Toecutters M50 swap loom question

[toecutter666]

Hi all,

Just started my m50 conversion to my cabby so i thought i'd bore you all with my progress, if i'm doing anything wrong or got any suggestions i'm all ears as this is my first bm conversion.

Bought my 91 cabby about 3 years ago for a couple hundred quid as it was a non runner, the roof looked like a sieve and had a strange smell of mould, it had lived on a blokes drive at the end of the road and hadn't moved for a couple of years, i had a 318 at the time but due to a massive case of tin worm i gave the remains to zaust on here for spares so i was looking for a project to tinker with.

Out with the old..




In with the sort of new, had to replace the original wheels with the mims so i could push it down the road into my garage


Getting it in the garage the first thing was to get rid of the old destroyed roof, taking it off i found the frame had snapped at one of the hinges so the lot went in the skip, the grey leather interior was next in the skip, both front seats were broken and torn and the carpet had some plant life living on it

So after a search i got a decent set of blue cab seats but the usual rear seat back stitching was on its way out so off to the retrimmers it went with a set of rear headrests.

Bought a new carpet and fitted it after welding up a small hole in the floor behind the drivers seat caused by the water sitting in the footwell

The non starting was just a after market alarm, after taking out and repairing the loom it fired up first time and ran lovely

I picked up a blue roof and frame, the roof is a little worn but water tight but would do me untill i could afford a new roof.

Once a few little jobs had been done i sent it off for an mot just to see what needed to be sorted, it failed but only on headlamp aim, exhaust blowing and front wheel bearing, a weekend and a stainless system with a hottuning manifold stuck on the credit card and it passed its mot

I drove it for 5 - 600 miles then it went back in the garage for winter, there it sat for a year as work and family commitments took my time.

The family grew by 1 so we had to look for a family bus for 5 and a dog so this cropped up for 500 notes..



A 93 525 manual tourer with fsh,tax,mot and a wallet full of bmw parts receipts including one for a new cat from bm for £800

The g/f said it was like driving about in a hearse but i liked cruising about in comfort for a few months without a hitch.

The g/f really didn't like it so went out and bought a pauxhall menira or whatever its called to cart the sprogs about so i was left with the e34 sitting on the drive untill i read e30beemerlads thread and thought naughty thoughts, the next weekend the g/f came home to..



Thats as far as i've got apart from a bit of cleaning and picking up some conversion parts.

Cheers for reading

[toecutter666]

Hope not but on a bit of a tight budget so you never know...

[E30BeemerLad]

until i read e30beemerlads thread

Hope you dont take as long to get it in...

Oi, I resemble that remark

[toecutter666]

Sold the m20 to another zoner that wanted to convert his 320 slush box to 325 manual so the cabs old heart was pulled..




I was going to keep the m20 gearbox but since this have picked up a m42 box with a z3 shifter already fitted

As the cars off the road i want to pull the rear out and replace all bushes, if i've got a bit of spare cash i may treat myself to an LSD but not worried if i can't as more of a cruiser than racer.

[toecutter666]

A big thanks to daf318is for sending me a pas pump for the conversion after i bought a m52 one thinking it would be ok, that'll teach me for not checking first, thanks to e30beemerlad for offering to get one from his local scrappers for me.

A couple of goodies arrived for the m50, replaced the plastic impeller water pump for a metal one, also got an alloy thermostat housing sent from turner motorsport in the us.

Old plastic and new metal water pumps

New sump, rocker gaskets and a pair of m52 manifolds ready for cutting up to make fit

E36 engine arms, new apex front springs bought off of a zoner for a steal, only dropping the front to give the car a nicer looking stance and the wrongly ordered m52 pas pump if anyone wants one.

[town325i]

Dont talk to me about fooking water pumps been trying to order one over the phone from euro for 2 days ignorant tw4ts

[toecutter666]

I got mine from gsf, i know you have to pay postage but they had everything i wanted and it arrived in a couple of days, are you using a clio brake servo?if so what did you do about extending the rod?

[Alpina99]

Great reading,
Keep it coming please, I'll be starting mine (hopefully) in a couple of months,
Just trying to get everything together first,

[toecutter666]

Last summer i went to a family bar b q and got talking to a friends boyfriend, he was looking around the cabby and mentioned he had a set of old alloys sitting in his front garden collecting mould, if i wanted them make him an offer so i popped over one evening and couldn't believe what sat there. A set of staggered alpinas going green from tree sap and neglect, trying to hide a smile i offered him peanuts and he bit my hand off, picking the wheels up and loading them in the van he came back out the house carrying a plastic bag containing all the caps, locks and keys . I took them straight to the refurbers and ended up with



This is why i love old cars, someones always got something tucked away somewhere

[Alpina99]

I agree the Alpinas look great but have found they're a PITA to clean properly unfortunately,
(Still, that's the price for them looking so good I suppose !)
Really looking forwards to seeing this finished,

[toecutter666]

I used the standard servo and moved it over about 30mm, used a 525 rod rethreaded and shortened a bit. Small servos in this part of the world just dont exist..

