E30 M3 minor rust repair (few finished pic's)

[x-works]

The main reason for pulling the box asunder was I wanted to replace
the bearings in there. A couple of months before pulling the car off
the road a nasty clicking sound came into the front end of the gearbox,
so we pulled the box and stripped off the front casing to try and find
the culprit before the clicking progressed to a knocking and finally
the big "boom". The front input shaft bearing looked ok, a little bit gritty
when spun but not the cause of the noise....



and then we went on to the one under it, the front layshaft bearing.
We had a sneaky feeling this could have been the cause of the noise.
Call it a sixth sense if you will but there was something bugging us
about this bearing. Here's the two of them side by side, it takes a
sharp eye to spot the difference, but if you look close enough you
should be able to see the tiny defect.....



Yeah, the bearing cage had completely shit itself, allowing the balls
to move around as they pleased, which had resulted in the clicking
sound. The cage that holds the balls spaced out is made out of a hard
plastic type stuff (*might not be correct technical term). And the reason
it had broken up was the inner race of the bearing had started to pit,
and got worse over time, which meant the little balls were bouncing
over the pothole created......



Eventually it got to hard for the plastic cage to hold on to the balls
as they bounced and it broke up. Next up had the box been kept
driven would probably have been one of the balls getting jammed
or popping out of the bearing, either of which would probably have
resulted in a nice little explosion of bits inside the box. Thankfully
due to that clicking sound we got a little warning that the end was
coming. At the time we only replaced the front end bearings because
the car is my everyday car and I needed it back on the road as soon
as possible. So now it's all coming asunder and all the 5 main bearing
in the box are getting changed.....



Number 4 and 5 in the pic above are on either ends of the layshaft (bottom shaft)
and are just normal bearings available aftermarket. The front layshaft
bearing (on left in pic) 25x62x17mm was replaced with a Timken
bearing p/n 6305/C3. The rear one (on right) 72x30x19mm was
replaced with a SKF bearing p/n 6306/C3....



Number 3, the rear bearing on the output shaft is identical to
the number 5 the layshaft rear bearing, and again was replaced with
a SKF bearing p/n 6306/C3.....



So that just left us with number 1 and 2 to source. I could only get
these from the main dealer as they're a bit odd ball bearings.
The first one (number 1 bmw p/n 23121204580 ) the input shaft bearing
is special because it has a groove cut into the outside race to take a circlip
as seen below......



This must be made from rare minerals as thats the only reason I can
see why it cost 80 something euro! But if that one was made from
rare minerals then they must have to travel all the way to the moon
to get the stuff to make bearing number 2 (bmw p/n 23231205191).
This is a 2 piece needle roller bearing and it weighs in at 208 euro.
That hurt.....





With all the main bearings done it was time to move on to the smaller
ones. The red arrowed one below was changed because it has one of them
hard plastic races holding it together and these get brittle over time....



bmw p/n 23221207784.......



all the blue arrowed ones are the little double row needle roller
bearings that fit inside the gears. These were available after market
but had a 4 week order in time so I just got them from the main
dealer instead (bmw p/n 23221228279)......



Only 2 of them little needle roller bearings ride on the shaft, the rest of
them ride on their own little separate inner race's pictured below.
None of these needed replacing as there was no marks on them
and they showed no signs of wear.....



The other thing that I wanted to pay special attention to while in here
was the syncro rings. 1st gear had a habit of being awkward to select
in this box in stop go traffic, especially when warm. So all the syncro's
got checked while assunder.....



to check them the syncro ring is placed on top of it's gear, lightly pressed
down and the gap (arrowed below) measured with feeler blades.....



for a new syncro ring sitting on a gear the gap is 1.0 to 1.3mm
if the gap on the old one is below 0.8mm she kaput.
The only difference is reverse gear, 0.5-0.6 new less than 0.4mm replace.
Given I couldn't fit a fly's pubic hair bewteen my 1st gear syncro
ring and the gear I could safely say it was fu*ked...



