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New BBS Wheels for the CSi

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 6:22 am
by songzunhuang
I got my new wheels home this evening and the sun was going down. I quickly scrubbed all the wheels off (amazing how much brake dust is inside the wheels!). By the time I finished scrubbing it was starting to get a bit dim.

However, I had enough time to slap on one of the wheels and here is the picture below. Tomorrow I'll get the rest of the wheels installed.

Back to the future - the story with license plates

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2015 4:26 am
by songzunhuang
Today was a momentous day! After owning the 633 for about a month, I finally put on the valid registration so that I can drive the car on the streets of California. Now, I wanted to enjoy the moment.

I saw that there had been a lot of registration stickers placed on the car, but my goal was to reveal the very first one that was ever placed on the car. As it is a 1984 model, that would mean that I was going for the 1985 registration sticker. I carefully peeled away 30 years of stickers, layer by layer.

What color would the final layer be? As it turns out, it was white. Today, the sticker i was putting on the car was yellow. It matched the plates quite well. So I create a picture of the license plate in it's original configuration and then how it is going to be be now.

I thought it was cool.

Is the front of the car sitting high?

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2015 5:53 am
by songzunhuang
I placed new 16" wheels on my car today. When I stepped back and took a profile shot, it appeared to me that the front end was sitting too high. I don't see how the changing of wheels and tires could do that, but you never know.

Take a look. Does this look right?

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2015 5:57 am
by hornhospital
Did you drive it after changing wheels/tires? If you just put them on and dropped it to the ground, the suspension hasn't settle yet. Drive it and then look at it.

A good or a bad day? - You be the judge.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:00 pm
by songzunhuang
Today I decided to replace the radiator and the water pump on my car. Should have been about a 2-3 hour job right? Well you know how these things go.

It started off ok and I got all the parts off the car and when it was time to reassemble, I didn't have any gasket sealant so I was going to have to make a run to the auto parts store. I thought, while I am at it, why don't I look into getting the SI board batteries fixed and also install that new odometer gear I ordered? So began the trip down the slippery slope.

So at the end of 11 hours, where are we?
1. The Nissens radiator and Airtex waterpump is in and appears to be working quite well. I busted one of the gears on the alternator adjustment screw. I didn't realize I had to loosen the nut on the other side first. :( Of course I couldn't put back in those rust parts! I refinished the waterpump pulley and a lot of other bits.

2. I replaced the odometer gears. It was HARD. The odometer cluster's clear cover had a PC board mounted on it and I had to desolder a board before I could remove the clear cover. I had to drill out the tiny gear since I couldn't get the brass thing off the spindle. Major PIA. The odometer still doesn't work.

3. Replaced the SI Board batteries. Fixed up the botched job by batteries plus. Instrument cluster still doesn't work. In the process, I somehow lost my fuel gauge. :(

Two steps forward - two steps back. Kinda bummed.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:06 pm
by songzunhuang
hornhospital wrote:Did you drive it after changing wheels/tires? If you just put them on and dropped it to the ground, the suspension hasn't settle yet. Drive it and then look at it.
You know I thought of that. I'll take another shot after I drive it around a bit. I should be able to do that today. Thanks for making me think a bit more.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:46 pm
by jeebus
songzunhuang wrote:
hornhospital wrote:Did you drive it after changing wheels/tires? If you just put them on and dropped it to the ground, the suspension hasn't settle yet. Drive it and then look at it.
You know I thought of that. I'll take another shot after I drive it around a bit. I should be able to do that today. Thanks for making me think a bit more.
Your front end looked higher than your rear end to begin with. Whenever you throw bigger wheels with shorter tires on, it exacerbates any wheel gap...it's all a sort of visual deception but still.

Based on all the other issues you are working on, I assume your suspension is shot anyway...time to upgrade. :mrgreen:

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:55 am
by songzunhuang
jeebus wrote:
songzunhuang wrote:
hornhospital wrote:Did you drive it after changing wheels/tires? If you just put them on and dropped it to the ground, the suspension hasn't settle yet. Drive it and then look at it.
You know I thought of that. I'll take another shot after I drive it around a bit. I should be able to do that today. Thanks for making me think a bit more.
Your front end looked higher than your rear end to begin with. Whenever you throw bigger wheels with shorter tires on, it exacerbates any wheel gap...it's all a sort of visual deception but still.

Based on all the other issues you are working on, I assume your suspension is shot anyway...time to upgrade. :mrgreen:
Haha, that's not far from the truth. It seems like if is can be broken, it is broken! I'm sorting through all the bits. It'll be a while, but it's a labor of love. That's what I keep telling myself.

