engine and drivetrain Proud New 75' Inka 02 Owner!

[7sis]

Hi,

I'm new on this forum as I'm a proud new owner of a 1975 Inka Orange 2002!

 

 

During the buying process, I used this forum a lot to guide me on what to check and to help me estimate the condition of the car. To be honest, I was quite nervous buying a 40 years old car and one of the big reason I jumped in is that I found this community which shares excellent information. So thanks to the faq, I got an 02!

I think the car is in good shape but it is obviously not perfect. The body is pretty solid and interior in excellent condition. I got the car inspected by an experienced BMW mechanic and from what we saw here is my initial "to do" list:
- Speedo is busted: needle going everywhere
- Front main seal leaking
- Header is cracked
- Exhaust joint between downpipe and rear seems broken...pretty loose.
- Worned guibo: still drivable but there are noticeable vibrations when driving the car.
- Alternator bracket is loose.
- The worse seems to be the engine compression which is uneven: 83, 102, 91, 112...

My current plan, is to keep the car for a while (10 years or so) and to fix it bit by bit through the years while driving it only in the summer weekends... I live in QC... Winter is long and harsh... I am really a noob mechanic but I think this could be à great opportunity to learn.

For now, my plan was to do an oil change and drive the car! I'll see if this main seal gets worse through the weeks, if I see the engine consumes to much oil, I'll get it fixed.

Should I be more concerned about these issues?

Thanks for your feedback!

Edited May 3, 2014 by 7sis

[tashakes]

Congrats. Looks very nice and complete. Hopefully not too much rust. The compression numbers look pretty bad so you probably want to tackle that first.

Good luck and enjoy.

Edited May 3, 2014 by tashakes

[2002dean]

Welcome to club! Definitely one of my favorite colors. I'd try to figure out the cause of the low compression numbers also. The rest of the stuff relatively easy fixes. 

[roadhog0]

If you didnt do your compression test at WOT it can throw your numbers off. If you can get em in the 100-110 range you'll probably be ok, my motor ran that way for many years and many very reliable miles, just burned a little oil... Also, it could be something as simple as valve lash set wrong. On the driveline vibration, check your center bearing as well. Welcome to the club mate, you'll enjoy it!

[Stuart]

Very nice!  Welcome.  You will learn lots here. 

[OriginalOwner]

If the interior looks as good as the exterior, that would be exactly the sort of compromise car I would buy.  I did that years ago with a Chevy truck, it had just been body-worked and painted and looked great, but most of the mechanical systems were shot.  I'm a decent mechanic and it didn't take long to get it back on the road, and it already looked good.

 

So Congrats, you're on the way to becoming a great 2002 mechanic.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

[7sis]

Nathan, compression test was most probably not ran at WOT... I should have done more research before they did it.... I'll ask the garage on monday. But knowing that you ran yours for a while with the engine in a similar state is making me more comfortable driving the car.

Carl, as far as the interior, I think this is one of the strongest point of the car. Only broken stuff is drivers reclining seat mechanism, speedo and cigarette lighter! Every single light in the dash seems to be functional .

Forgive me for the poor cellphone pics, I'll get some better ones in the future.

Julien

[glemon]

Looks Good, have fun, similar to the car I bought last fall, 74, Inka, passable exterior and good interior, but has some mechanical needs, Greg

Edited May 3, 2014 by glemon

[Mike Self]

Congrats on the purchase, and welcome to the madness fraternity/sorority!

 

Thoughts on some of your problems:

 

 Speedo is busted: needle going everywhere--could be speedo, could be cable.  If you can't find archive info on the board, drop me an e-mail; I did a column on fixing wonky speedometers.  
- Exhaust joint between downpipe and rear seems broken...pretty loose.  this joint is a pair of bellmouth flanges with a clamp in between.  If the clamp is loose or missing, that's a pretty easy fix.  If the bellmouths are worn/rusted off, you can cut off the remains of the bellmouths, sleeve the joint and clamp.  Make sure the bracket that supports the front end of the center pipe (attached to the tranny) is present, complete with rubber mounts and clamp.  It's very necessary to prevent the center pipe from fracturing.  They are often missing, especially when a muffler shop replaces the exhaust system.
- Worn guibo: still drivable but there are noticeable vibrations when driving the car. In addition to the guibo, check the center support bearing, the rear tranny mount (if gone, soft etc, replace with one from an E21 320 or a Bavaria--larger and sturdier) and while you're at it, the U-joint at the rear of the driveshaft.  Wear in any of these items (in addition  to the guibo) can cause driveline vibration

- Alternator bracket is loose.  The alternator is fastened to its bracket via rubber bushings; these go bad over time (rather quickly, actually) and cause all sorts of problems--belt wear due to the alternator being cocked in relation to the crank and water pump pulley, funny noises etc.  Suggest replacing all the alternator mounting bushings with urethane ones (someone on the board has 'em--most likely Blunt).  That'll solve that problem.  Also make sure the  heavy brown wire running from the back side of the alternator to the engine block is in place and not broken/frayed.  That's the alternator's ground, and without it the alt won't charge.  

inop cigarette lighter:  check the fuse; in fact, check/clean all  the fuses...they do wear out and get corroded, and should always be the first thing you inspect when you have an electrical problem.

inop seat recliner mechanism:  give us additional details on what it's doing/not doing and we should be able to pinpoint the problem.  Mechanism is relatively simple and easily repaired once you see how it works.

 

Anyway, happy troubleshooting/tinkering

 

mike

[babraham]

That interior is immaculate.  Looks great!

[7sis]

Thanks for the tech tips, for The speedo, I'll do some research in the forum archives for sure.

Yes I'm glad the interior is in good shape, I don't have any soother skills!

[pierre02ti]

" I live in QC... Winter is long and harsh." you are not alone! :-) 

 

The advantage, if it can be, is that you will have few months per year to work on problems.

 

As mentioned, mechanical issues are far better than any rust, body, paint issues.

 

Welcome in the club. Nice car.

 

Pierre

69ti

Montreal

[7sis]

Excellent Pierre ! I see I'm not alone! I live in the Montreal region as well. Lets gather sometime this summer if you'd like. I might be going to the Hudson car show this summer (July 5th). It could be nice to have an 02 representation there.

Julien

Edited May 4, 2014 by 7sis

[pierre02ti]

Hi Julien,

 

You can contact me direct:

 

leslonguez@sympatico.ca

 

I am also in this club:

 

www.vea.qc.ca

 

I will take a note for the Hudson car show.

 

Salut!

[gliding_serpent2]

Looks great. Love the color