thehackmechanic

You need a speedo cable from a 2002 automatic; from http://www.bimmers.com/02/upgrades/transmission.html: 2002 Automatic speedometer cable Two versions of this cable are available. For pre-'75 cars, the cable is one long piece. For '75-'76 US models that still have the EGR/ Reactor Service mileage switch box, only the lower half of the cable needs to be replaced. Of course, the earlier cable can be used to bypass the switch box altogether. Cable, pre-'75 models: 62 12 1 351 720 Cable, lower half, '75-'76 models: 62 12 1 359 333

Great, thanks!

I was taking my 3.0CSi out for a leaf-peeping trip. I hadn't driven it in four months. I'm digging the foliage and enjoying the car when I start to smell hydraulic fluid. I check the brakes. Good. I try to shift gears, and find that the clutch pedal has very little action and the trani won't go into gear. Uh oh. About a mile later the clutch pedal goes right to the floor. I think back to my VW days (they had cable clutches that broke all the time). Yeah, you remember how to do this. I match engine RPMs (gently leaning the shift lever into gear while revving the engine) to allow both down and up shifting. I chug-chug-chug my way in 3rd as long as I can, drop it to second, do anything possible to avoid stopping, carefully and safely run one red light, and come to a full stop at a major intersection I can't possibly run by nudging the shift lever into neutral. I shut the car off, put it in first, and when the light turns green, turn the key and start it in gear, gently feeding gas and letting it cough-cough-cough until it gets going. Just enough spice to keep life interesting. Nice to know I still have that trick in the toolbox. I got it in the garage and up on jackstands, and it looks like it's the clutch master cylinder. This is not a high-turnover part, but man it is a 36 year old piece of hydraulics. So if this happens to you, you CAN still drive the car. If you're in a relatively rural area with few stop lights or signs, you probably can limp it home.

Anyone know of a shop that'll balance an 02 driveshaft in the Northeast? Last time I needed one done, I struck out here in Boston and sent it out west. --Rob

Yup, my garage looks just like that too. Except without the motorcycles. And the display cases. And the cool BMW-related brick-a-brack. And the retro diner tables and chairs. And with greasy crap everywhere.

Initially I had E30 bottlecaps on my '73. The bottlecaps had their stock 195/65 14s. They worked, but they looked a little tall. Then I happened across a set of E30 basketweaves (gold ones from a late convertible). I put on 195/60 14s (Generals). I have had no rubbing issues. However, they are noticeably shorter than the 195/65s, so much so that the space between the tire and the fender well seems wrong. The '73 has the tall springs to comply with US headlight regs. I found a set of pre-'73 springs that I'm installing. The point of all of this is that... I never thought I'd be the kind of guy who would change springs simply because the gap above the tire looked to big, but the human eye -- particularly the enthusiast eye -- is very sensitive to proportion. Be careful about going to anything too short. Of course, you could just use it as justification to buy those lowering springs you wanted anyway...

man that's a freaking scary picture. I used to carry enough tools to repair a small plane. Everywhere. Which included a small floor jack, the kind that comes in its own plastic box (which conveniently prevents it from rolling around in the trunk). These days, with my four-mile commute and me in my 51-year-old-with-a-bad-back dodage, I carry my AAA card. Smaller, lighter, and makes less noise. (actually, the stock jack is in the trunk of the '02) But if I did a road trip I'd certainly throw the floor jack in there.

oh my that's pretty

I do basically what you just described (put it on the max setting and let it bang in for about five seconds) and I've never had anything loosen up -- not flywheel nuts, not output shaft nuts. It'll be fine.

My bet is that you still have air in the lines. I just had this happen with my '99 M Coupe. Went to flush out 10 year old brake fluid with a Gunnison EZ Bleed, and accidentally drained the reservoir and got air into the lines. Ran tons of fluid through and pedal went to the floor but pumped up hard. Had to run more through. In the end it was just air. If you know your MC is new and good, and if the system was open, it's likely air.

Clean the 35 years of mung out out the hex sockets in the allen head bolts holding on the half-axle shafts. Use a little screwdriver to dig the dirt out. Undoing these hex bolts is so much easier and quicker with air tools. The reason that God made air tools and impact wrenches were to pull these halfshafts off. I think the hex heads are also less likely to strip when using an impact wrench (as opposed to twisting on a ratchet handle). Either way, make sure the hex bit is seated in there well (I tap mine with a small hammer first), then whacka-whackta WHEEEE and it's out. Repeat 12 times. But the other posters are right about the driveshaft nuts -- air tools don't help you there; there's no clearance.

Generally the condenser is changed along with the points. Have you cranked the engine over with the distributor cap off and verified that it's spinning? Have you looked at the rotor and electrical contacts under the cap and checked for corrosion?

