1983 733i Alpinweiss

[mk4337]

*Update*
Fuel pump connector came in today, and it’s a direct fit!




I’m not going to solder it up today but the good thing is I have them in, I’ve ordered the level sending unit gasket along with the fuel pump assembly gasket to replace those out as well
These should come in next week hopefully, I tried looking for these locally but I had no success

Also another quick note I’ve ordered two more of these fuel pump connectors incase anyone here is searching for one.

And a teaser -
I ordered a M tech steering wheel, for sale description says it’s rare early coarse spline model so I’m hoping this fits!

[DSpoljaric]

Nice progress!

Steering wheel: all e23s are coarse spline so you made the right purchase.

Engine compartment:
http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/216219

Wheels: here is a helpful website:
https://www.carsaddiction.com/en/wheels/bmw


Electrical wiring: download your 1983 733I (it says 735i but it's actually 733i) manual:
http://wedophones.com/BMWManualsLead.htm

[mk4337]

Nice progress!

Steering wheel: all e23s are coarse spline so you made the right purchase.

Engine compartment:
http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/216219

Wheels: here is a helpful website:
https://www.carsaddiction.com/en/wheels/bmw


Electrical wiring: download your 1983 733I (it says 735i but it's actually 733i) manual:
http://wedophones.com/BMWManualsLead.htm

Thank you! And hell yeah, thank you for these links, I’ve added them to the e23 bookmark list
I’m also glad I ordered the correct steering wheel haha

I’m currently building up a list of items I need to order to replace on the e23, just for a piece of mind and to notate any maintenance records from start of ownership
I’ll post that list up up later this week

[mk4337]

***Another update***
I went to remove the pump to remove the lead wires and splice in the new connector and
I was presented with a completely different pump and discovered that the oe wires to the connector were cut as well
Here’s to looking for another fuel pump assembly now




I did find online that there is another pump people use to replace the oem unit but I’m not sure if I can still do that if those wires to the top connector were cut.

Doing some further research atm

[mk4337]

Adapters came in!





It needs to be lowered ASAP lol

[m735is]

Do you have an inline pump under the car as well? It looks like some put a Walbro pump in the tank to act as the main pump.

[mk4337]

Do you have an inline pump under the car as well? It looks like some put a Walbro pump in the tank to act as the main pump.

I’m not exactly sure to be honest, I’ll check here shortly
If I don’t have an inline pump under the car then what would that mean for me?

[8991XJ]

The BMW system uses the in-tank pump to supply the external pump which provides the 3+Bar pressure. The first pump only moves the fuel to the main pump, just outside the tank.

Common fixes for buying two pumps is to buy a high pressure pump and install it in the tank.

Indications the in-tank pump is done is less than 1/4 tank of fuel and a hard right turn accelerating on an entrance ramp and feeling the car stumble. Main pump can't suck enough to keep the fuel pressure up.

[mk4337]

The BMW system uses the in-tank pump to supply the external pump which provides the 3+Bar pressure. The first pump only moves the fuel to the main pump, just outside the tank.

Common fixes for buying two pumps is to buy a high pressure pump and install it in the tank.

Indications the in-tank pump is done is less than 1/4 tank of fuel and a hard right turn accelerating on an entrance ramp and feeling the car stumble. Main pump can't suck enough to keep the fuel pressure up.

Ahh gotcha gotcha, that makes sense
I haven’t had a chance to check if I still have the inline pump but I will a little later this week

My plan was to get the other fuel pump assembly in while I fix the current one on the vehicle with the Carter P60293 fuel pump referenced in the DIY below


https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ual-fuel-pumps

[mk4337]

***update***

My speedometer took a crap shortly after mounting the new wheels
I thought maybe my speed sensor was the culprit but after a quick search online everything suggested check the odometer gears in the cluster

Low and behold haha
Looks like the tiny gear just disintegrated

Ordered some replacement gears from the site below

http://www.odometergears.com/

I ended up taking the clear cover off per the guide on the website to count the inner teeth on the main gear (amber color)



Another thing you’ll need to do to prepare the cluster for the new gear set is pull of the brass bushing


I cut it off with some flush cutters per the guide as well

Before



After


Brass fragments


Now to wait for the gears to come in before buttoning it back up

***edit***

I forgot to mention - it looks like the SI boards been replaced on this cluster!
Bonus I think?
I am having issues with the tachometer and my initial thought was that the SI board needed replacing but seeing this now makes me wonder what else the issue could be

[mk4337]

***follow up on last weeks post***
New odometer and speedo gears came in, but it looks like they forgot to send me the middle gear???
Was going to contact them tomorrow, for now though I buttoned it back up with the old middle gear and the two new E1 and E3 gears

Pic below showing the the new E3 gear vs the original E2 gear



Applied a little bit of white lithium grease

Speedo/odometer gear cover back on


In the process of spraying compressed air through the speedometer I must have bent the mph dial a little bit, I’ll need to find a replacement for this later


I ended up going through all electrical components on the PCB board and cleaned them with contact cleaner in hopes that my cluster battery light (bulb replaced) and tachometer would start working but no luck unfortunately:/
I’m not sure if the SI board that’s in is currently bad or if my tachometer is bad

Here’s a few pics of the SI board, it was manu’d in ‘09 it seems
I cleaned these contacts points as well with electrical contact cleaner




Was going to call Programa tomorrow to see what they thought but if anyone has some suggestions I appreciate any advice / help I can get!!!

