'92 535i thread

[carcrazyethan]

Due to the terrible influence of you folks, I have purchased yet another 535i. Figured I would actually document this particular car since I haven't had an actual thread for any of my previous cars.

My red 535i is in a horrific state of disrepair these days, and as good as my daily driver is, driving a big slow Toyota everyday isn't so appealing with E34's readily available. So, when this popped up in one of the facebook groups as a $700 running and driving car I jumped at the opportunity.


Anyways:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54414551268_6d90c4d596_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2qUqNjq)IMG_5145 (https://flic.kr/p/2qUqNjq)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54414551268_6d90c4d596_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2qUqNjq)IMG_5145 (https://flic.kr/p/2qUqNjq)

The automatic has no reverse, which makes driving this everyday a little annoying. First project will be a manual swap, as this is probably the best way to keep this thing on the road.

In the meantime: have taken a bone-stock automatic e34 to the tail of the dragon, which was kind of a miserable experience. The 4 speed is just fine around town but good grief it leaves a lot to desire on a tight back road. And last weekend I ran up to Riverside 10 to catch up with friends, good time.
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Saw (and drove) Brenden's rather nice Orient/LSG 525i, and Zach was also in town with his 540/6 swapped touring.

See you at the Vintage with a freshly manual swapped 535i! Oh, and a fresh windshield as mine is toast + the mirror fell off on Sunday.

[dannyzabolotny]

A running, driving E34 of any kind for $700 is a great score, even if it's automatic. At least the ZF 4HP auto is generally less of a garbage pile than the GM 4L30e's that all the 525i's were saddled with.

It doesn't even look half bad paint-wise. Manual swapping these cars is one of the easiest things to do, just gotta get all the right parts. Are you going to keep it all stock with a factory-style clutch kit + dual-mass flywheel, or are we going a little zestier with a single-mass flywheel? I find those really wake up the M30.

[carcrazyethan]

I have an 8.5lb single mass from RHD and an M5 clutch kit. Was told a few times the LWFW was probably the single best thing you could do to an m30. The paint is ok, I'll live with it for now but will likely repaint it later when I acquire bumpers.

I forgot I've done a decent bit with this car so here's some more pictures:
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The interior isn't awful. The steering wheel was ruined but that has since been remedied. The headliner is failing, the door cards will take some love to make perfect again and I'll recover the seats this fall. It's all there, clean and mostly intact. Certainly not perfect but it isn't absolutely trashed. Needs one window regulator so I'll fix that when I tackle the door cards.
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I need to figure out why the vertical photos upload sideways, my apologies. K&N sticker removed courtesy of a spare airbox lid.

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Managed to fix the cluster back light, so that will do for now. The cluster needs to be repaired/replaced anyways, the trip odometer cannot be reset which is unfortunate.

Max 5 pics? Interesting. Anyways, not pictured is a small blower motor resistor fire. Replaced filter and cleaned up the leaf collecting mechanism, replaced the resistor with new old stock genuine BMW. A/C and heat both work wonderfully, which is great for a big guy like me in the south east. These Georgia summers are no joke.

[carcrazyethan]

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Fun to see these two next to each other, I'll get proper photos of both someday. First time in years there have been cars in this garage, can't wait to have my own.

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Some E34's the other week for CCA meet.

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E34 related, -ish. I bought a trailer, finally. No more crappy uhaul rentals.
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And last but not least, first "mod". Tennessee let's you register antique autos on period correct license plates, so I found this on eBay with the right year and county. Neat.

[danespann]

Looks like a nice starting point considering what you paid for the car. Danny has done a quick fix for the non-working trip reset on a few cars.

[carcrazyethan]

Thanks man! Looking forward to it

[dannyzabolotny]

I recommend using a third-party photo uploading service like Flickr and then embedding the images in BBCode [img] tags. That's what I've done for years and it's worked well.

As for the interior, save yourself the trouble of trying to fix the beat-up early car stuff and just source some door cards and seats from a 95 car (one with leather). You get much nicer stuff that way and it all fits just fine in your earlier car.

[carcrazyethan]

Got Flickr to work, kinda. Different than facebook, that's for sure.

I have '95 door cards in my red car, trying to find a set that isn't crazy money isn't so fun.

[carcrazyethan]

Ok, manual swap time!
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Pulled it into the shop after work on friday and got to work.