One of the other things that got checked was the shift forks. These
sit into the groove on the syncro hubs and push them backwards and
forwards. As the syncro hubs are allways spinning and the fork are
allways held still, the side faces of the forks can tend to wear, giving
a slopply gear change (you have to move the gear lever move before
a worn fork actually starts to move the syncro hub)......



minimum fork thickness is 4.8mm, thankfully mine were all good to go.....

[x-works]

With everything cleaned, checked and replaced if worn, it was time to
try and figure out how it all went back together.
Starting with the rear casing......



and this little collection of bits whose job it is to spring load the gear
lever when your moving it from side to side in neutral....



smaller of the two springs dropped in like so.....



flat washer and circlip on top, to stop it wandering....



and then this little tube whose job it is to grab the selector rod....




as you can see the tube has a specially cut internal section which allows
the selector rod to side back and forth inside it undisturbed, but when
the selector rod is rotated left or right (when you move the gear lever
left or right) it rotates the whole tube left or right......



the selector rod is kept free during all this movement thanks to 4
little rollers stuck on the shaft (one hidden underneath)....



the tube sits into the casing like so.....



making sure the leg attached to the tube is the right side of that first
spring that was fitted.....



the second bigger spring goes on next, the legs of which sit like below......



followed by a washer and circlip.....



next up is the method of stopping the gear lever from being pushed
to far to the left or right. The little tube just fitted has an elongated
notch cut into it like so......



and when in place this notch lines up inside with this hole on the casing.....



into which is screwed this little locater bolt....



before screwing it in, its given a dab of loctite to lock it in place but
also to seal it so gearbox oil can't weep out.....



when it's in theres the head of the bolt and the casing has been drilled
for lockwire.....



so some lockwire is fitted....



when all that crap is fitted this next little selection of stuff is hammered
in, in this order....



into this hole....



this little plunger gives you that extra bit of spring force to overcome
when your pushing the gearlever all the way over for reverse. A little
bit of gasket sealer on the sides of the black plug below on fitment
helps keep it oil tight.....




After that it's onto the centre casing and the fitment of the worlds most
expensive gearbox bearing. Only fitting the outside piece of this at the
moment, the inner ring will be used later....



the aluminium casing around the bearing hole in the centre of the casing
is given a nice heating with the heat gun, to ever so slightly expand it,
which allows the colder bearing to slide easily into place. The bearing
only fits in from one side as theres a ridge to stop it sliding through....



then the two little countersunk allen key head bolts are fitted through
the casing and screwed into the 2 little retainer tabs which stops the bearing
falling out the other side. Bit of loctite on these two bolts does no harm....



After that it's on to the replacing the 2 layshaft bearings......



the front old one is pulled off....

[x-works]

new bearing is heated up with the heat gun and popped on....



the bearing the other end is only a small bit more involved. The bearing
is behind the last gear on the shaft, so the bolt and fat washer that holds
this gear on is first removed, and then the gear is pulled off its splines
on the shaft.....



with the gear out of the way, the old bearing is pulled off and new one
heated and slid on......



and then it's time for the first bit of shimming.
When the gear is pushed back on the shaft on top of the new bearing,
its up to the fat washer and bolt to hold them all secure and tight.
If the gear was pushed back on the shaft and wasn't level
with the top of the shaft, then when the fat washer and bolt were tightened
down the gear and bearing would still be free to wobble around a
little underneath it.
So, with a depth gauge, the length of exposed shaft on top of the bearing
(marked X below) is measured....



"X" was measured at 34.8mm.
Then the length of the gear is measured (Y)....



and as you can see it was 34.7mm
So a 0.1mm shim is needed to bring the gear flush with the end of the
shaft.....



shim fitted, gear heated up and slipped on, fat washer refitted and
bolt loctited and tightened back in place. Layshaft finished.....



After that it's on to short the input shaft, replacing the front bearing
first (making sure the recess in the outer race for the circlip is facing
away from the gears as pictured).....



and then the little bearing in the end of the shaft.
(new one fitted, old on on bench).....