Today did mark an important event. I drove my sister-in-law to the drugstore in the Beemer, broken dashes and all. It made the trip without skipping a beat.

It sure looked nice with new wheels and the evening light.

Labor Day Weekend Projects

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:12 am
by songzunhuang
This long weekend was filled with things done to the car.

1. A new Nissens Radiator was installed along with proper hose and a flush.

2. A new Airtex water pump was installed along with proper hose.

3. The sunroof was fixed. Yea!

4. The Sunroof headliner was refastened.

5. Various rusty parts were refinished.

6. New batteries installed in SI board. Didn't fix anything.

7. New odometer gear installed. Still doesn't work.

8. Cleaned up one of the rear pods.

So it was a pretty good few days.
One observation though. Did BMW choose a batch of cloth trim that disintegrates over time? It seems that I have come across so many pieces of fabric that literally turned to dust when I contacted them. The cloth under the headliner in the sunroof was one of these. Also the fabric wraps around wires in the engine compartment. They all just turn to dust!

New steering wheel off eBay. Major score!

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:28 am
by songzunhuang
So I was faced with an old steering wheel with the leather hanging off and worn through in parts. Try as I might, the only suggestions were to get a wheelskin kit and sew it on. Yuck, those don't look anywhere like factory.

I decided to check out eBay and saw an identical wheel. The leather around it looked great in the pictures. So I placed a bid and I won! For only $35 I got a replacement wheel with near perfect leather! I am so stoked.

The steering wheel is one of those things you have to stare at all the time and having a ratty one was just annoying. About 5 minutes of work to replace and I have a new wheel!

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:33 am
by GripGreg
If it's a course spline wheel, great! Do you have the snap in hub cover?
Remember to clean it often? :wink:

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:17 am
by ron
GripGreg wrote:If it's a course spline wheel
Do you mean coarse, Greg?

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:40 pm
by GripGreg
OOH, YEAH! Not what you drive on! Ya got me. :roll:
My humanism popped up again. :wink:
Thanx,,,,Greg

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 3:47 pm
by songzunhuang
GripGreg wrote:If it's a course spline wheel, great! Do you have the snap in hub cover?
Remember to clean it often? :wink:
Yes, I just took the snap in cover off my existing wheel. It was in great condition, unlike the rest of the wheel.

Fixing the Heater Fan

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 6:50 am
by songzunhuang
Today I tackled quite a few items, starting with the heater fan that won't do anything but blow full blast. Thanks to this forum, I was pretty sure it was the power transistor. So I started to take it all apart. Here's a few pictures.

Hint: have a stubby screwdriver handy!

There were signs of a rodents nest in my fan. Bits of paper, hair and other nasty things had to be cleaned out. This took me a bit longer than I expected as I also had to make 2 runs to the the Radio Shack.

I'm happy to say that this has a very good result. My fan works very well and is fully adjustable as I had hoped. Now I'll be able to commute reliably on cold mornings.

I need a working On Board Computer!

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 7:00 am
by songzunhuang
That non working OBC has been bugging me for a long time. I really want it to work and I decided to tackle this project next. My reading told me that it was a fuse that was probably the cause. Yeah, yea - I know now that the fuse isn't in the OBC, but I didn't know it when I began.

Luckily for me, I took apart the center console to get to to the OBC because I discovered a not-so-nice surprise. Now I know that there were rodents in the car during it's half-decade hibernation. I found the carcass of a dessicated rat! It made my heart jump and grossed me out a bit. But I am glad i cleaned it out and vacuumed up all the fur. I had seen bits of fur in the car and I am glad I got rid of it. I wonder why the heck the rat died in the console...

But I digress! After taking apart the OBC and discovering that there wasn't a fuse in it, I did a bit more research and realized that the early models didn't have it in the OBC, but in the computer itself under the dash. I quickly removed the module, cracked it open and made another Radio shack run.

I am super excited to say that the OBC is now working! Yea! Now I just need to poke around and figure out how I am supposed to use it. Also, I think my lamp for night use is dead. I'll have to scarf that up tomorrow. By the time I got it working, it was dark. My car is in pieces but i'll have to deal with this tomorrow. I can't see.

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:54 am
by sansouci
You must've been the last 'Shack customer!

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:58 am
by sansouci
For cloth wrap for wire bundles, look at Tesa tape. See company site for selection and buy on eBay. You DON'T want to use sticky electrical tape!

