'Honu' #2588935

[stevebo77]

Another quick day of budget minded fixes.

After reading 'Toms BMW 2002 Ignition Timing' blog (http://laudeman.com/bmw_ignition.html) and knowing that I really needed to get that misfire taken care of, I followed his simple steps and now have a truly happy running 02!

Why did I do it that way? Well, I don't have the proper timing gear; am stuck at home; too much time on my hands; impatient.

After getting the timing set and hovering over the engine bay pushing the throttle and listening to the beautiful sounds, a most unfortunate shriek caught my ears.. The unmistakable sound of the mechanical fan clutch spinning loose or wobbling. Hell! I guess I wanted to put an electric fan in anyway.

Also performed the most lowbrow fix on this car to date! The shifter was sloppy.. sloppier than anyone else here who said their shifters were sloppy

So sloppy that you could fly out the passenger window when shifting quickly and driving aggressively. So sloppy-- okay okay enuf.

I won't go into detail about what fixed the shifter to rock solid performance without buying proper bushings and related kit- I don't want to incur the scorn of purists Seedless to Nay, it's done and it's a thing of beauty. And before your imagination goes wild- no, not zipties

And now I sit waiting.. just need that box of headlights and electric fan to show up. Annnnnny time now ....

[stevebo77]

Took her for a shake down today after hand-tweaking the dizzy angle yesterday. She sounds great and accelerates even better.. BUT

I'm finding that it's pretty much too easy to break the rear wheels loose. I know that's somewhat desirable, sure. But I'm wondering if this is the case with all your 02's? I know my rear tires are a bit old and stiff (new ones arrive on Wedneday yaaaay!), but even on clean dry pavement, I'm fish tailing on shifted gears at 50mph.. that's fun, but terrifying and sure to get me the wrong kind of attention. I'm nervous about getting on east Big Island's twisting highspeed roads when they're sheeted in rain.

Is this just how these cars behave?

FWIW and as far as I know, I'm running the stock normal diff.. pretty sure that this isn't (or wasn't upgraded to) an s40.. but haven't looked at it since it's caked with crud. Who knows tho, there have been a lot of surprises on this vehicle. Carb is 32/36 and is "... a special carburetor. That has a secondary pump diaphragm and is vacuum operated. When the secondary opens, you get an extra shot of gas ..." (quoting bigjim5551212 from this thread). Have no clue about my cam or any of the engine internals.. seeing as it all works, sounds good, and doesn't offend, I haven't bothered to start pulling things apart to see if there are other special power prizes to be discovered.

Anyway, if you have any similar sideways experience with your 02 and want to tell me to just shut up and enjoy the shifting drifting, I'll be happy to accept it as gospel.

[hawaii-5-0]

Steve

do you still have the free stuff?

Eric in Hilo (hawaii-5-0)

[stevebo77]

you betcha!

drop an email when you want to swing up and browse my junk pile

I live up in Kaumana (last neighborhood before Saddle Rd gets fun).

[hawaii-5-0]

steve

How about sat (tomorrow) ?

Erc (hawaii-5-0)

[Colin]

I think once you get new rubber on it, it'll feel totally different. My engine pulls really hard but I certainly have to really be hooning to break the back tires free. Grip is tremendous most of the time.

[hawaii-5-0]

Hi Steve

email me off list (ebjang@juno.com)

or give me a call 959-5054 or 960-0521 (cell) if you have time this week end to show me you free stuff

aloha

Eric

[stevebo77]

I think once you get new rubber on it, it'll feel totally different. My engine pulls really hard but I certainly have to really be hooning to break the back tires free. Grip is tremendous most of the time.

Sweet. I really look forward to getting those this week then! It will also help to get all four matching too, the spare that is mounted at the moment is a totally different size- ugh.

And @ Eric, thanks for stopping by today! Great seeing and touching another 02. Yours looks great and nice to meet ya!

[stevebo77]

Geico just made the top of my shit list this week. I've been with them for eons, but while trying to get this 02 added to the policy we've gone about 10 rounds in emails.. no instant quotes online (what's the effing point of online then??), and nothing but stupid grief from the Geico CSRs in email. Back and forth with them wanting a title:

"No, I can't get that (won't attempt to get that) until I have insurance in hand so I can just inspect, register, and title the car in one trip"

We need a bill of sale then:

"No, this was a craigslist transaction with a simply signed title.. who uses bills of sale for $800 cars anyway?"

We need the vin:

"You should have asked for that when I was trying to add the car online in the first place".

We need...

"Eff it, I'm going to visit my favorite girl, 'Flo', at Progressive."