After that it's on to the output shaft which holds the majority of
removable pieces.There's a collar at one end of the shaft which
means the shaft is built up in two steps as arrowed....



first up the long side is built up. The shaft is placed into special tool
p/n 959axlestand to hold it secure......



first up one of those little double row needle bearings
(like the one shown below) is slid on.....



then 3rd gear and a syncro ring is slid on....



followed by a syncro hub. The syncro hub is a tight fit on the shafts
splines so it's heated with the heat gun first to expand it and allow it
to push on by hand (soon to be burnt hand).....



after that its another syncro ring (they're all identical to each other),
followed by 2nd gear....



another of those needle bearing slides inside the gear
(like the one pictured below).....



this bearing however isn't a snug fit on the shaft, instead it runs on
a removable collar like below, so the collar is slid down in between the
bearing and shaft.....





After that, next on is the centre piece of the worlds most expensive
gearbox bearing (yeah that price really got to me)....





And thats as far as can be built up this end of the shaft at the
moment, so, the shaft is rotated in the stand and we start building up
the other end.....



first on this end is another of those double row bearings....



followed by 4th gear and it's syncro ring.....



and then a syncro hub (again heated in the centre to slide on easy)....



and with the syncro hub in place, last to go on this end of the shaft is
a fat spacer and a circlip to hold everything in place. Again everything
has to be held on tightly this end of the shaft, there can be no play for the gears
to move around.
So, with that in mind, that spacer under the circlip comes in a range
of different sizes, going up in small increments. Pop the circlip on
without the washer under it, measure the gap below it and then use the
largest size spacer that will fit to keep everything packed tight
(use a new circlip going back, they only cost buttons and if the
old one fails it'll cause the box to go "boom") .....





and with that done the input and output shafts are fitted together
(one just slides in to the end of the other)....





and then the whole lot is popped back up in to the stand again
for a bit of measuring.....



The measurement we're after this time is is marked "A"
in the pic below. And it's the distance from the top of
the expensive bearing inner race up to the next "ledge"
on the shaft at the top of those splines.....



same idea again as the layshaft shimming. The stuff thats going
on the shaft here needs to be held tight by the stuff that comes
on top of it. Only problem is the stuff coming on top of it will only fit
down as far as this "ledge" in the shaft. So we've got to make
sure this stuff fits on level with the top of the ledge.
And this is done by measuring the piece of shaft with
a depth gauge ( "A" = 52.5mm)......

[x-works]

And then measuring the stuff thats sliding on here.
First of which is a syncro hub. Theres 3 of these in total in the box
and while the other 2 are identical to each other, the one that fits here
has 2 small important differences. The centre's of both the other
syncro hubs are smooth on both sides, like the bit marked red below.....



The one that fits here however has a small step in it on one side,
arrowed below.....



The second difference from the other two hubs is this little groove on
one side of the outside ring, which doesn't concern us right now....



right, back to what we need to measure, one of the little needle roller
bearing collars that fits inside each gear is held up against the smooth
side of the syncro hub like so.....



and using a micrometer we're measuring to the inside ledge of
the step on this side of the syncro hub, like so......



which when measured came to 53.3mm ("B"). So the height of the
stuff we're fitting to the shaft is 53.3mm and the length of shaft we
need to fill is 53.5mm to bring them flush with the end of the splines.
So taking "B" from "A" (53.5mm - 53.3mm) gives us the gap we need
to fill with a shim = 0.2mm. That shim ain't been fitted yet though, we
have a bit of assembly to do first.

The input/output shafts and the layshaft are placed together like so.....



the middle casing is popped up into the vise and the metal around the
centre holes where the bearings fit into are heated up with the heat gun
to expand them.....



and then while it's nice and hot the shafts are offered up and
slid through like so.....





and now that the shafts are fitted to the casing we can pop on that
little 0.2mm shim we measured....



followed by the bearing collar (which was heated cause it's a tight fit
on the shaft).....



and then the bearing.....



and then 1st gear is slid on meshing with 1st gear on the layshaft
beside it.....



next up was that shiny new syncro ring.....



and finally that odd ball syncro hub, making sure that the recess cut
out of the outer ring is facing in towards the casing....



the only snag is, when fitting this last syncro hub you've got to fit it's
shift fork and rod at the same time.....



like so......



because if you don't, you'll never get the fork on afterwards, and even
if you did manage it, theres no access to knock in the roll pin that
secures the fork to the rod......




