AustrianVespaGuy

Hey, thanks for those really nice pics! How do you go about checking the lower ball joint though? Just jack the wheel up and try to wiggle it around? -Carl

The big one in the middle at the top of the strut tower in the engine bay or is there another big one down by the wheel somewhere? Just not quite sure what you mean. -Carl

I'm getting a 'clunking' sound from my front wheel, right I think, during a left turn. I can only really hear it at slow speeds; particularly like when turning into a parking place. It may also be there when braking to a stop in a straight line, but that's less obvious at any rate. Seemed like maybe a loose lug nut at first, but no dice. My second thought was the front wheel bearings because they did have some small play. So, I replaced the wheel bearings on both sides and tightened according to the manual, but it's still there! Any other ideas as to what this could be? My next guess is maybe something in the steering linkage, but I don't have a good idea what in the steering could cause something like this. Any help appreciated! -Carl

Alright, thanks for the tips. I'll both check for air leaks again and lean out the idle mixture. I have been trying to keep all of the turns even, but I won't this time.

Oh yeah, just the stock camshaft distributor, hence the more mild jetting than many of you would maybe expect. Really idles and runs well everywhere else. -Carl

Any good dual sidedraft tuners out there? I'm getting backfiring through the carbs (DCOMs) at like ~5-10% throttle at cruising speeds. Most noticeable when I'm on the interstate going down a hill ~3500 RPM with just enough throttle to maintain speed. On the flat and uphill is enough throttle that it goes away, and also no problems when the throttle is fully closed. (Maybe a hair rich, as the exhaust thumps a little.) Also exists in lower RPM bands but less prominent. I've already played with the timing a lot which doesn't seem to help very much. I also tried richer idle jets 65 F8s which seemed to help some, but certainly didn't fix the problem and were way to rich everywhere else, so I put the 58s back in. Carbs are decently balanced so I don't think that's the problem either. Didn't always have this problem and it seemed to start about the same time that I installed new plastic floats. I couldn't find any info on how high to set the plastic ones, only the brass ones, so I originally set them at the same level as the brass floats but then set them a little higher when I noticed this problem. Again didn't seem to change much of anything. Any other ideas? Cause I'm running out. Settings are: 30 chokes 58 F23 idle (~F7, weird DCOM number) 125 mains 160 air correctors Can't remember what emulsion tubes but I've checked them before they are nothing way out of whack Thanks for any help! -Carl

Damn, so you're saying that the $60 ebay bracket won't work then? That's unfortunate. My car never had any A/C, so I don't have a Behr bracket to mount to either. Southern Air says that they have a 'universal' bracket with their kit. Maybe I'll go try and look at it to see if I can come up with a way to make it work. -Carl

So after moving to South Carolina, I really think it's going to be too hot to live without A/C for much longer. So, I'm going to try out a Southern Air kit: http://www.southernrods.com/categories/heating-and-cooling/heating-and-cooling-systems/products/product-20.html as they're cheap and just down the street from me Oh, and the in-car evaporator unit is only 5"x10"x16", so according to my 'CLUE' game box, it *should* fit without loosing my glovebox! What I'd like to know is, has anyone tried this compressor mounting bracket on ebay? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Sanden-Compressor-Bracket-BMW-318i-320i-518_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247QQcategoryZ33543QQihZ009QQitemZ190154801485QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V Does it fit/work on 2002s? Just figured I'd ask before dropping the $60 on it, but it looks promising. Also, has anyone figured out a slick method for plugging up the heater-box hole in the firewall and passing all of the required lines through it? Any comments appreciated, and I'll report back as I make progress on this. -Carl

Hey Johnup, I see you went with ITBs on your megasquirt. I have an extra lynx manifold sitting around and have been wondering if I could run megasquirt with a single TWM throttle body on the lynx. Would you care to offer any comments on this idea? Thanks! -Carl ceichel at clemson dot edu

For any 2002 megasquirters out there: First of all, is there a designated '02 megasquirt forum somewhere, or is this general discussion forum the best place to discuss megasquirt stuff? Anyway, I'm in the process of assembling my megasquirt board and rounding up all of the other parts I need for the conversion, and I'm wondering if the stock hard plastic fuel lines are good enough to handle the high fuel injection pressures or not. If not, should I get and bend some good metal hard lines? What/where can I find such a thing? Or, should I maybe just run the high pressure rubber lines the whole length of the car? Thanks for any tips! -Carl