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Got the pedal box ready to go, master installed, not pictured is the throttle linkage and some hose in place of bushings since I didn't think to order those, oops.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54435268509_1792232853.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54435268499_6cee528654.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54435325778_7a2e19f9b2.jpg
What a fun job removing that lot. Oh well, it's done and I can move on with life. Shoutout BMW for leaving an easy to cut panel with the outline already there:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54434220062_88f0c208ce.jpg

Not pictured: doing that damn hardline out of the master. Took the best part of 25 minutes to get that bugger started and tightened up.

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RHD 8.5lb flywheel and some arp bolts installed and torqued, nice.

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Opted for a Sachs E34 M5 clutch kit as a 535i's unsprung clutch hub wouldn't work with a single mass flywheel, and in theory should hold some power. Kevin on facebook pointed me in the right direction for hardware, need to get him to post that thread over here.

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Brass pin, thought I had specified stainless but whatever, this will work for now. New sachs throwout bearing.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54435268309_971a5e7985.jpg
And of course, a new selector shaft seal and selector rod joint, that wraps up the transmission prep. Redline MTL was the finishing touch but that's later.

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At some point remove the automatic transmission, selector, driveshaft, flexplate and such. transmission jack absolutely necessary, lol.

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I'm not sure if something is wrong with the way the engine is mounted, this transmission tunnel or what but I had to enlarge the holes on the transmission brace in order to bolt it up. Not my finest work and honestly rather annoying as i had two of these mounts and they didn't even remotely line up as they should have. Alas, it's in there and its up. We'll call it Good Enough™

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At some point during the driveshaft install I realized some bell end (me) installed the CSB backwards about a year and change ago when I replaced it, so that's nice. I'll fix that when I eventually replace the ridiculous 4.27 rear end.

Installed the exhaust, which of course involved replacing one of the exhaust manifolds as the studs snapped, obviously.
Opted for an e60 selector rod, which is fine in theory but this transmission shifts like hot garbage and is pretty annoying. I remedied this for now by installing a TRM broomstick shift knob for extra leverage, much more enjoyable.

Bled the clutch, and bypassed the neutral safety thingy and I was off and away. Made it in time for the monthly Worship cars and coffee meet in Roswell this morning. Also swapped from the '95 airbag back to my original, meh. Still need to buy an mtech 2 wheel.
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Pro's:
I have reverse.
Manual>
"Better" fuel economy once I install something other than a 4.27 diff.

con's:
15 hours of my life gone
Cost money, because obviously.
I spent more time than I would like to admit installing that hardline.
And previous me is a bell end that can't install a csb correctly.

Overall, Good Enough™. I won't do that again, until the next time I do it again, duh.

[carcrazyethan]

Have done roughly 800 miles since the swap, big improvement over the old clunkomatic. Getting used to daily driving a 5 speed car again, it's been a while since I've had a BMW worthwhile of driving everyday.

Purchased a set of Racing Dynamics lowering springs from Justin a few weeks back so installed those Friday after work. Front already had a 15mm spacer on it, sorted there. Stuck a 15mm in the back to bring it out just right. We'll call the ride acceptable, not stock, not bad. Coilovers are definitely better in some (a lot) of scenarios, though some B8's and not 5yr old B6's would help I imagine. Whatever, it looks good.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54454458569_bce5983fe1.jpghttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54454624885_328dfb7f5e.jpg


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The goods, nice.

[BleedsBlue]

Good save on this one. I have a very similar car to your "before" car, although I paid more for it (as I expect most do, $700 is amazing). I'm excited to build it up and get it sorted like you've been doing!

[michaelmcc827]

Nice work! I noticed that you fixed the same issue I'm experiencing with the cluster back light. My coolant gauge (and the tach needle) both have burnt out back lights. Any resources or details on making that fix?

Also, I had a terrible time with attempting my own LWFW swap (vibration / resonance issues), and I went back to DMFW (with one of the last brand-new parts available) but glad to hear it's worked well for you!

[dannyzabolotny]

Nice work! I noticed that you fixed the same issue I'm experiencing with the cluster back light. My coolant gauge (and the tach needle) both have burnt out back lights. Any resources or details on making that fix?

Also, I had a terrible time with attempting my own LWFW swap (vibration / resonance issues), and I went back to DMFW (with one of the last brand-new parts available) but glad to hear it's worked well for you!

You just remove the cluster (pull steering wheel and then you have great access), open up the back of it (it's hinged with two quarter turn latches holding it closed), and there are 3 bulbs that illuminate the gauge cluster, replace all of the ones that are burnt out, or just replace all of them anyways so it looks consistent.