There's two other things thats probably worth noting at this stage.
The first is, theres a few little notches machined out of the end of the
shift fork rod, circled below.....



theres two ways you can roll pin that shift fork onto the rod,
1) like above with the notches facing downward which is correct, or,
2) the rod rotated 180degrees from above pic,which leaves the notches
facing upwards, which you only find out much later is the wrong way around
and means dissembling the lot to switch it around again.
(the urge to take out a hammer and chisel and beat some new notches
into it out of frustration will take a lot of effort to subdue at this point).

The other point worth noting is although the 3 shift forks will only go
together in the box the right way (they won't physically fit any other
way) it still helps a lot, if upon disassembly, you scribe onto the side
of each fork, an arrow showing which way it faces (towards front of box)
and which syncro hub it came off (ie. 5th/4th, 3rd/2nd or 1st/rev).
It just saves a lot of head scratching while you try to figure it out
upon reassembly. Which when all assembled ends up looking like
this.....





once happy that all notches and forks look like they are where they
should be, then it's time to hammer in the remaining roll pins....



With all that crap done it's back to building up the end of the
output shaft again. Remember that last odd ball syncro hub that
was fitted with the little ridge in the centre?....



well now we get to see why it was important the ridge faced out
this way. These two little thrust type washers......



pop into that ridge.....



which is then followed by the last syncro ring and reverse gear.....



and the little bearing for inside the gear.....



and finally heat up the bearing cone and slip it in between the bearing
and the shaft.....





next to go on is a 0.5mm shim, no measuring or calculating for this one,
every box just gets a 0.5mm shim here.....

[x-works]

One of the final things to go on the shaft is the last of the bigger
main bearings. But before it can go on we needed to do a bit of
measuring with it first. The bearing will be fitted on the shaft and
when the rear casing is offered up and pushed on it will sit inside this
recess in the casing.....



and this support ring will bolt it tight into that recess inside the box....




if you just dropped the bearing into the casing recess and bolted on
the cover above what you'll find is that it doesn't clamp the bearing
real tight in there. The bearing will actually be able to move back
and forth a little. So what you've got to do is measure how much
"slack" is in there and pack it up with shims so that the support ring
clamps the bearing tight when bolted up.
To do this first we measured the depth of the recess in the casing
(13.1mm).....



and then fitted the bearing into the support ring.....



and measured how much stuck out (12.9mm)......



13.1mm of a hole minus 12.9mm of a bearing to stick into it is
going to leave you with 0.2mm of a gap in there, so, a 0.2mm shim
is fitted under the bearing before it's sat into the support ring like so.....



Now when all that is bolted together, that bearing is going to be
clamped nice and secure between the ring and the casing.
With the shims figured out and fitted between the bearing and the
ring, the bearing could now be slid onto the shaft.
The heads are cut off two long m6 bolts and these are screwed in to
two of the five threaded holes of the support ring, for reasons you'll
see in a while.....



centre of the bearing is heated with the heat gun and slid onto the shaft.....



and finally this little spacer is slid on.....



After that it's time to get the rear casing ready for going on.
Output flange seal is changed
(available after market for buttons, size: 40x55x8mm)......



and then the selector shaft seal (size:15x21x5mm).....



and then refit the reverse idler shaft stuff.....



the shaft sticks up out of the rear casing and onto it is dropped, bearing,
spacer,bearing.....



followed by the idler geared shaft.....



and then a fat little spacer with a corner cut out.....



As usual the cut out piece has to be in a specific location when the
rear casing is offered up to the box and the chances of it staying as
pictured when you lift the whole lot up is zero to none.
So, fat blob of grease on the back of the spacer and stick it in place in
the box instead....



The 2nd last thing needed in the rear casing before it can go on, is this....




There's five of these balls and three springs in total for the rear casing,
only one spring is needed at the moment, and it slides in through
a little drilling in the casing marked by the green arrow.
(you can just about see the spring in place, red arrow).....



And finally just before the rear casing is offered up,
bit of gasket poo and gasket is stuck to centre casing side....






