Maytag: The Alpine '87 529i

[leadphut]

Those ornamental grasses never fail to impress, . . . year after year.

Keeps ninja out too.

Nice brakes!

[tig]

Rebuilt the freshly painted calipers tonight. New seals and guide pin bushings. Rebuilding BMW calipers is about 5000% easier than 911 calipers.

All the pistons and bores were basically pristine. One of the nipples was broken and the rest look sketch so I decided to splurge and try speed bleeders. They should be here tomorrow.






I did not tell you this, but the real reason I decided to put a BBK on Maytag is brake dust. Yes, I know the dust-less pads don't have the same initial bite, but I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with brake dust. But it's ok, because it's my little secret.

The problem with the 528e brakes is it is impossible (or just very hard) to find good pads that don't dust. I love the feel of the brakes on Vlad, and the PO used these same Akebono pads. And while there, might as well use stainless brake lines, right?


Plus this was a kinda fun little project.

[tig]

This is the last time I'll ever have to clean these wheels.


Why? Because Maytag now has big brakes with no-dust pads. Plus I'm going to give them away once I get the RZ's refinished.

Up on the lift to get started.


All the parts ready. My rebuilt and painted calipers, new rotors, new SS lines, and Akebono pads.


Did the rears first.


Man, keeping brake fluid off of things is a bitch when doing a job like this. On the fronts its easier because you can just put a catch cup under the single connection, but in the rear, given there are two hoses on each side...


They look nice...




Did a break-in run and they feel great.

Now, who wants my old brakes? Standard 528e calipers plus pads and front rotors that were new 3000 miles ago.

[tig]

Sure glad the OP posted such a detailed journal of this car. It has started surging at idle again and I'm confident I'll learn from this thread what he/I did to fix it because he/I doesn't remember.

[tig]

Just re-read my thread. Damn, I've come a long way.

Looks like I fixed the surging idle with a replacement ICV. I adjusted the screw on this one and I think that helped. If not I guess I get to buy yet another ICV.

[tig]

Gonna be heading up to the mountains next weekend so time for the winter tires. I do love me some BBS RX wheels; so much better than the Style 8s. One of my hubcentric rings had broken when I took them off last year. I had to run to Discount Tire to buy a set of plastic ones. Boo.

[tig]

From Nov 25, 2013

Heater control valve.





Not only is the filter full of gunk but diaphragm is torn.


Like new.

Fudge.

Been driving good ol' Maytag this week since I'm on jury duty (about to go into deliberations) and parking near the courthouse is too 'suspect' for Vlad. It's cold out. And it's only warm inside Maytag when the RPM are below 1000. Moar proof these rebuild kits are crap, right?

Now, where's that thread about someone asking others to a guinea pigs for their improved diaphragm?

[Kenny Blankenship]

I hate you. You're so damned industrious...

[davintosh]

I hate you. You're so damned industrious...

X2. I bet he even holds down a full-time job and keeps Mrs CEK satisfied. How does he do it?

[oldskool]

I hate you. You're so damned industrious...

X2. I bet he even holds down a full-time job and keeps Mrs CEK satisfied. How does he do it?

And please note how he skillfully color coordinates the nitrile gloves to the project at hand.

[tig]

And please...

[tig]

Before I put the 5-speed in I tested the reverse switch. It was fine.

After it was installed, I verified the reverse lights worked.

This week I noticed they were not working.

Ohmmeter on the connector by the shift knob: NC.

Put car up on lift, pulled plugs from reverse switch. Ohmmeter: NC.

Damn. But a relatively easy fix. Off to email Blunttech...again.

[tig]

Ages ago I bought a brake light upgrade from Mr Fixit. My check light has been coming on more and more randomly so I finally got motivated to install the kit can clean all the surfaces.

Works great (except for the lack of backup lights, of course). Great product.

[bkbimmer]

I should probably do this to my parts car.

[tig]

I should probably do this to my parts car.

Yea, you probably should.

[tig]

The replacement MTC heater valve insert came from Pelican so I decided to swap it in.