New 02 for me, but been this way for the few months that I've had it. I originally thought it was just out of adjustment, but after adjusting the rear brakes and pedal height and it's still there, I'm starting to wonder. I'll look into booster more maybe. How tough is it to get that thing in and out of there? -Carl

Did the pump-pedal-and-start-engine-test and I think the booster is working properly. Brakes feel pretty good, at least until the travel runs out. I'd estimate pedal gets not quite halfway to the floor when this happens. About 2/3 of what I would expect of full braking power, and then hits this solid stop. Maybe something with caliper piston travel and worn pads? Doesn't seem probably to me, but I'm really scratching my head on this one. Thanks for the pic, by the way, that's a good one. -Carl

Hey all, I found this question asked previously but no answer to it. Does anyone know what mechanically limits the brake pedal/linkage travel? I'm pretty sure that my brakes are in reasonably good condition and the pedal seems firm right from the beginning, but it hits some sort of limit stop well before I have full braking pressure. I adjusted the pedal height up some to be even with the clutch pedal, but this limit just seemed to come up with it. Any ideas? Thanks fellows! -Carl

Todd, you still have that lynx setup for sale? Is somewhere around $1000 US reasonable? Drop me an email if you think we may be able to work out a deal. ceichel@g.clemson.edu -Carl

That sounds like a good possibility. If so, is that A.) bad, and B.) correctable?

I think that 'Drives great, idles smooth' says it all; it certainly doesn't sound like you need a rebuild. But if you every get antsy, you can always just do the head to stop the oil consumption issues without needing to sink the time and money into the deeper internals. By the way, let me know if you're ever up in the Greenville area and we'll go for a cruise! -Carl

I agree with Justin, having faced this problem myself before. A good long soak with the torch and vise grips on the inside of the adjusters. That being said, it's not that hard to pull the hubs off with a puller, and I'm very glad that I ended up going the new backing plate route. While I managed to get the old ones freed up, adjusting the brakes was forever a pain with the boogered up heads on the back. -Carl

My advice is to get a different manifold. Depending on your budget, you can go as high as headers or as low as an older stock manifold that didn't have all of the smog stuff. If memory serves, you can block off every vacuum port on the manifold except for the brake booster and distributor advance. I'm less sure about the coolant passages, but that also depends on whether you have an automatic choke or not. Hope this helps. -Carl

Ok, I need a little help diagnosing this one. I recently bought a 75er that the previous owner installed a 5 speed in. It works pretty well but needs a fluid change as soon as I find a 17mm allen wrench for the plugs. However, it makes a bad whirring-almost-scraping noise under acceleration in 1st gear, particularly when in a curve. It sounds like gear howl, but louder closer then the gears inside the transmission. I *think* I can almost feel it from the forward transmission tunnel area. I crawled under the car and looked around pretty closely and couldn't find much. Shift tower is very secure, I can barely move the transmission on its mounts, and I felt all around the guibo and while there wasn't much clearance in places, it wasn't right up against anything. I did notice that all of the bolt heads were on the back side of the guibo, not alternated as they should be, could that make a difference? If not, any other thoughts? Again, this only happens in first gear and a tiny bit in second, under acceleration. Sound is like gear howl but somehow closer and more pronounced. Any thoughts appreciated, thanks. -Carl

Wow, thanks for all of the great suggestions guys! Lots of good ideas here. I'll certainly check some of those that I didn't think of like the Sentra, xB, and the Neon and see what I think. To Ian with the Mini: how's backseat leg room and visibility in that thing? I really like those cars but definitely carry people as often as groceries. Seems that the popular vote is the '91 E30 318is, huh? That's great to know, because like I said I knew there must be some sort of modern 3-series that was pretty good but I really had no idea exactly what/when to look for. A few quick questions though. What comes with the 's' (sport?) package that the regular 318i doesn't have? Also, anything special in '91 or just likely to have the least miles? Thanks again for all the feedback guys, it's much appreciated! -Carl P.S. And no worries for the 2002, I intend to have one in my driveway until the day I die. . . or maybe two. I'm just looking for 'something else' since I'm always working on my current one and until I can stash away the funds for a really nice (and rust free!) California car. And while I've made the August trip from New Mexico to South Carolina for a number of years now, I'm starting to understand why most people have AC in their cars!