And then just as your ready to offer the rear casing up, these 4 little
roller/spacer thingies (*may not be correct technical name)
are stuck into place on the selector shaft with the aid of four
blobs of grease....








don't be shy with the grease on those, the little fu*kers love to drop off
and head off for a wander while your shoving the rear casing on.
And then at long last the rear casing can be offered up,
but, it can only go on this far (because that'd be far to simple).....




quick check to make sure them 2 little m6 bolts that were screwed
into the bearing ring have come through the casing in the right place.....



and then the reason why the casing can't slide all the way home yet.
That little spring is in the way of the selector fork rod sitting into
it's final resting place.....



So, one of the little balls like pictured below is placed on top of the
spring in the casing and is pushed back into it's hole to let the rod by......





that sounds so simple when written, but in reality can provided hours
of entertainment for all the family. And when you've mastered
that one, it's on to the one next door, same idea, spring drops down
from the top into place, ball on top and squeeze down to allow the
next rod to push through, and, as if that wasn't challenging enough
you've also got to place a ball directly between the two selector shafts aswell
(that ball is hidden in this pic, the final pic in this sequence makes it a little
easier to see where they all end up!)......

[x-works]

and then finally the last one's, again a ball between the two shafts and
the final one sits on top of its spring and is depressed in it's recess
to let the shaft by (at this stage you'll either be a pro at
this or have set fire to the garage out of rage, if you look carefully
you might just notice the fire extinguisher fumes in the background
of this pic).....



when you've finally succumbed to the rage and decided to beat them all into
place with the sledgehammer this is where all the balls should end up
(red circles = the balls, blue circles = the end of the selector shafts)........



when they're all in place and all the rods are covering them, the casing
can be tapped the final half inch home. Then the collection of 5 little
plugs can be tapped back in, to cover all them drilling's in the casing.....





Then it's on to the bearing support ring and them two long m6 bolts
sticking out the back. The five bolts get a wee dab of thread lock....



The 2 long m6 studs sticking out the back should have kept
all the holes aligned allowing you to fit 3 of them into the 3 empty holes
,finger tight, and then the two long bolts are taken out and replaced
by the other 2 proper bolts......



When they're all in then tighten them up evenly.
Front casing is nowhere near as dramatic. Stick the gasket on with
some gasket goo either side, heat the centre of it up so it sides on
easily over the bearings and then just batter it on.....



When it's on this little collection of crap.....




is battered into this hole,
professionally......





After that the rear output flange goes on. A little gasket goo rubbed
on the inside of the splines helps keep it oil tight.....





special tool p/n 959rustybar makes a return to hold the flange while
the nut in the centre is torqued up.....




The nut no longer needs that brass type lock ring placed over it
next, as the factory revised the procedure to just use loctite on the
nut instead.

After that and it's back to the front end to do the final bit of measuring
and shimming.
The spacer ring is first slipped onto the bit of the input shaft bearing
thats sticking out.....



followed by the circlip that snaps into the recess cut in the
outside of the bearing.....






when all thats fitted, a few soft taps inwards on the end of the input
shaft to make sure it's fully home. (that circlip should be tight up against
the spacer ring, which in turn should be tight up against the housing.
With that done the little cover thats going to go over these bearings is
preped. The cone/tube "thingy" that the clutch release bearing rides on
(black yoke below) fits into the cover....



a tiny smear of gasket goo on the cover where the cone sits into
to keep it oil tight. The cone also has a notch on it so it'll only
sit in fully in one position....



with that in, the input shaft seal is fitted in to it (30x42x7mm, big money
from main dealer for some reason, available for buttons aftermarket)......



and then the measuring. The idea of this cover is that the 2 bearings
will sit into the two recesses in the cover. The recesses have to be
shimed so that when the cover is bolted on tight theres no wiggle
room left for the bearings. So to figure out what size shims are needed
first up we measured the depth from the face of the cover to the bottom
of the hole (the face of the cone/tube thingy)......



and that came out at 7.1mm, and then measured how much bearing
was sticking out of the box......



and that came out at 6.8mm.
So, from the hole depth..........................7.1mm
take away the bearing height...................6.8mm
and you get the size of shim needed ........0.3mm
Only theres one other thing to take into account,
that cover may have a gasket (some do, some don't)
and when you fit a gasket it brings the cover back another
tiny bit away from the bearing. So the manual says add
another 0.2mm for the thickness of the gasket.
So now the hole is..........7.3mm
minus bearing height.......6.8mm
equals shim thickness.....0.5mm

Same sort of deal for the bottom hole/bearing.
Measure the recess.......



