The Byzanz Sedan That Needs Some Love

[m3f_MMMGP]

$12.93?



Blinker fluid and muffler bearings all day long.

[m3f_egebhardt]

Update:

RMeuropean got the new tranny pan seal to me so I installed that and filled the transmission with Pentosin ATF1. 5.2 Liters this time. Spot on! It can be a couple tenths of a liter here or there. On this car, only 4.2 liters came out so I know it was a quart low after 166,600 miles. It still worked fine before the oil change. Also, I noticed a dent in the pan. The sealing surface was still flat so it doesn't appear necessary to replace it. I won't be able to do a test-drive for another week or so because my driveway is being redone. The Byzanz is stuck in the garage until it's finished. I used the same procedure as I did with my other automatic sedan seen here:

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showp...0&postcount=61



Then I cleaned some stickers off the back window.

[m3f_englishtom1596q]

great progress so far! How bad is the paint? too far past a good professional buffing?

[m3f_crqflier]

Late to the show, but this great stuff.


Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[m3f_egebhardt]

great progress so far! How bad is the paint? too far past a good professional buffing?

It's not worth paying for a buff when that money could be better spent towards paint or a shocks, which are all original. I'll try buffing and waxing it myself initially. Maybe that will surprise me but I doubt it. Ultimately, I want to keep this clean and rust-free with a clean title.

Late to the show, but this great stuff.

Thanks!

[m3f_egebhardt]

Update:

Although the OEM Alpine C33 display was nice and bright and the volume knob worked fair at best, the radio would cut-out intermittently. On some drives, the radio would just start working. Other times it would not come on at all, although the display said it was on. If you crank the volume you would only hear fuzz.


I had a JVC KD-R860BT stereo I bought 7-7-16 so I put that in. Not only does it work, it sounds MUCH better in combination with those BSW speakers in the doors. I wanted to stay OEM on the head unit but it just wasn't working. If I find a fix, maybe the C33 will go back in. Anyone? Since this will never be a show-car or a race-car, I'd like to have a working stereo.


You can also see the center vent I got for free. I has all the vanes intact and works nice but it droops. It was from a convertible that got cooked daily.


Lastly, Firestone had a sale on Lifetime Alignments for $150 that expired at 5pm yesterday. I didn't have time to get the car down there but they let me buy the option anyway. More to come there.

[m3f_haus]

I wonder if you could put a couple of wedges in the lower vent slats and warm it with a heat gun to straighten them out?

[m3f_egebhardt]

Yeah. I'll try that. Maybe some foam wedges. I could leave them there for a while too. It's going to be hard to reverse 20 years of heat and sun.


As much as I like the LTWs, the Lux package cars only came with Contours. I searched high and low for some with good tires because mine were bald and rashed. Contours with Potenza RE760 tires were posted in LA on FBook. Yada, Yada, three weeks later, Daniel brought them up from LA. That took more patience than I'm used to. Daniel's front tires turned out to be trashed and my rear tires were bald on rashed rims so I posted the beat, staggered combination on Clist for $250 and they sold in 18 hours. In the end, I paid $150 for non-rashed rear wheels with 1 year old Potenza RE760's. That was a lot of work but it describes the effort necessary to keep costs down.


Tonight, I washed, waxed and mounted the newer rear Contours and took them for a 12 mile test drive on 280. No wobbles or vibration. I got lucky!

[m3f_egebhardt]

Saturday was alignment day.


I get to Firestone and supposedly, I was next. 5 cars later, I was next.

I wrote it down. 0.1 total toe front and 0.1 total toe rear. I get my info here:

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...or-your-E36-M3


2 hours later, Mario comes back with the specs. .34 total toe front and .35 total toe rear. WTF. It's like MMMGP says when you give them the specs you want, "it's the same look a dog makes when there is a new sound, the head tilts from side to side."


Mario knew what I wanted but he said the computer would have shown him the out-of-spec RED color. YES!! That's what I want. I told him to leave it. I want to replace some bushings and joints anyway so I'll be back.


It ALWAYS takes at least 2 tries to get the alignment how I want it and this trip was no exception. Those guys are so programmed to do what the computer says so they quit thinking. What I did learn is that the car is nice and straight.

[m3f_egebhardt]

The in-laws have since gone back to Pennsylvania so I'm back on the job.


I've replaced 9 sets of RTABs in my day, however, they have all been replaced with poly bushings. Poly bushings just pop in by hand and turn freely with no alignment necessary. OEM RTABs need to be pressed in and the register/console/carrier is bolted to it. The carrier stays in 1 position and suspension pivot action twists the rubber in the OEM bushing. There is some debate on how to orient the carrier when you bolt it on and you can buy a special tool. I used a Sharpie to mark the location of the (3) M12x43mm carrier bolts since they affect wheel alignment. Once those (3) were marked, I removed them. Then I used a 2x4 to mark orientation of the carrier to the rear control arm before removing the M12x70 carrier bolt. I marked where the 2x4 meets the rear alxe (about 1/2" above center). Upon reinstallation of the new RTAB, once pressed in, I put the carrier back in the same place. See picture.


Before I jacked up the car, I measured 13.25" from hub-center to wheel-well. The distance was the same on each side but I didn't use that info to align my RTAB carriers.


