things I have on my list to do that I’m not sure what I’m going to do.  Keep in mind I have the Euro Oil Filter housing on my motor, I haven’t decided if I can run stock lines from a Euro E36 M3, or if I have to plumb  with stainless hose and fittings.  We’ll see.

I then went to finish putting the driveline together. I put the half shafts in and bolted them up. I had installed the Diff a week ago or so. It’s a 3.25 out of an M Roadster. I bought a finned M Roadster Diff cover as well, which I installed with new hardware and gasket. I’m still waiting on my new drain plugs as you can see, and once they’re in I will fill the diff with fluid.

Once I got the half shafts installed, I worked my way forward to the driveshaft. It’s an E36 328 driveshaft that I picked up from a local yard. I swapped the center support bearing out for the E30 unit with new dust covers. One thing I will tell people is that you really need to make sure the first dust cover is seated well before putting the bearing on, otherwise you’ll never get it to go on. I used a properly sized pipe that slid over the splines section that I was able to tap in with a dead blow hammer. It sat perfectly on the inner bearing race. And of course all the normal hints like marking the shaft before you separate each section apply here.

I also installed the A/C Bracket and compressor. I had originally thought that I was going to use the compressor from an M Roadster because it was smaller, but I didn’t realize that it mounts with a different plate/bracket situation. So since I had already powdercoated the standard bracket, I went with the standard compressor. Now all I need is the right pulley tensioner assembly and a Power steering pump and I’ll be all set with the accessory belt situation. Once that’s done I can install my radiator.

I installed my E30 M3 Gauge cluster in the car. I had to run wires for the Oil temperature gauge. This was pretty easy, I had to tap switched 12 volts, ground and run a signal wire. I ran the signal wire and installed it in pin 19 on the body harness plug. This is where it sits in an E30 M3, and I’ll be able to build my X20 plug to interface with the c101 and have it all work out nicely. I don’t have this sitting quite right, as the trim piece is covering some of the turn signals. We’ll see what I can do to fix that.

Once I installed the gauge cluster and the trim panel below it I installed the center consoles and shift knob again, since I had to take them out to install the heater valve. The Brand new rear console piece has a totally different material finish than the old school front console. I am assuming this has to do with the Recycle-ability of car parts changing. I also pulled the rear seat bottom out because I had to install the last set of receptacles that were backordered from BMW. It’s all set now, with the receptacles sitting nicely in their spot in the rear seat. I have the third belt hidden under the seat, as I don’t plan on having 3 rear passengers at any time soon. My rear parcel shelf doesn’t have any holes in it yet, so I don’t have the weird triangle thing on it to hold the third belt anyway.