Well, it's almost graduation time, and the job offers are starting to come in! Which is great, but it's gotten me thinking that when I leave my nice little college town here in Clemson and get a real job in a real city, it'd probably be a good idea to get a slightly *more* modern and slightly *more* reliable car that I might be able to refrain from attacking every single weekend with my tools. So, my question to all of you other 2002 fans out there is: what the heck kind of cars have been made in the last few years that come remotely close to having all of the wonderful characteristics the we love so much in our '02s? I'm particularly shooting for the 2000 year range and somewhere around $8-10K for 50-100K miles. Here are my thoughts so far, but feel free to broaden the conversation some as I think this is a rather interesting topic. Things I'm looking for: -Compact to midsize sedan -Manual transmission -Good visibility -Good backseat (either 2 or 4 door is fine) -Good handling/fun to drive (RWD if you can find it!) -Able to be worked on (read: NO transaxially mounted V6s! Ever try to change those back plugs?) -Light, not a 2 1/2 ton beast -Affordable (for me: <$10,000 used) Cars I've found so far: -VW Jetta (German, looks good, can't find the right engine option. 2.0 is a complete dog, V6 is bland and thirsty, 1.8T is probably the best but I can't decide how I feel about turbos.) -Oldsmobile Alero (5-speeds exist, but hard to find. looks nice but a little concerned about visibility.) -Subaru Impreza (AWD seems a little complicated and heavy, but gives that proper axial drivetrain layout. I'd go for the 2.5 naturally aspirated and avoid that dumb looking hood scoop.) -New Mini cooper (Looks fun as hell, but that back seat still looks awful cramped and probably out of my price range.) -Audi A4 (FWD, but again an axially mounted drivetrain, and of course German. Also probably a little more expensive.) -BMW 3-series (Obvious successor, but what would be the right year to get the correct balance of affordable, good condition and well running, and not a home theater system on wheels?) Alright, well this is getting longer than I expected to be, but please hit me up with any thoughts you have on the matter! Thanks, and happy '02ing! -Carl

Sure thing, here's all the stuff I know exactly: -40 DCOM sidedrafts, center cable linkage (rebuilt before install, but didn't know enough to mess with float levels) -Dual TWM manifolds, no coolant passages -30mm venturies/chokes, no velocity stacks -120 main jets -F47 emulsion tubes -150 air correctors -59F21 idle jets -air bypass screws are all seated -all (5) vacuum ports plugged -mixture screws set at ~5 to 5.5 turns out (to minimize backfiring) Hope this helps, and thanks for the advice! -Carl

For any of you experienced carb tuners out there, I could use a pointer. I'm having a some trouble getting my new sidedrafts to run nicely at idle, and I can't figure out if it's a mixture or vacuum leak problem. No obvious vacuum leaks, no uncovered vacuum ports, can't feel any air leaking around manifold gaskets, etc. Here are the symptoms: It backfires through the carbs some, but not real bad. Mostly only when cold and overrun at higher revs. It hangs a little coming back to idle (hangs worse warm than cold) and at idle it's rough and it searches a little bit. I have advanced the timing some but not scientifically, only to ear. I've ordered a carb syncronizer, but I spent a lot of time trying to balance the two banks and I think they are pretty close. Motor is basically stock and idle jets are 59F21. 59 sounds quite sizeable to me, but I really have no idea what size F21 emulsion holes are. I've had to set the mixture screws at 5-5.5 turns out to get rid of most of the backfiring. Well, that's the jist of it, so any advice as to how/where to hunt for vacuum leaks or whether I should try a different size idle jet? Any and all advice appreciated! Have a good one, -Carl

Alright, thanks guys, I'll swing by the junkyard tomorrow. I got some E30 sport seats out of a car there and if they still have it, I'll get that hose off of it. If not, then I'll swing by Ace on the way home and raid the plumbing section. Oh, and one other quick question, what should I do about the crankcase breather? back into the new aircleaners or get a crankcase breather or something else? Thanks again! -Carl

Hey guys, I've got my manifold, dual carbs, and linkage, so I'm almost ready to do my DCOE conversion!! Only thing is I need some help figuring out how to route the coolant since I have a TWM manifold and it has no coolant passages in it. It looks like I have to go out of the water pump and into the heater core, but they have two different diameter hoses, so what's the best way to do that? Also, I currently have a small coolant line going out of my DGAV automatic choke and into the cylinder block. Is the passage into the block one that I can just plug on the outside or is that required to be fed from the pump for proper cooling? I'm sure many of you have done this before and know some good ways to conquer this so please share the wealth! -Carl