Once you lock down the carrier bolt (18mm on both sides, 80ft/lb), you can feel how the rubber rotates 10 degrees +or- pretty easily. This told me the orientation doesn't have to be perfect. At $30 for a set of Lemforders (33-32-6-770-817), this is less than ~$100 for AKG Black 90A Poly RTABs I've used before.

[m3f_egebhardt]

Next, my ball joint press kit arrived so I dug into the rear joint replacement job. The kit was $109 Amazon Prime. I got the 2 rear outer joints pressed out and new ones in on the passenger side in about an hour. Note: the 4 bolts needed to be removed that hold the brake shield so I had more room to work with. Then the puzzle begins. It takes some time to figure out what sleeves to use when and where. I pressed the new joints in as close to center as possible, given the parts I had. They are in the same spot as the originals, give or take .5mm. I hope that doesn't matter.


Comparing the old and new joints: I could definitely feel some slop in the bottom joint. The top joint may have some play too.


Upon re-assembly, I hit a snag when the brake rotor wouldn't go back on. The rotor wouldn't go back on because the E-brake shoes were out too far. The shoes were out too far because the E-brake cable did not relax the cam assembly enough. The rotor fit fine before I took it apart yesterday so something changed. Something is keeping the cable in too far. The cable end (red arrow) should protrude just past the face (2 green arrows). At least that's how it is on the driver side.


I checked and the E-brake cable housing (34-41-1-160-134) is fully seated into the boss on the back of the rear trailing arm. Nothing is rusted together. The housing goes in and out easily. Dry California car, obviously. My research shows a lot of housings rusted into the rear trailing arm.


Update:

I fixed the E-brake cable mystery. The cable housing fell out of it's housing up front in the tunnel. The cable housing has 2 stops or bosses: front and rear. The rear boss was seated but the front boss in the driveshaft tunnel backed out. I could barely see it with a flashlight but I couldn't get a picture. I grabbed a 3-foot rod and poked it up in the tunnel and touched the housing. It popped back into place like it was begging for a nudge. Yippee! I really didn't want to pull the exhaust and driveshaft to re-seat that cable housing. That turned out to be a 3 hour delay believe it or not. If that happens again it'll be a 15 minute delay. Now onto the driver side!

[m3f_egebhardt]

Update:

I got the remaining 2 joints installed on the Driver side last night. There was 1 hour of beating, heating and PB blaster applied to the eccentric bolt at the bottom. My lord. There's always a challenge. Below is a procedure for joint replacement that I used. Initially, I'm going to throw down some notes, then polish it later.


1 - take off rear wheels and calipers and brake rotors

2 - take off E-brake shoes and 4 short bolts (10mm and 14mm) to move the dust shield towards you so it is out of the way a bit.

3 - Remove the top bolt (18mm)

4 - Remove the bottom eccentric but only loosen the nut first. Then tap the bolt straight out. It's smart to mark the orientation of the eccentric bolt first.

5 - Yank and pull the entire rear system out. You will notice when the axle separates at the diff about an inch. Then you have the assembly far enough out to get better access pulling the joints.

6 - Press out the joints. I used a 32mm socket as the press. It tears the rubber boots but who cares. Now is the fiddly part depending on the press kit you have. It's a puzzle.

7 - Scotchbrite the inner bores and put anti-seize in there. Use a 36mm to press the joint back in. Try to get the joint centered within the bore. It can be hard to be within .1mm of the original location, but you can get close, depending on the fit of the 36mm socket

8 - put it all back together. Don't forget to pop the CV joint back into the splined cavity of the diff.

9 - try not to tug on the parking brake cable housing. You don't want the ends of the cable housing to come out of the front and rear bosses.

[m3f_egebhardt]

Sunday was Alignment #2. Different guy this time. I gave Steve the specs to give to Sam. Then I spoke to Sam. Then I put the specs on painters tape on the side of the car. Then I checked with Sam every 15 minutes. Bingo! He got very close.

I requested .1 total toe on front

I requested .2 total toe on back

I don't have anything special for camber so he did what he could with the eccentric bolts in back. This was better than expected. He even got the steering wheel straighter. I'm done doing alignment-affecting bushings and joints on this car for now so I'll leave more bushings alone.


On the way home, I took the long way. I was hoping to see if I could feel any better handling since 3 of the 4 ball joints had play in them. I couldn't tell. Maybe I will in time but I could definitely feel a straighter alignment. It just rolls better.


This car has seen a lot of work so far. I didn't plan on doing quite so much work on the Byzanz but time and money fell from the sky so I did it anyway. Again, between the auto-tranny and bad paint, this car will never be super-valuable. A new radiator was installed in April, 2014. There are no leaks now but a coolant flush wouldn't hurt. Maybe that's next!

[m3f_Doghouse]

Well, you've achieved your initial goals with this one I think.

Saved, rejuvenated and given a new lease on life.

[m3f_egebhardt]

I think you are right. Magma leather has proven harder to find than I expected. A cheap paint job is $3,000. Some minor engine oil weeps exist. Nothing drips, but like the typical Vanos oil line weep, there is a weep from the front timing cover. That's a big job.