That came to 5.2mm, and then measure how much the
bearing protrudes......





which came out at 4.7mm
So once again,
hole depth..................................................5.2mm
plus the bit for the gasket..........................0.2mm
equals.........................................................5.4mm
minus the amount the bearing sticks out....4.7mm
leaves you with the shim size needed........0.7mm
Only it doesn't, because the manual says this bottom shaft
needs 0.1/0.2mm endfloat. Which means it needs a little space
to move around and stretch it's feet. So from the shim size of
0.7mm (which would have packed it tight) you subtract 0.1mm
to leave the true shim needed at 0.6mm (now the shaft has 0.1mm
of space to move around in as speced).
And if you understood all that, fair play to you, cause i'm writing it
and it's making fu*k all sense to me as I read it back.
Anywho, gasket goo'ed on, shims greased in place, it's time to throw
the cover on....



7 little bolts, 3 long for the top, 4 short for the bottom, get them the
wrong way around and the long ones will screw in the bottom
and right through the casing and burst your bearing inside, which
is nice.....

[x-works]

and ta-daaaaa.....



With the box overhauled it was time to turn the attention to the outside
bit's and pieces. First up, gearlinkage. When I got this car the gear change
resembled stirring a bowl of porridge with a large wooden spoon, it
was vague to say the least. I changed one little bit of the linkage
at the time, which helped, but I knew there was more to fix at some
stage. So now the day has come.
Theres 4 places where the linkage can get worn, and my car proving
as helpful as ever was w*nked in all 4 places......



position 1
This bit is probably familiar to most e30 owners as it's the bit
that wears most. It's cheap enough from the main dealer (p/n 25117503525)
and it's handy enough to change.......



Position 2
Was a bit surprised to find so much wear here. The bolt had
started to chew it's way through the bracket. Elongating the hole
and wearing down the bolt....





Position 4




This is the little ball the the gearlever rotates on. As the ball is metal
it doesn't wear, but the plastic bushing it sits in does.
New bushing main dealer p/n 25111220600......



Position 3
The little bush just under the ball on the gearlever.....



as you can see in the exploded part of the pic theres only a small
bit of wear here, but it doesn't take much to make the lever feel
sloppy. Theres no bush to change here, the only remedy is a new
gear lever. Thankfully I had a spare Z3 one which was good to go....



So, rob the post office on the way to the main dealer's......



Z3 lever fitted.....



new rubber bush in the end of the stabilizer bar as it was worn too....



fresh bracket and bolt fitted onto the new bush....



and then time to fit back the lower link. Two new plastic washers
fitted on the inside (p/n 25111220439 they're important and they're
also the cheapest part you'll ever buy from a main dealer)......




pop the link bar back in one end, with another plastic washer on the
outside before refitting the circlip........



slide in the other end of the link........



pop another fresh washer on......



and then the circlip......



If them circlips are loose sliding on, then replace them, there should
be a tight "click" as they pop on. If they fall off down the line, you'll
loose the ability to change gear, and it won't happen close to home,
it'll be in the middle of nowhere, it'll be dark and raining and you'll
be the tight arse fool walking back up the road, in pitch black darkness
looking for a lost clip that you were to tight to change. (yes, I wore that t-shirt).

And then finally, rebolt the stabilizer bracket to the box with the
two long bolts that are a pig to get to when the box is fitted in the car....



after that, reverse light switch goes back in with a new washer....



wires attached.....



and clipped on here.....



and here....



before magically reappearing inside the rubber boot.....



(the wires in the above picture were the old ones and since
fitting them and posting this up I've had a very helpful pm
from bmwe30mtech to say that the old wires can
short out due to age and in his case actually cause a fire.
The wires will be renewed tomorrow, cheers mate.)