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 4:57 am
by songzunhuang
sansouci wrote:For cloth wrap for wire bundles, look at Tesa tape. See company site for selection and buy on eBay. You DON'T want to use sticky electrical tape!
I got some of that kind of tape at the autp store. It's not sticky but fuses to itself when wrapped correct? I haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet, but I'll get to it soon.

Now, I need to plug the hole in the firewall that was the entrance for the rat. Does anyone know the part number for that or even what it is called so I can search for it?

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 5:03 am
by GripGreg
I'll bet a picture is still worth a thousand words. :wink:

Here are my thousand words - represented by a picture

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 5:17 am
by songzunhuang
GripGreg wrote:I'll bet a picture is still worth a thousand words. :wink:
Yes, I agree that a picture is the best thing. I literally just ran out to the car and took this picture based on your suggestion. I really want these holes plugged up. No more rodents!

The pedal in the picture is the brake pedal. This picture was taken kneeling down from the driver footwell. (USA car). You can see that the carpet by the lower hole is gnawed into an unusual arc. This was the entry for the rodent. I need this plugged! Thanks for any leads.

September 20, 2015 - a special day for the car

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 5:32 am
by songzunhuang
So today was one of those days that was frustrating as hell, but also ended up nicely. I got so much done today, but was hindered by 4 runs to the Auto parts store! I spent way too much time reassembling the center console. I kept find burned out bulbs and had to run to the store to get 2721 12V 1.2W bulbs. It was so annoying.

So what did I accomplish?
1. Replaced bulb for ashtray area.
2. Replaced bulbs for climate controls. (left and right sides).
3. Replaced bulb for OBC - highway robbery at $23.50 for one bulb!
4. Assembled console.
5. Got A/C working!
6. Partial fix for rust on quarter panel.

Did you see #3? Yup, I first tried a $3.99 part from O'Reily auto parts but it didn't fit. The bulb was too tall and the base was too thin. This is the bulb that is soldered into the black baseI went to another auto store and they had a bulb that was supposed to be for a Mercedes, but guess what? It fit perfectly, but had a blue base. They wanted $21 + tax! It sucked but I wasn't going to go through all the trouble of taking that OBC out again. So I paid the king's ransom.

The good news is that I was able to get everything working again! Yea! The first picture below is my happy picture. All the lights working and even most of the instruments in the cluster are functional now. Feels good.

The other pics are me attacking the rust bubbles I saw forming. As someone has said in the forum, it's always rustier than you think. When I started digging, I discovered that this had been repaired (badly) before and there was plastic filler. I proceeded to grind out and steel brush all the rust and the hole just got bigger and bigger! I could poke a screwdriver through the fender and into the wheel well. In any case, I did some "Emergency repairs" as it was getting dark. When I couldn't see so well anymore, I shot a quick coat of primer on it to protect the area. I'll return to this next weekend.

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:19 am
by GripGreg
Busy, busy, busy! That's my fav steering wheel! =D>
Please don't forget to clean & feed it some food.
People tend to forget the wheel, upholstery & dashboard.
The dashboard is probably covered in vinyl like the door covers are.
I clean & feed mine about once a month or when it feels a little sticky.
I use Griot's Leather Rejuvenator from online. (Griot's.com)
Your seats look like leather too.
Great job. Curtis Mayfield sang "Keep On Pushin",,,,Greg

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:21 am
by sansouci
Tesa is non stick. You tuck the start point into the wire bundle and go from there. The tail end can get tucked or a bit of electrical tape to tidy the end. The original wire insulation gets toasted after 30 years in the engine compartment and you dont want to mess with it if possible.

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 3:03 pm
by songzunhuang
GripGreg wrote:Busy, busy, busy! That's my fav steering wheel! =D>
Please don't forget to clean & feed it some food.
People tend to forget the wheel, upholstery & dashboard.
The dashboard is probably covered in vinyl like the door covers are.
I clean & feed mine about once a month or when it feels a little sticky.
I use Griot's Leather Rejuvenator from online. (Griot's.com)
Your seats look like leather too.
Great job. Curtis Mayfield sang "Keep On Pushin",,,,Greg
Yup, I've gone through almost 3/4 a bottle of the Groits Leather Rejuvenator and the hides are much better than when I found it. The interior is looking better although it still needs attention. I got this speed stitch awl and some heavy duty coated thread to attack some of the splitting seams I have.

My Dash has seen better days. I may need to look into some options there. Been fascinated with the people who refinish and also some who recover. Interesting...