Getting the valve out of a 528e was easier than I thought it had been. A recent thread made it sound like it was hard and I couldn't really remember the details when I did it last year because it was just a small part of all the other stuff I was doing at the time baselining the car. But it's super simple.

- Loosen hose clamp holding intake boot to manifold.
- Remove vacuum hose that goes from boot to ICV.
- Unplug AFM and the other plug that connects to the air filter but I can't remember what it is.
- Loosen two 10mm bolts holding AFM/air filter in place and remove it
- Loosen two hose clamps for hoses to HCV, use Vise-Grips to clamp bottom hose
- Remove hoses; position top one so it's high so no fluid comes out
- Unscrew two 8mm screws from HCV
- Done.



Before disassembling the HCV I tested it with a 12V power supply and it seemed to switch fine.

Looking at the old & new, the rubber washer is not torn. Looks fine. The mechanism is a bit torqued to one side. I believe I did this when installing it because it was such a tight fit into the coil...





Getting it out was almost impossible; in fact I think I destroyed it removing it.

Getting the new one in is VERY tight. The plastic sleeve that the coil wraps around, that the insert goes into is just too small for the insert to fit. I tried sanding both surfaces down a bit, but didn't make much difference. I don't want to have to force it in, and risk bending the mechansim on this one.

So I'm going to freeze the new mechanism to night to see if I can get it to shrink up enough.

In the mean time:

[wkohler]

It's almost too bad you didn't buy that Chrysler Town and Country. Would have really liked someone to take one of those to a high standard.

[tig]

It's almost too bad you didn't buy that Chrysler Town and Country. Would have really liked someone to take one of those to a high standard.

Yea, well at least I'm not wasting my time and money on a parts car.

[tig]

Whatever.

New switch is in and the backup lights are now working just fine.

For grins I tested the old switch and it seems to be fine out of the car.



Also got the HCV insert installed (sanded it down a bit so that it fit tightly in the coil sleeve, but not so it couldn't be removed). Did a nice test drive on this glorious, but cold, Seattle day and it seems to be working fine.

[tig]

Once you go black, you can never go back...

Thanks Rob_K! Your packing was exemplary.

[tig]

This happened this morning.



We'll see what the o'le butt dyno says on my way into work this morning. You'll recall that my real dyno on Vlad showed that chips like this are basically pointless on M30s. But for $99 I couldn't say no. The M20B27 needs all the help it can get.

[tig]

Well, as expected the results were anti-climatic. I guess there MIGHT be a little more pep above 3500 RPM, but the only real difference I noticed is the rev-limiter no longer kicks in at 4750...it went all the way to 5000 before I chickened out.

I'm half-tempted to put this car on a dyno and compare it with and without the chip to prove my continued belief that even at $99 these chips are a waste of money...and dangerous. Ok, less than half, but the thought did cross my mind.

[MicahO]

BUT - having the ECU out gave you another area to clean to perfection, didn't it? That $99 spent was just another excuse to make it shine where no one will ever actually look!

[leadphut]

BUT - having the ECU out gave you another area to clean to perfection, didn't it? That $99 spent was just another excuse to make it shine where no one will ever actually look!

Optimist! i like it!

[tig]

BUT - having the ECU out gave you another area to clean to perfection, didn't it? That $99 spent was just another excuse to make it shine where no one will ever actually look!

You got me.

[2 5's and a 7]

You know I never really thought about it until you posted.....but my turd Eta must have had something done to it because there isn't a rev limit. Still slow as shit........

[tig]

Was going to start tearing into these today, but a neighbor has an extra Seahawks ticket so I get to go (my wife & son are using our tickets).





The passenger side (1st above) is in quite good shape under there and I'm betting I can just transplant my good leather pieces to that lower frame.

I'm going to drop the seat as is into the car first to verify that it does not rock first though.

[bkbimmer]

Nice work, if you ever want to work for next to nothing to do a job with very little reward look me up. I think we could work together.

[waynet1]

Was going to start tearing into these today, but a neighbor has an extra Seahawks ticket so I get to go (my wife & son are using our tickets).

You just have entirely too much superfluous time and money.

[Mike W.]

With all that has been done I'm wondering how long it can be before an e to i conversion?