It used to be that, with any overheating problem, if the radiator was not obviously brand spankin' new, you'd just throw a radiator and a thermostat in it. Now, with the cost of 2002 radiators so high and 320i radiators not being a five-minute four-bolt-swap, one has to be circumspect. Fortunately these cars are so simple and easy to work on that it's easy to do it piecemeal. I'd say replace the t-stat. Get the car up to operating temperature (or hotter). Reach down and feel the lower radiator hose (lower right). If it's not hot, the t-stat isn't opening up, and if the t-stat is new and the radiator ain't, it's the radiator's fault (poor flow). Once you're pulling the radiator, I think you'd be penny wise and pound foolish not to replace the water pump, but you can check it by spinning it. If it isn't leaking and if there isn't any play or grungyness in the bearing, you might get away with leaving it intact.

c.d.iesel's advice about ability to pass inspection is good. Here in Massachusetts you could not get this car inspected and on the road. That having been said, go into it with your eyes wide open. If it has fender rust like that, you MUST check for rust at the tops of the rear shock towers, at a bare minimum. I love these non-restored-rat-rods, and early tiis scream if the compression is good and the injection is working right, but unless you know how to weld, if you try to turn it into something it's not, it'll break both your bank and your heart.

Before you go crazy, open the throat and give it a blast of starting fluid and verify that it cranks over (that it has spark). Could've knocked something off.

it looks like one of those videos of an animal caught in a trap trying to gnaw its own leg off...

I think you'll find all the part numbers on the writeup that Ben Thongsai and Erik Frank did 12 years ago at http://www.bimmers.com/02/upgrades/transmission.html The 215mm versus 228mm clutch and flywheel are specific to the 2002 and have nothing to do with the 5-speed conversion. They intersect with the 5-speed conversion at the throwout bearing. As the write-up says: "either a 323i throw-out bearing if you are using a 228mm clutch setup, or a 320i throw-out bearing if you are using the 215mm clutch setup 323i bearing, for 228mm clutch: 21 51 1 204 525 320i bearing, for 215mm clutch: 21 51 1 225 168" So in either case YOU DON'T WANT TO USE THE THROWOUT BEARING THAT COMES WITH A 2002 "KIT." If you already have a good, well-surfaced 215mm flywheel, I would use it without a second thought unless your engine has some serious horsepower modifications. Doing a 5-speed conversion is enough parts, work, and money without changing things you don't really have to.

Uh, someone stole yer gas pedal?

My condolences, especially for your health issue. As you say, the car is just a car. But such things are not easy. The relationships we have with objects just scratch the surface of something far deeper. I tell my wife that, if I had to, I could live without the cars. It's living without the image of myself as "a car guy" that would be much more difficult.

Even undoing both sides, I still scrape the crap out of the underside of the fender lip doing it this way. I'm not concerned about this particular car, but in general I'd like to see if there's a better way (yeah, I know, there is -- just remove the whole assembly).

I'm following up on a post quite a while ago about changing front struts and springs without unbolting the strut housing from the bottom. The problem with most of the threaded-rod-claw-type spring compressors is that you tighten a nut that's permanently affixed at one end of the threaded rod, and it pulls the other end of the claw end down the thread. So if the strut is still in place under the wheel well, you can't put the nut at the top because then you can't reach it with a wrench, and if you put it at the bottom where you CAN reach it, the threaded end of the rod pokes up higher and higher, making it so that you can't pull the strut out. I've seen references to spring compressors that have the nuts the other way around, where you tighten the nuts and they move along the threaded rod. You have to use an open-end wrench and ooch it a 1/2 turn at a time (rather than a socket on a ratchet or an impact wrench), but it looks like you can pull the spring down with the strut still in place. Does anyone have a brand and model for this type? On a related note, as anyone tried the very cool looking Troy ME4098 hydraulic unit available at Amazon for $149? I think I may need to drop Christmas hints to the family on this one... --Rob

In preparation to swap my Bilstein Sports for a set of HDs, I have the front and rear suspension out of the not-quite-a-rat-rod-'73 2002. I thought that this was a perfect time to lower the car slightly (there's too big of a gap above the 195/60 14 tires). I read all the posts about cutting springs and decided to try it, but with the band saw in the machine shop at work, it took me an hour to cut one coil on one spring. I reconsidered. I remembered reading posts describing how the '73 and later US springs are higher for federal headlight height requirements. Then I thought... 25 years ago I parted out a 1971 2002ti, and some of the parts are still under the porch at my mom's house (bless her). I went over there and found several sets of springs (I'd also parted out a few 3.0CSs and a 2800CS), but two sets looked like '02 springs. One set clearly was, in fact, slightly shorter '02ti front springs (the number of coils and the diameter were the same, with the spring perch section of the top and bottom on opposite sides), and one set I assumed was rear '02ti springs, slightly fatter than the front ones, with the upper and spring perches on the same side like the stock rear springs. Then I noticed... the number of coils isn't the same. The '02 spring is the rusty one on the right with six coils; the other spring is the black one on the left with seven coils. And it's slightly taller, not shorter, than the 2002 spring (which of course I confirmed AFTER I had put it in and the back of the car was comically high). Anyone know what these are from? --Rob

If your shocks and struts are working but just tired, I'd do things in this order. If your shocks and struts are totally blown or seized, you'd probably move #4 up. 1) Make sure your ball joints are recent (not 36 year old riveted ones). 2) Get some modern 196/60 14 rubber on inexpensive 14" wheels (e.g. E30 bottlecaps) 3) Fatter sway bars, like Suspension Techniques 22mm front / 19mm rear. If you're short on cash just do the front one. These do show up used. 4) Bilstein HDs on stock springs. Cut a coil if you want the car a bit lower.