I’ll be tackling the fuel pump assembly later this week
I’m going to need to solder / wire the ground / positive leads to the walbro 255 pump up to the OE connector and then solder the oem fuel pump pigtail to the OE harness

[Hit Man X]

Those Programma battery less boards are usually good. Other Programma items...eh.

I have many clusters if you need parts.

[mk4337]

Those Programma battery less boards are usually good. Other Programma items...eh.

I have many clusters if you need parts.

Oh dang, I barely found out of Programma, are their other items pretty bad? Lol
I’m pretty pumped the e23 came with one of these boards, didn’t even know what this was until I joined the bmw world

Would you happen to have a tachometer, Speedo dial and that middle plastic piece that holds the car temp and fuel gauge info?
I accidentally broke mine when taking it apart to clean the contacts underneath

Luckily I was able to superglue the little pegs back into place
Waited 24hrs for it to fully cure before closing everything back up

I assume it should hold but my ocd is going to drive me crazy and eventually I’ll want to replace it

you can see the little peg where it broke off haha

[Hit Man X]

PM me and I can see what I can unload to help.

[mk4337]

PM me and I can see what I can unload to help.

PM’d my good sir!

[poopin04]

sub'd!

I miss some good forum content!

[mk4337]

sub'd!

I miss some good forum content!

Appreciate the kind words!!!
Should have some more updates later this week!

[mk4337]

Late night post
I didn’t like the fact of running adapters on the e23 with the BBS RA’s I had ordered
I’ve run adapters in the past but the way the ones I ordered didn’t really provide a long enough stud in my opinion to consider it safe

Pic of said wheel with adapter, notice how the wheel nuts appears to be holding on for dear life lol


So my conscious led me to find some oem 14” basket weaves
Ended up getting all 4 for 340 shipped







They aren’t as clean as the 184’s but I’ll get them refinished later, these will be the daily’s that I’ll roll on until I can source some 5x120 16” bbs rs wheels

[DSpoljaric]

Why not get longer wheel bolts? Standard is ~25mm, but you can easily get bolts that are 40mm or 45mm to give you the thread count you do need to mount the wheels safely. Any quality wheel shop will be able to set you up with the hardware you need. Or you can get everything you need on Amazon as well.

IMO, 14" wheels are too small on an e23. The 16" wheel setup is much more handsome.

[mk4337]

Why not get longer wheel bolts? Standard is ~25mm, but you can easily get bolts that are 40mm or 45mm to give you the thread count you do need to mount the wheels safely. Any quality wheel shop will be able to set you up with the hardware you need. Or you can get everything you need on Amazon as well.

IMO, 14" wheels are too small on an e23. The 16" wheel setup is much more handsome.

So the 15" BBS RA' I posted earlier, the seller on eBay had originally listed them as 5x120 fitment, me not thinking anything of it - I didn't verify the model number and once they were delivered, I quickly realized they weren't 5x120, they were 5x112 with CB of 65.6
So I contacted the seller and he refunded me $200 as he himself didn't realize they weren't 5x120, he had purchased them off another user that said they came off a 633csi
I ended up ordering some adapters for 5x120 to 5x112
The lug bolts that go into the 733 hub are perfectly fine, my issue is the studs they pressed into the adapters are not long enough at all imo :/
I contacted the vendor but they kept giving me the go around and I got frustrated, I honestly haven't looked for longer studs myself to see if I could have a machine shop press them in.
I jumped on these 14" only because they were at a stupid good deal - got them all for about 320 shipped.
Let me post up a better picture of the wheels with them bolted up to the adapter, I honestly don't feel safe driving with the amount of threads left available for the lug nuts

[mk4337]

Why not get longer wheel bolts? Standard is ~25mm, but you can easily get bolts that are 40mm or 45mm to give you the thread count you do need to mount the wheels safely. Any quality wheel shop will be able to set you up with the hardware you need. Or you can get everything you need on Amazon as well.

IMO, 14" wheels are too small on an e23. The 16" wheel setup is much more handsome.

Forgot to upload pic lol

[8991XJ]

How many threads are those nuts grabbing? Is that what I'm seeing? Or are those lug bolts with deep openings that have a screw in cap to cover them?

I don't know why you didn't just find an adequate set of 16x7s from some other BMW and bolt them on while looking for the wheels you desire. But whatever, hopefully you will have a working set on the car to drive while hunting for the final set.

[mk4337]

How many threads are those nuts grabbing? Is that what I'm seeing? Or are those lug bolts with deep openings that have a screw in cap to cover them?

I don't know why you didn't just find an adequate set of 16x7s from some other BMW and bolt them on while looking for the wheels you desire. But whatever, hopefully you will have a working set on the car to drive while hunting for the final set.

They only complete about 4-5 turns until they run out of threads to grab,
I never planned to run adapters
The wheels were sold on eBay as 5x120 fitment which is why I bought them, come to find out they were not 5x120 but 5x112
I contacted the seller about this as he sold them as 5x120 he himself didn’t realize they weren’t 5x120 so
he refunded me 200~ for my troubles since I had already purchased tires for the wheels
Adapters that were ordered came with studs that imo are way too short with not enough threads available for the lug nuts to grab
Pictures of said adapters below

[8991XJ]

Yes, a nice set of studs and you will be fine. I knew you were buying square wheels and stuff to get you through. Hope everything works out.

[Hit Man X]

Located a good center cluster stack for PO. Hopefully shall cure his ails!