Carl

Haha, I see you have the white dial backings, nice :thumb: They look even better with the chrome ring surrounds but that's my $0.02 I think you'll find most of the dash lights have fairly discriptive icons on them. But andy is doublely right, please don't drive with the rears on, you'll get the bash from me if you do!

The movement sounds to me like a wheel bearing although the knocking sounds like a CV. I failed a warrant because of movement in the wheel, turned out to be the wheel bearing had worn down and there was too much play in it. Edited: Oh yeah, when you said clunking on right hand turns, does it only make that noise under hard cornering and does it sound like it's coming from the front right??? Sic, instead of posting your bad assness mod comments could you please PM them as they only cause us more sh*t to wade through and they also provoke more sh*t posts back.

I believe every part of the car is quite important ayeI've heard bad things with compressions such as the spring rates are funny and hard to find shocks that match them properly. If you don't find the right shocks for the springs the car doesn't behave very well. Sounds dubious but possible. Doubt if that applies to aftermarket springs though, they probably talking about compressing stock springs.

Your right MattA. Be very aware that BMW centres charge exuberant prices like for example: $185 for a master cylinder repair kit. BNT charged me $28!!! There may be some discrepency here though as the genuine BMW kit may (or may not) have more in it as the kit from BNT contained just the rubber pieces (which is all you need). The BMW centre also quoted $285 for a new master cylinder...ouch. I guess the main point here is if you can locate the correct parts from somewhere other than an authorised BMW centre your going to save alot of mulah. The new clutch feels kinda nice Gus, firms up within inches of travel, infinately better than the auto

Sorry, didn't take pictures of anything else, after bolting up the driveshaft to the diff and putting the exhaust back into place hooking up the clutch line is the next bitch task along with bleeding it. Note: Make sure the clutch fluid resovoir is mounted high in the engine bay otherwise you'll get air in your lines. Bleeding the clutch is a painful task requiring a minimum of two people so as someone can be under the car opening and closing the slave cylinder while the other person presses and depresses the clutch pedal. Another minor task is to short circuit the ignition inhibitor which prevented the car from starting when the auto was not in neutral or park. An option here is to wire the inhibitor through the window lock so as you can have an additional semi-security feature.

The next stp is to slide the manual box in. You have to make sure that it has slid on correctly and is all the way in, this may require several attempts at sliding it on to get it right. We spent ages trying to force it on when all you really need to do is make sure the box is lined up correctly before attempting to slide it all the way in. You'll know when the box has slid in correctly with the input shaft inserted into the spigot bearing because the box shouldn't have any vertical or horizontal movement at the bell housing end but it should be able to rotate freely allowing you to align the holes for the bolts with ease. In this pic you can see the box in place held up by the supporting crossmember bracket and mounts. The output shaft has the rubber flex-disc already attached which is where the drive shaft bolts on to. The bolts holding the mounting bracket are the same bolts for the auto braket although you'll need to swap brakets around. You can see the rails for the bolts, the auto rails are at different levels and further back than the manual box rails hence the different mounting brakets.

Pressure plate sitting over the clutch disc and flywheel Take out the centering tool at this point so as the manual box can slide on

After putting the spigot bearing in, the flywheel bolts on. The clutch plate goes on next, but before sticking it on use a clutch centering tool to keep the clutch plate aligned while putting the pressure plate on BTW: You can seee my purple urethane control arm bushes nicely in this shot

After taking the flex ring thingee off the output shaft from the motor is revealed with a hole for the spigot bearing to sit in, the bearing holds the g/box input shaft in place. If you don't stick in a spigot bearing your g/box shaft will flex and chew itself up in no time.

So, after taking off the torque converter you need to take of the flex ring thingee which is only there so the starter motor can work.

Getting started. We installed the pedal box before actually doing the conversion as that's a mission in itself. The pics that follow are of the actual auto tranny to manual swap. We had the luxury of doing this with a small pit. Quite simple, jack the car up and get underneath. Take the exhaust, heat shielding, and driveshaft off. Taking the entire exhaust off is quite useful as working around the auto tranny is quite tight. Next step is to take out the auto box. This is tricky as some of the bolts holding the auto tranny to the engine are in tight spots. This is a pic after taking the auto box out...revealing the torque converter. This thing is bloody heavy and accounts for the uneconomical fuel usuage as it has some very large rotational inertia - slow revving! The flywheel is half as light as this thing.