There was something not quite right about the geabox rubber
mountings, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.....





so I replaced them to be on the safe side....



bellhousing bolted back on along with the little bracket to support
the exhaust downpipe......



clutch fork, retaining spring and clutch release bearing back on.....



a lick of silver paint.....



and thats a brief description of how we overhauled my gearbox.
If you've made it this far, congratulations, most of what you've just
read is probably wrong. But sure there was nothing better on tv
anyway.

Till next time.......

[bodger]

top work there

[ShepsEvo3]

Mamouth thread! The gearbox overhaul is better than any workshop manual lol.

Also amusing with it too

[bmwe30mtech]

Excellent work, and very educational - to the sort of level you would normally have to pay for.

It's nice to have some threads like this on the zone.

Thanks very much for taking the time to write this up, parts like the gearbox linkages will be useful to lots of members, including me!

Thanks

[fourmotion]

Epic mate, i honestly for a split second even thought about doing my own box after reading this...But then i know what a numpty i am when it comes to stuff like this!

Keep up the updates. Strong work.

[bss325i]

Awesome!

Excelent write up!

[josh-hocking]

Seriously, the standard you are building this car too is unbelievable! I cant think of one car on the road today that has all this work done by 1 person, putting in as much effort as you have.... you have the patients of a saint!

I in september started an apprenticeship at British aerospace, and at the minute I'm concentrating working to as high a standard as i possibly can.. Just out of interest where did you learn these skills? or complete and apprentice course? because as stated you skills and accuracy are better than any manual i have ever read!

Lastly, i think i speak on behalf of all zoners in appreciating the time your taking in uploading all this for us, as I'm sure all the pictures and wording is taking almost as long as the rebuild itself! Thanks

Looking forward to next update!

Cheers
Josh

[gareth]

Wow, fantastic write up! Another thank you for taking the time to write it, very informative and a good giggle too
I now know what's inside my gearbox (ish) and in a strange way, want to rebuild it now just for fun!

Where did you get the shims from? Are they a dealer part?
Also, what do you use to clean the parts / casing etc up?

[benjy]

Ive just sat and read this entire thread from the begining and now have a numb arse !!
I dont think Ive ever read anything thats kept me quite so ''glued'' to my screen......
Truely an epic amount of work and real credit to you and your remaining sanity

[Dezzy]

Is it just me thinking how fooking much is this m3 going to be worth.
Not what's being spent here I reckon but it must (will be ) one of the best around?
Amazing. Speachless.

[DanThe]

It will be better than the white bubble encapsulated M3 when its done

Definitely worth while rebuilding an M3 gearbox, but you would have to be extremely keen to do a standard box, who knows how many £200 bearings are hiding inside

Donk next?

[Rory_O]

mate this has to be the best thread i have ever came across!! thats amazing detail. alteast i know if i am taking my box apart i can refer to your own!!

cant wait to see whats next

[bodger]

sticky?

[Gortour]

Fear not, Zone Gold all the way.

Amazing stuff X-works.

[Nay]

Love it. Looking forward to more!

[Demlotcrew]

Amazing Gearbox overhaul! Now i know why this is a sticky!

[Dave_M3]

Brilliant work as usual. I'm half thinking of fixing my fooked M3 Evo box now and even if I can't get the bits for it, just do it for the laugh as it looks easy from reading this


Gutted I missed out on a dogleg box that would have been given to me for free as it had one or two bearing issues

[tomson]

I'm half thinking of fixing my fooked M3 Evo box now and even if I can't get the bits for it

Where would you get the parts from? BMW dont list any as I'm sure you know

[Supafly]

Thank you
I have learned a lot from just following this thread. Please keep up the excellent work.

[Morat]

Does anyone else have the mental image of X-works being like Darah O'Brien with a big spanner?

[Dezzy]

Does anyone else have the mental image of X-works being like Darah O'Brien with a big spanner?

That sounds all wrong. When your thinknig of x works are you naked ha ha.
The car is amazing and the bloke couldn't be more helpfull.
We are lucky he picked a BMW to re store

[johnt0709]

Seriously - This level of work, pictures, explanation (and craic) is worthy of some of the programmes on the discovery channel and as my wife will testify I watch far too much of these programmes.