Progressive was done in 5 minutes from online quote to online charge.

For the record, this car plus a 32 year old male with a clean record == $140 every 6 months for low end coverage.

[jgerock]

I really like your project blog. Nothing like a "low" budget buildup.

Didn't your fingers get tired of holding down the spray can nozzle? I've seen a cheap plastic trigger that snaps on cans - did you try one?

I have a center grill removed from my 73 that has a slight dent in one side. Hit the "email" button next to my profile and we can discuss how to get it to you "on the cheap".

[stevebo77]

Psh no way! That spray can handler costs $3.99!

And my finger was numb for exactly 6 days after painting.

Much obliged for the offer, will email you about this slightly dented grille soon.

[stevebo77]

Thanks for the bonus bimmer patch in my envelope today Tilux!

I ordered some door pin switches off of him at ebay a couple weeks back and happily installed them today, only to find that the light stayed on even with both doors --

*door bell just rang* Yaaaay headlights and electric fan just arrived together Good damn day *

-- back to the doors. I just about lost my mind trying to figure out what was happening there. Then I finally started feeling around the inside of the door itself and discovered the factory holes just opposite the pin switches.. Great. What manner of rubber plug do I need to buy now?

Have any of you a photo (or part number or genius mod) of what plugs those holes on the door to allow for pin switch closing?

For now, a most unglorious set of carriage bolts are installed in those holes to provide the necessary push. That's a little too lowbrow, even for me Plus it's probably going to start damaging the switches before too long.

Photos of the just-now-arrived goodies:

New fan and headlights:

I'm willing to bet my motor that the included h4 bulbs (at the low price of this set) will be absolute shit and will go out in 1 week hehe. I'll be picking up a proper set of name brand bulbs next time I'm in town.. I'm not so sure about those blue bulbs that are in the housing either, I think I'll pull those out and replace with orange bulbs that will link into the turn signal leads.

The fan is a simple 12" push/pull.. I'm going to mount in front of the rad.

Time to go play!

[Nepa2002]

Change that blue bulb to a white L.e.d. worked great and looks great with parking lights on heres my thread

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,324872/

the first 3 pictures are just with parking lights on and the little L.e.d. parking lights in the headlight

if u scroll through you will see my headlights on with H4 Sylvania Silver star Ultra's

loving the mods please post some info on the electric fan and how cool your temps get or if they go up ( lets us know)

[stevebo77]

Change that blue bulb to a white L.e.d. worked great and looks great with parking lights on heres my thread

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,324872/

the first 3 pictures are just with parking lights on and the little L.e.d. parking lights in the headlight

if u scroll through you will see my headlights on with H4 Sylvania Silver star Ultra's

loving the mods please post some info on the electric fan and how cool your temps get or if they go up ( lets us know)

Haha it was actually your thread that inspired me to go headlight shopping

Well the results are mixed. I love the new light output, its vastly improved.

The set I purchased, however, was cheap and crappy. In fact, one of the lenses cracked while I was fastening the trim ring down (only 1.5 turns of the screws even!). So, while I really like the look of these lamps, I'll not be keeping them long, shopping around tonight for some proper (high dollar) conversions. The blue LED ring.. not sure about it.. it brings out the color of my blue paint, but feels cheap too.

At least it was an inexpensive experiment

*************Much later that night....

Okay, I spent hours and hours and hours tonight researching my next step.. All research avenues kept leading me to one answer: HID retrofit. After reading a few other forums about it and seeing the many ways to go about it, I'm pretty happy with the decision.

This will be another experiment in two parts. I purchased another set of sealed beam conversions that have been mentioned here before at these forums in conjunction with HID converts. If the cutoff/glare/lightbleed is unacceptable I'll then take the next step and perform the projector lamp inside of a 7 inch lamp graft. I don't look forward to the grafting project, but also don't want to be a nighttime nuisance. We'll see!

Purchased tonight was the conversion lamps; a bi-xenon (for Lo/Hi) HID h4 kit including the burners, ballasts, and whatnot; an h4 to HID wiring and relay harness kit; some extra relays for the fuel pump and electric fan; a Bussmann 6 fuse block ('normal' blade type ATC fuses) to have a nice fuse block for new lights, future fog lights, fuel pump, fan, and other future additions; a box of various ATC fuses.

Kinda got carried away there at Amazon.com tonight, but the projects will be fun

Okay, take my credit card away and send me to bed. I'm terrible at this sleeping thing.

[Nepa2002]

all i gotta say is i hope you bought glass and learned your lesson. im kinda sad these didnt work because of how nice and clear they are but plastics plastic