If it makes life easier next time and you don't mind paying the postage i'll grab one for you and sent it down

[town325i]

I cut a 10mm bolt down and slid it into the master cylinder you have to measer the difference in the two rods to no what size to cut the bolt

[toecutter666]

Cheers town, i didn't know if there was a set length of rod to use, i'll get measuring at the weekend

[nickso]

file the end of the rod into a bullet shape, i found it makes a better fit and also mimicks the end of the original rod.

[RoadHazard]

The edge of the servo center hole is flush with the part inside the master cylinder where the rod pushes on if that makes sense. So if you measure the difference from the servo rod to the edge then you know how long your spacer should be.

For my Clio servo, I used a 8mm dia steel rod and cut to 20cm in length. I also filed one end into a bullet shape like nickso said.

[toecutter666]

I've read somewhere that if i want to use the m42 gearbox i need to change its gear linkage for a m20 one, is this correct?

cheers

[Baz666]

I've read somewhere that if i want to use the m42 gearbox i need to change its gear linkage for a m20 one, is this correct?

cheers

Yes buddy i`m going to have to do it on mine.

[toecutter666]

O bugger, just gave mine away with my old gearbox, oh well back to the parts wanted section

[toecutter666]

As the sun was shining and the family out for a couple of hours i did a bit more to the project, finished cleaning up the m50 and after confusing myself with the loom got it looking half decent, would have liked to strip it down completely but as it run well before i pulled it from the e34 i only tarted it up a bit..


Got a clio servo so had to sort the spacer for it..
Bm and clio servo size difference..


Rod in the bm servo is flush with the body..


Measured the clio rod to get length of spacer needed..


Then made up a spacer using a 10mm bolt cut to 20mm with the end rounded..


Next was removing the front suspension legs to get ready for new shocks and 40mm lowering springs..


Test fitting of e34 rad, good fit but needs another o/s bottom mount on the n/s ..


Took the washer bottle out ready for cleaning the engine bay, couldn't work out what the extra bottle is on the right, it has no pump or fittings for a pipe, i filled it with water to see what happened but it just held water..


Thats all for today.

[toecutter666]

Still can't work out what the other half of the washer bottle does, any ideas. O well on to the next bit, am going to bolt on the m20 flywheel but have read it needs a bit of material shaving off of it, how much do i need to take off and is it something a small engineering company could do?

Ta

[nickso]

anyone with a lathe can do it. it will probably only need a few mm taking off. best to offer it up and judge it yourself.

[RoadHazard]

That extra washer bottle is for the head lamp wipers.

[toecutter666]

Cheers nickso, i've seen on some ones thread they ground the sump lugs down but not sure about grinding bits off the sump

[bimanut]

The smaller bottle is for the intense wash system,you need two relays and the stalk switch for it to work.One of the relays is already on the bottles.

Dont know how much other people have taken off the back of the fly wheel but i took it to a local engineers shop who do flywheels and all other engineering stuff and had 5mm took off,cost £20.
Dont forget to put new flywheel bolts in,like i didnt

[bimanut]

That extra washer bottle is for the head lamp wipers.

Mr moore says it`s for the intense screen eash not for the headlights

[toecutter666]

That extra washer bottle is for the head lamp wipers.

Mr moore says it`s for the intense screen eash not for the headlights

I thought it maybe something like that but i can't see how the fluid comes out of the bottle

[toecutter666]

Will get some new flywheel bolts on order, thanks for the heads up

[bimanut]

That extra washer bottle is for the head lamp wipers.

Mr moore says it`s for the intense screen eash not for the headlights

I thought it maybe something like that but i can't see how the fluid comes out of the bottle

It should have an apputcher(spell?) for another pump and there should be an extra hose coming off the the wash bottle pipes and another plug for the pump to connect to.

[toecutter666]

I can see where the pump should go but it has no hole, has 2 pumps in the larger bottle which i take it as one for headlights and one for windscreen, maybe its been made wrong

[booomer]

As the sun was shining and the family out for a couple of hours i did a bit more to the project, finished cleaning up the m50 and after confusing myself with the loom got it looking half decent, would have liked to strip it down completely but as it run well before i pulled it from the e34 i only tarted it up a bit..


Got a clio servo so had to sort the spacer for it..
Bm and clio servo size difference..


Rod in the bm servo is flush with the body..


Measured the clio rod to get length of spacer needed..


Then made up a spacer using a 10mm bolt cut to 20mm with the end rounded..


Next was removing the front suspension legs to get ready for new shocks and 40mm lowering springs..


Test fitting of e34 rad, good fit but needs another o/s bottom mount on the n/s ..


Took the washer bottle out ready for cleaning the engine bay, couldn't work out what the extra bottle is on the right, it has no pump or fittings for a pipe, i filled it with water to see what happened but it just held water..


Thats all for today.

Hiya mate, i've fitted an e34 rad to my car and it sits nicely on the mounts but the plastic bracket that holds the top of the rad to the slam pannel doesn't fit properly, have you encountered this? It seems like the rad is very slightly too high

[toecutter666]

Hello mate, i'm still waiting for the other rad mount to turn up but when i propped it up to check the fit it seemed ok. My rad was out of a 93 525 manual tourer without aircon if that makes any difference

[toecutter666]

Need a bit of advice, started to drop the rear beam to change the bushes and suspension, undone shocks, handbrake cables, brake lines, the beam brackets and knocked the 2 large bolts up in to the car but it still won't drop, am i missing something??