Surely worthy of something more than a thread on the zone (not thats there's anything wrong with that)

No plans for a magazine? Performance BMW?

[Jozi]

Seriously - This level of work, pictures, explanation (and craic) is worthy of some of the programmes on the discovery channel and as my wife will testify I watch far too much of these programmes.

Surely worthy of something more than a thread on the zone (not thats there's anything wrong with that)

No plans for a magazine? Performance BMW?

Or a book, "the complete guide to restoring your E30 M3"

[Dave_M3]

On Disco tomoro evening...

"An M3 is born"


Re: Tomson; I was thinking of using the synchros and maybe some bearings from a E36 325i getrag box as some of the parts may possibly have been the same on both boxes and obviously source as much as I could after market like x-works has done.

[x-works]

Evenin all,
No update just yet, should have something to scribble up in
a week or two. Work has slowed right down at the moment,
I didn't fancy the idea of loosing a ball to frost bite so I took
a few weeks away from the garage till the weather picked
up.
Apologies for the delay replying to some of the questions,
and once again thanks for all the kind words, it's nice to be
able to share the progress with people who are interested.

josh-hocking
Just out of interest where did you learn these skills? or complete and apprentice course

I served my time as a HGV mechanic and have worked ever
since on big dirty diesel buses. So most of what you've seen
above was picked up messing during the evenings out in the
garage. I've also had a lot of help from a mate who's also in
the trade and has forgotten more than I'll probably ever know,
which helps. All of what has been posted in here is do-able
by everyone reading this though, you just need patience and
determination and the realisation that things will go wrong
just as often as they go right.
Congradulations on starting your apprenticeship by the way,
find an old timer who's good and still takes pride in his work and
learn everything you can off him.

gareth
Where did you get the shims from? Are they a dealer part?
Also, what do you use to clean the parts / casing etc up?

All the shims I used or could have wanted are listed on
http://www.bmwfans.info and are still available from the
main dealer. I know I moan about their prices sometimes but
the truth is the rebuild probably wouldn't have been
feasible without Bmw still stocking so much for e30's.

For cleaning, the box took a good steam cleaning before
disassembly and then when stripped each part was washed in
the two basins of paraffin shown in the diff section.
Any finally upon reassembly the aluminium casings were
painted with .....



DanThe
Donk next?

Howya Dan, no, donkey will probably be one of the final things
on the list, due to the ferocious pace I'm tearing through this
restoration theres a good chance if it was built now it would be
seized come time to turn the key.

Morat
Does anyone else have the mental image of X-works being like Darah O'Brien with a big spanner?

laughed a lot when i read that. He's definitely my favorite
comedian.

Johnt0709
No plans for a magazine? Performance BMW?

The V6 e30 we built before nearly made it into a magazine,
however things just didn't work out at the time, to be honest
I prefer forum threads like this, at least you can hear back
from the people who've read it.

[Nay]

I'm just amazed at the effort your going into in your write up! Not many people would do such a detailed write up whilst restoring a car. I really hope you've got the patience to continue this as its incredibly interesting, as well as helpful.

Soo looking forward to the finished thing, as well as the next installment.

[Kos]

Johnt0709
No plans for a magazine? Performance BMW?

The V6 e30 we built before nearly made it into a magazine,
however things just didn't work out at the time, to be honest
I prefer forum threads like this, at least you can hear back
from the people who've read it.

i'd say this would be prime material for TBMW or BMW car magazines

dont think the PBMW readers would appreciate it, let alone the editor have any actual idea whats gone into the project

keep up the good work fella, truly amazing stuff

[Royalratch]

Forget car mags this should be put into the Bill of Rights, The Constitution and any relevant UN Protocols.

[DEVIL]

Damn woooooo thats alot of work you done there good luck on finishing it off,
Whens it due to be back on the road an in a few shows i bet its cost you an arm n leg worth of money i was stressing just to get my sterling silver m3 resprayed n the leathers done.
Also doing my engine rebuild on my other m3 not easy to maintain these old classic's.