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And So It Begins


thehackmechanic

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Actually, it began quite a while ago. I've been posting tidbits to the main forum. Last night, someone politely said "dude, this stuff really belongs in a blog instead of a new post every night." He's right.

So let me rewind the tape.

I've had about 25 2002s, but because I had a one-car garage for nearly 20 years, and that garage held my 3.0CSi, I was 2002-less for those 20 years. When my new garage got built in 2005, the sheetrock literally wasn't up on the wall before I started to buy 02s again. My first one was an Agave '73 tii, largely rust-free, that I bought to flip. It had just been repainted but the owner had a disagreement with the body shop over a run in the paint, and yanked it out with all the glass, trim, and interior out of the car. I bought it and reassembled it. While that was ongoing, I happened into a cheap Getrag 245 and thought, what the hell, I've done this before.

Wait, how did I do this before?

And then I remembered -- the last 5-speed I did was 20 years prior, when I was young and childless and flush with more disposable income, and I simply called Jim Rowe at The Metric Mechanic (when Jim still wrote for Roundel) and said "send me everything I need." So the shortened shift platform, the weird Metric cantilievered mounting bracket, shortened driveshaft, everything, all came from Metric.

As I started that 5-speed install in about 2006, I read Ben Thongsai's page on bimmers.com (http://www.bimmers.com/02/upgrades/transmission.html, still in my opinion the bible) and followed his advise on simply using a set of factory mounting tabs. I liked that. I can be very enamored of inexpensive, simple solutions. But, oh my word, the measuring... I spent several nights beneath the car trying to get that magic "80mm above the frame rail" measurement correct. I borrowed a wire-feed welder to tack the tabs in place. I'd never used one. What a horror. What an abomination. The welds looked like they'd fall off at any moment. I wound up drilling through the transmission hump to brace the tabs with nuts and bolts. I always felt badly that I'd done that to the car. True to my deal with myself, I sold that car, a month before the economy tanked in the summer of 2008. I felt like a freaking genius.

Then, tii values started their rise, and I felt like a freaking idiot.

I bought another 2002, a beater, not-quite-a-rat-rod, that I promised to myself not to try to turn into something it wasn't. I failed miserably. I found a CL ad by someone local selling a full 5-speed kit he pulled out of a rusty car. I met the guy. He knew BMW CCA founder Michel Potheau and other old-timers I'd met. I got everything -- the Getrag 245, the driveshaft, the shortened shift platform, the long speedo cable -- for $300. Seemed like a nice guy. Seemed like a steal.

Except that, #1, everything isn't really EVERYTHING. There's the new guibo, new clutch slave, new clutch hose, new clutch disc and pressure plate, new center support bearing, and of course as many of the rubber seals as you want to prophylactically attack, so it's never cheap.

And it didn't include mounting tabs or a center support bracket. At that point I found out about Rob Torres at 2002haus and his U-shaped bracket. I ordered one and used it for the installation. I loved the easy, no-drill mounting, and for a lightly-driven car, the cantilevered design didn't concern me.

But the real problem was that, after I installed the trani, I took the car for a drive down the street, and BANG! The rear wheels locked up. And then they unlocked. It was bizarre. I went twice around the block, thinking "what the..." and then it did it again. I put the car up on the lift and revved it up, but could never catch it in the act while it was up. I thought, well, not sure what to make of this... and drove it again, and it happened again. BANG! I e-mailed the seller and he claimed the box worked when he pulled it out of the car. And who knows, it probably did. But he didn't offer to kick me back any money. Ah well. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.

I had little choice but to pull the trani out. I could've put the four-speed back in -- there was nothing wrong with it -- but I was in for a penny, in for pound. I found another inexpensive Getrag 245 that was mislabeled on eBay. I bought it and waited for it to arrive. A week went by. Nothing. I e-mailed the seller. Nothing. A month went by. I was about to escalate things to a formal dispute when the guy contacted me and said that his son had just been in a terrible automobile accident and he and his wife were caring for him, and that he didn't give a shit about the trani, he'd refund my money if I wanted, or if I wanted to wait him out, he'd eventually send it, but not soon. It was one of those moments where you realize that, if you're impatient with someone because they're not hopping to meet your needs, or if they're non-responsive, you never really know what's going on with them. It could be something tragic has just happened, and you don't want to be that person who puts the hammer down on them. I waited him out. And, true to his word, he sent it. People are usually like that if you give them a chance.

About a year and a half ago I bought the '72tii I have now. The 4-speed in it is flawless. No second gear munch. Recently rebuilt shifter. Tight. I had no reason to change it to a 5-speed.

But, I was on a business trip where I had to drive a truck towing a 32' trailer from Boston to Niagra Falls. I methodically checked eBay in every city on the way there and back for interesting things to buy. Seats. Wheels. And drivetrain components. After all, I had a trailer. I found another Getrag 245 in Buffalo for $125. You can't pass that up, right? Right. (Unfortunately I got caught in lake effect snow on the drive back, and felt like a bloody idiot that I'd jeopardized the drive by stopping for a transmission I didn't need, but that's another story.)

Having the trani, over the course of a year, I cruised eBay and CL for the other conversion parts. I found a long speedo cable on eBay with a $20 BIN that didn't list whether it was from an auto or stick. I messaged the seller the question, and when it came back "auto," I bought it immediately. I found, also on eBay, a shortened shifter kit of dubious provenance for $30. I found a shortened shaft locally for $75, from an abandoned project, painted with flames (!). I bought one of Mark Preisendorf's braided clutch slave cylinder lines for $30 before he absconded with some folks' money (including mine, by the way, for an '02 radiator).

As some of you know, I was planning on driving the tii to The Vintage this past Memorial Day, but was felled by last-minute cooling system problems. After those were solved, though, I did get to drive it a fair amount around New England in late summer and fall. Enough to remind me how tiring it is to hear the engine spinning 4200 at 70mph for hours at a stretch (though the engine doesn't mind it at all).

So, about a week ago, the tii went up on the lift, and The Great 5-Speed Installation began.

(to be continued...)

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