DanOKC

I'm not an E30 owner, but isn't there a torque spec if its a wheel/hub assembly for that nut ? If this is a2002, I know it's finger tight torque spec.

Likely alternator noise from bad power or ground lead to the radio, could maybe be ignition noise also. Also make sure power lead to radio isn't excessive length, or running next to ignition power source under hood wiring, stuff like that. New car stereos shouldn't have need for any filters, with good wiring, but if it fixes it, use em.

Yea, they don't need rubber washers, they don't vibrate nearly at all, but the big gap around the bolt covered by the washers is better off if you can find the right size metal sleave or bushing, whatever the proper term, same thickness as the plate. I got some from local auto AC supply house, they had a ton of em in the back.

Don't forget to check the fuel sender itself. It's likely wiring at the sender, the sender, or the connections at the dash. If it does it more towards an empty tank or certain level of gas in tank, I'd suspect the sender more.

I'll take one of those, how do I contact you ? thanks !

Looks great ! On the slow after 4k thing, if it's got the stock 2 barrel solex, it has a vaccum operated secondary, it will do exactly that when it has problems, so you may be driving on only half your carb. In all that chicken scratch, did it include the basic tune up, plugs, points, cap, rotor, etc.. ?

Sorry, I maybe condensed it down or left something out. The 320i 5 speed, is what I assume your talking about, & I think any other 5 speed would be the same, in that they are longer than stock 4 speed. So the 4 speed platform bolted to the 5 speed tranny is gonna sit back further than the existing hole in the tunnel, so all that has to be cut is the length of the shift tower, & the length of the shift rod. All I was trying to point out is, you do have area to work with to put the shift lever forward or back from stock location if you want to, and I don't think there is a "stock" or readymade shfit platform that you can get for the 5 speed conversion, tha places the shift lever in same place as stock, unless you buy one of those kits.

Don't know if anyone has tried a 320i shift platform, but the normal way is to cut & shorten the original shift platform if you are gonna do all the dirty work yourself. Then cut the shift rod fromt tranny to gearshift by exact same amount. So you can do what you want to relocate the shifter back an inch or two, but you'll still have to cut & weld those 2 parts. I wouldn't try to use the 320I shift platform anyway. I bought a close ratio 5 speed platform when I did mine, (got it cheap) and it works, but the gearshift is about 1/2" closer to front of car, a compromise I could live with.

If I remember correctly, the carter 4070 pulls only about 5 amps. So a 10 amp fuse would be fine. I grounded mine near the rear tirewell, 10 guage is a little overkill, 14 guage should be plenty. Mine also varies speed a little according to load on elec system, but that it normal. I was ultra cheap & pulled a wire from the oil sensor to a relay, it works fine, but it's not the proper or best way I could have done it.

It's not that tough once you get it to move, it will come out, small screwdriver under one edge & pry it out.

Snap a pic of the connector or describe total # of pins & shape & where under the dash, & I've got 2 75's I can look at & a 74 harness I can reference. On my car, I see 2 diff connectors w/wh blue wh yellow wires, one is the big rectangle on steering column, other is near firewall,much smaller, has 3 wires on one side, 2 on the other. Which of those two connectors are you asking about ?

I had one 02 block sleeved on just one cylinder & it was fine. I had heard things like " You can't do that, etc..." The machine shop guy was my local BMW shop guys' machine shop guy & he said no problem. Never had a problem with that block or that one cylinder that got the sleave. It had to get sleaved just because there wasn't enough metal there to bore it clean to 2nd over, or close to that, I forget it was over 15 years ago.

How do you remove the knob? - I already removed the center cap and there is no retainer visible. Just unscrew counterclockwise. Instead of steady twist, try a quick forcefull twist & it will pop loose. Also oil on a toothpick, let it seep down behind the knob & let it soak if still won't budge. 2) I am sectioning that piece of harness, hopefully I have that one my parts car, is there a better way to deal with this? You could buy new wire, it's your choice. But the headlight switch connector is what you want from another harness, I'd splice one about 3 inches away from the existing connectors end & use heat shrink tubing to make it look nice after I soldered each wire. A tip here, don't cut all the wires at the exact same spot, spread the cuts apart about 1 or 2 inches so the spliced points of the wires with heatshrink will not bunch up as big in one spot, looks nicer. 3) why did this happen (root cause) - I had a similar issue with the tail light harness a month ago, which I repaired by sectioning with an donor piece. Is it possible that the two are related? Guessing here, can't diagnose that, over the internet, but maybe corrosion/humidity in the wiring... if it's green/grey or discolored wires when you cut into fix it, keep cutting back till the copper is clean for a few inches. Previous owner, who knows ? 4) why did I not blow fuses, not enough current went through any one fuse, because not every 12 volt source in your car is fused, so shorts could occur without blowing a fuse, and it the short only pulls a few amps, it may not blow a fuse. 5) should I add a fuse to this circuit (ie headlamp) Shouldn't be necessary, but inline fuseholders & fuses are inexpensive protection if your not sure what's going on there, just make sure you place it where it is easy at nite & find it, it's your headlight fuse. 6) I really don't want to embark on a total rewiring - what would be the second best option? Fix the problem areas like you are doing. Clean common ground points like under the heater box etc... if you havent' looked at em in years, they may have green corroison etc... Stuff like that. & try to fix one area at a time, it will be easier to troubleshoot, as you may make an error etc....