Doing a manual conversion is a good experience and well worth the effort. First up you need to get yourself a manual conversion kit, probably of TradeMe, which should include in addition to the actual gearbox, the shift lever mechansim, pedal box, driveshaft (front shaft at a minimum), clutch line, clutch resovoir, and the master and slave clutch cylinders. It is recommended you check that you have everything you need and replace anything that's worn or broken - Preventative Maintenance A few major points: Gearbox: The gearbox needs to have a clutch disc, pressure plate, mounts, cross-member, release bearing, and spigot bearing aswell as the shift lever console, linkage, and lever. The driveshaft should have a flex disc although you can pawn this from the old autobox. It is advised to get a clutch replacement kit which includes a new clutch disc, pressure plate, and release bearing, as these parts should be replaced to make the g/box feel like new. The kit is significantly cheaper than buying the pieces separately. The clutch replacement kit is $450 OEM, $260 LuK. Check that you have the other necessary parts and replace them if they look worn out. Shop around, for ex, OEM mounts can be costly @ $50 each but MUCH much cheaper from BMWorkshop or other parties. Spigot/Pilot bearing: You WILL need a spigot bearing, otherwise called a pilot bearing, as the auto box doesn't have one and the manual kit probably won't come with one. Check if you have one first but they're relatively cheap @ $35 OEM. Driveshaft: The front driveshaft piece has to be replaced since the auto box is longer than the manual. All E30 driveshafts are 2-piece and the rear pieces are all the same so if you have 2 driveshafts pick the best rear shaft based on the condition of the universal joint. Note that the driveshaft bearing mounts on the facelift are different from the pre-fl mounts. Clutch: Get master and slave clutch cylinder repair kits to freshen up the clutch system. BNT have these for $30 and $20 respectively. They also have new master cylinders for $130 and new slave cylinders for $50. An OEM master cylinder is $180. Note, when you mount the clutch resovoir in the engine bay, make sure that you mount this high and that the feeder tube is straight as possible as the master cylinder is gravity fed. Also make sure that their is no perished parts on this line because if this leaks it makes a hell of a mess. Oil and seals: Make sure you get the right oil for the g/box. Getrag 260's use MTF (manual transmission fluid) and Red Line make very good oil for this. While the g/box is out you should replace the output shaft seal and perhaps also the selector shaft seal (see below). If the box is old the shaft seal may leak oil so it's a good idea to replace this. OEM seals are exp. so shop around. To replace the shaft seal, take off the flex disc and undo the big nut, pry off the old oil seal and stick in new one. Tricky as the bolt is FT (f**king tight) so you'll need to jam up the shaft so it doesn't turn. Also need to do this back up FT so use same process again. A few additonal points: For the benefit of people considering doing a gearbox swap, there's a few additional things you should do while you have the manual box out of the car as it's easier to work with. Short shift conversion: Replace the stock shift lever with a Z3 shift lever. This gives a shorter shift and fixes some slop as the the levers have nylon inserts at the bottom linkage end which wears out. Sloppy shift lever: Replace the front shiftrod linkage knuckle as it has a nylon insert which wears out and causes severe slop in the lever. If you do this it is a good time to replace the oil seal that sits behind the knuckle (selector shaft seal). Mounts: Replace any mounts that are worn, g/box mounts or shift console mounts, it'll save you the hassle later. Here's a pic with some parts.

Good stuff, just ask Tim, Mike, Glenn, Jamahl...

Mass. That whole time thingee is encompassed by Einsteins theory of relativity, he worked out that time isn't constant.While I don't work on this stuff in my spare time I have read a few things, like that light and time gets warped by the suns mass, so telesopes can see things on the other side of the sun. Actual hobbies would be drinking, women, and expanding my porno collection :pimp:

I'll take the diff if it's something between 3.7 and 4.1

I've already nabbed the rotors and the gear boot ppl :finger: Diff please - what's the ratio??? What shocks has it got???

I'm in awe at just how lucky we are to be here aye - if the earth was a few thousand kilometers closer or further from the sun then we'd probably wouldn't be able to exist on this lonely planet, crazy. So considering that, what possible chance is there that there is another planet with the exact same ecological characteristics of terra firma in this massive universe??? Does anyone else believe that time can be altered, like flying around the sun at warp speed to go back a few hundred years??? Imagine how hard it'd be to get a shag in 1804, if it were NZ, you'd probably get eaten if you tried it on aye down at the local

The big two one, congrats for making that milestone, you know the drill :beer: :beer: :beer: :puke:

If you do some moulds i'd be interested, but as for the kit i'd hit it, I like it

Helloooo??? So does that like make all after market modifed cars rude then...because that's exactly what happens I agree with you on this one for once sic, it's all cosmetic and if you can do it smartly for less then it's all good, but don't go spreading b/s about it being the shizzle. If anyone can get any eyelids at a reasonbly good price i'd love some :bounce:

Bargain...now who did I know that was trying to get that exact set

Happy b/day guys, if it wasn't for this site i'd still be driving a stocka

Nice pics, i've been through some of those places myself, I drove through the alps myself a couple of years back. It's so unbelievable how the mountains come straight out of the ground and go straight up. They've got to be some of the most scenic drives in europe, espically driving through Tirol in Austria from Salzburg to Innsbruck then back down to Munich :mosh: Took this picture of the Hahnenkahn while hanging out the window

Do you guys have the aerial in the windscreen or something?

Don't forget to say that it doesn't have a stock exhaust