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UUC were the business when they were the only ones offering a DSSR, but these days their pricing seems "ambitious." All their gear is absolutely top notch in quality however. Rogue Engineering do similarly priced / quality gear. You can remove so much porridge from the factory setup with new bushings across the board and refreshing the gearbox attachment points - FCP euro do a fairly cheap E36 / M44 setup with factory bushings and the time tested classic Z3 lever.

BMW E36 Touring Have owned this wagon close to half a year, has served as a great daily driver, and perfect for road trips. Its a 318iA M43B18 automatic (avrg 300kms to half a tank). Registration until June 2023, currently no WOF Wagon comes with the following: -New front brake pads -New ABS front sensors -Purple tag steering rack (great upgrade) Overall the car is straight and tidy, few shopping trolly scratches, only area of clear coat peal is on the boot below number plate. Not too noticeable Heater and A/C all work. Full genuine Motorsport Body kit with M3 wing mirrors. Original BMW cassette radio. Genuine set of Motorsport DS1 sunflower wheels + matching spare wheel (x5 wheels). Central locking with alarm. Motorsport sill trims and steering wheel. Cons: Will need a wheel alignment for wof, and new brake pads (included with sale) ABS light is on dash, scanned and fault was the front sensors (included with sale). Drivers side electric window has came off the slider, will need to be adjusted. Not interested in trade deals PM for further details and to arrange a time to view. Located in Pukekohe. $6,800 or nearest offer.

So... 135d build coming up???

When you are having a sh*t few days and wonder if working crazy hours with killer deadlines is all worth it, then do the school run and see another dad stop by the M5 with his son and say "wow that's a dream car". Then I got swamped by a hoard of primary school kids and the serenity was gone, but for a moment I felt good about the world.

Was selling something that cost $50 brand new for $10 on marketplace. Got offered $5. f**k people.

I had a UUC short shifter kit in my E30, it was a manual swap so I never had a reference for how long the normal shifter was. It all worked nicely though but like Eagle said it was pretty expensive @$325 USD.

Well respected\popular brand in the US but not cheap. Never used any of their kit so dont know much more than that.

Bmspeedshop does a chassis mount shifter with adjustable throw made by @Arron

8 hrs seems like alot of labour, but I'll take it on the chin and move on I guess! Trying to find a motor and I'll start on the swap as soon as I get the car back.

False alarm on the thrust bearing front - I am an idiot. Took a fresh look last night after work and it quickly became evident what I'd been doing wrong. When I got onto the job Sunday night, for whatever reason I had been adamant that the thrust bearing went on cap #7 so was trying to force it onto where it was never going to fit... My brain must have checked out for the day. Of course it's cap #6, even has the grooves for the edges to slide into. Switched them round and all went on fine. Embarrassing. Boxing on.

Yeah, not sure what's going on there. My mate that used to be in the trade also mentioned he'd heard a few negative grumbles about them of late. I know Paul's been going through some health troubles of late so that might have played a part. In my case, I suspect they heavily prioritise corporate fleets and small stuff like mine gets thrown to apprentices to have a bash at, and bash they do. It is what it is. Over it. Manged to get in a good few shifts in the garage after having been away a few weekends in a row. Got the oil pump put back together, fully cleaned, lubed up and with a new O-ring on the pressure regulator. Bit of a mission getting it back in. Had to enlist the missus' help, me forcing the spring together while she slotted in the circlip. Definitely helps having an extra set of hands. Sprocket will go on with a slotted nut and safety wire eventually. Got the VANOS unit assembled with new Beisan seals and rattle kit, a clean and new O-rings for the solenoids. Pretty straightforward job, just a long time spent cleaning everything up. Next got onto the block. Tidied up the high spots from the chipped edges with a little nail file, went over the oil pan surface with a 400-grit white sandpaper in a couple of rough places, and brake cleaner with a plastic scraper and a rag throughout. Went over all the passages I could get to with nylon brushes, cleaned up the rusty coolant drain opening with a wire brush bit with the vacuum going at the same time, then thoroughly blew everything through with compressed air. All the journals on the crankshaft also got the nylon brush and compressed air treatment. Was hoping to get as far as checking the main bearing clearances today but wasn't to be. Installed the cleaned up oil sprayers with blue thread sealer on the bolts. The new main bearings started going on but ran into trouble with the thrust bearings. The fitment is very, very tight, if not too tight and I didn't want to resort to excessive force before making sure. The bearings I got are part number 11211706847 from Glyco, which is seemingly the OE set. Comparing them side by side with the originals, the design is very different though. The Glyco ones are one piece whereas the originals are a 3-piece design with the side walls/skirts having a bit of wiggle room. They're still very tight going on but nowhere near as tight as the new ones. I'm starting to think I got a wrong/faulty set. Doesn't come across as well on the pictures but the far edges of the side walls look like they're bent inwards, and even still, it almost looks like the caps and the seat in the block might actually be wider than the inner width of the bearings. Just wondering if this is normal? I know they're meant to be as tight as possible but it just looks like there's no way of forcing them on there without risking damage. The machine shop actually suggested way back when that the main bearings were good enough to reuse but I figured I might as well get new ones as they weren't terribly expensive. Could just reuse the thrust bearings and use the new ones on the rest of them if I can't get these to fit? Granted the clearances working out of course.

I recently got a red cog of doom on the centre display of the M5, not the first time but last time it was the clutch and I have done that, soooo... A bit of googling and I discover a common failure point on the SMG 3 box is the insulation on the small wiring loom that connects the shift control solenoids to the main harness, long story short, heat + years = warning lights! As luck would have it there was an E60 M5 box on trademe so I bought that with the intention of putting it into my car while I give my box a good refresh, and then swap them over again. First issue, the replacement box also had the wiring loom issue so I did a practice run on that box to sort it out before it goes in the wagon. box as it was when I got it, approx 140km on it, insulation is hard and crumbly.... Disassembled plug, unpinned one wire at a time and scraped old insulation off, then 4mm twin wall heartshrink and repin the wire, repeat as necessary.... wrapped the whole lot and replaced the loom clip, then covered the end in liquid electrical tape to keep water out.... Oil changed, oil strainer cleaned and refitted, new crush washers on all the plugs and filter...

A competent mechanic should be able to have the rocker cover off and check the cam timing in 2hrs. With the N47 having a track record of chain issues, it would be high on my list of things to check.