Sounds like you drilled to far & damaged the key cylinder, You should be able to operate the key cylinder out of the column, when the key goes in, center should turn. Maybe take the cylinder to a few locksmiths, see if they can undo what you did, otherwise, buy another cylinder w/matching handles & keys on ebay or from someone parting car, or else just buy a good used cylinder & put another key on your keyring. You can use a screwdriver to start the car once that cylinder is out, so do you really need a key anyway ? Just lock the doors

No need to run out & buy a vdo volt guage, unless you really want one. A decent digital voltmeter set low enough to get 2 or 3 digits resolution past 12.0 volts will quickly tell you if the alternator/regulator is working. I you are using a meter on 200v range, drop down to the 20v range for more resolution. You could even chop a plug off a old radar detector & plug into the cig light socket as a test point while your driving & set the voltmeter on the dash. Your car should show a rise in voltage, even when the reg is working, it will gradually go up some as RPMS increase, but this is assuming the same load, i.e., don't turn on the AC or crank the stereo once your crusing. Sounds like your close to getting it solved, if the new ground wire worked for 25 miles. Another thing you can do if the meter has a millivolt range, put one lead on the alternator, the other on engine block, shouldn't be like over 30 millivolts on any car, if the ground connection is secure. You can check the frame to bat ground same way. You can also use the meter to troubleshoot for intermittant charge this way, hook meter straight across the battery & wiggle any connection you suspect slowly & watch for a change in the voltage, or listen for the idle speed to go up a little if the charge circuit stops working when you wiggle the bad connection.

If the spark at coil if it is strong, plug a spark plug wire w/plug attached straight into top of coil & just ground the side of the spark plug & see it sparks. If that works, look under your new dist cap & make sure the little pin in the center is in place & springs back when you push with your finger. Swap back the old dist cap if nothing else. & swap back the old coil to dist cap wire.

Why ? Unless you have converted to EFI already, why would you want drive by wire ?

Was it working before & stopped ? The emergency flasher switch is wired up in parallel with some of those wires going to the headlight switch, so it may be a problem, or a wiring problem like a screw holding something in pierced a wire or pinched a wire to ground, install a stereo lately ? If the headlight switch socket hasn't been messed with, the wires should be in place, unless 73 used individual spade connectors instead of a socket for the switch.

According to the haynes manual, you should be able to loosen the bolts on the flexible disc & slide it up the shaft. If you can't get it loose enough to slide, you can loosen the whole steering column from inside the car to pull it up to make room, that's what I have had to do before. 3 bolts under dash & maybe a few near the bottom of the column where it bolts to the wall to loosen/remove, after fighting the coupling for a while was the easier router for me.

No, not even close to tinker, couldn't answer that. You know the alternative to the dizzy is to get that toothed wheel on the crank pulley & get a megasquirt & a ford edis box, then we could wonder about the wasted spark .... but you'd loose all distributor cap/slop/alignment questions.

I think it may be excess energy in a sense, the spark pulse has to be strong enough to make it to the plug, via the dist cap/rotor where it looses something along the way, so it's gotta be enough to overcome that loss, so with that much energy at high voltages, when you pull a spark gap apart, the electricity keeps flowing till the resistance is so high that it can't make the jump. Each of the 4 terminals is a potential spark gap to ther rotor. So I think you may be seeing that after the contacts have passed each other, there may be still some electricity passing. I'm not sure, but if the timing light is advancing at the same time, it's still gonna have an arc & it may not visibly vary that much. Seems like it doesn't take long for a new dist cap to get the burned in line along the plug were contacts, so they arc to some degree normally, I'd think.

Interesting observations, but I think it's a non problem. A distributor advances and/or retards spark by moving the innards relative to the fixed position of the cap, so there is going to be some arcing in normal operation when rotor passes each plug terminal, it will never pass electricity at exactly the same point unless your rpms always stay fixed. Ever notice how a used dist cap looks all burnt around the contact area ? So they all do it, it's just we all don't have clear ones to make us ask questions

Get a photo bucket account for free, upload your photos to photo bucket. A few ways to do it, but I just cut & paste the html tag under each photobucket photo. Then hit Preview on your mesage to make sure you got it right before you hit submit. If there is a way to upload to the board directly, I'm not aware of it, maybe someone else...

New Adapter bracket on old original york bracket, adapter bracket pushed all the way back. Shows clearance to stock swaybar. Factory 02 type sanden bracket I cut this bit off, sanden doesn't vibrate like a york, makes water pump easier to change.

How hard depends on your skills or how much $$ you want to pay someone to do it, & most auto AC guys are not gonna be familiar with an 02's AC, & likely not want to work on it. I did mine last year & didn't total the receipts, but it was about $500 ish for new compressor, bracket, hoses, fittings, new condensor, recevier dryer, & I used a parallel flow condensor, had to make a couple small cuts to get it to fit, but it was worth it. I kept the old behr fan in front of it, it was still in good condition. I did not account for refrigerant, AC specific tools I bought in the $500, nor my time. It blows ice cold at idle, sitting in line at a drive through for minutes at a time very well. I'm lucky my dad was a heat & air guy for most of my childhood, & helped me recharge my first 02's AC a few times before I started doing my own. You can get a kit from Mesa Performance where they have new compressor etc,,for similar $$$, but I have a big auto AC supply house 1 minute from where I work & wanted to go parallel flow.