Beemerlad's M52 Chromie

[Dezzy]

Got cable ties you can drift Lee. How cool is that

[E30BeemerLad]

FAIL!

Got about 8 miles from home on the way to the frag yard when the rears stuck on again. Journey back home done in 2 stages.

Her indoors has donated her car for the day after I've dropped her in town, so I'm still going to go for a scrap yard troll. There was a touring in there with some calipers still on I recall, so will have them away.

Just can't work out what the problem is. The fronts don't get hot so that is confusing me if my servo & master cylinder setup was not right, I'd expect the fronts to be cooking even more than the rears given the usual brake force ratio.

Messed Dezzy's day up too

[daimlerman]

When the brakes lock on,there's no pedal travel?
If you slack off the master/servo nuts,is the master pushed forward?

If you are answering yes to both the above,I would suggest that your spacer is the wrong length,and/or your brake link bar needs further work...

[Dezzy]

Matey grab a selection of water pipes while your there M40 M20 M50 out they have in there. Cheers bud. Worked
out better anyway Eva is being a little turd today.

[beardymat]

what master cylinder are you using lee? when i put my audi one on my clio servo it wont fit right up without doing up the nuts but fits without a spacer, there is adjustment on this side of the servo if you look into the hole, adjusting the other side only adjusts the pedal height.

BTW in regards to your PM it might be possible to get a decent match as black is one of the better colours although a blend on the door would be better.

[E30BeemerLad]

For some odd reason, I have never needed to use a spacer with my master cylinder and the servo. When you fit the master cylinder to the servo you have to actually put a bit of pressure on it to push it in the final 5mm.

If I was to loosen the 2 nuts that hold the master cylinder onto the servo, am I going to be getting a vacum leak due to it not sealing properly?

The master cylinder I'm using was from the touring. This is all the exact same setup I was using on the touring without any dramas.

I've played around with the link bar but to be honest all that seems to do is adjust the height of the pedal and the problem persists.

Not sure if I'll get this looked at today properly or not as I'm off to the bone yard now for a trawl and by the time I'm done with that it'll be time to pick Michelle up.

What do you mean about adjusting on the servo Matt?

The brakes have been shit hot on the chromie compared to the touring, really firm pedal with little travel before some serious brake action, so much so I had debated whether to bother fitting the wilwoods on the front.

I think I recall Dan saying that the touring master cylinder has a bigger piston for the rears than normal master cylinders. I guess it is something related to either the link rod or the fact the master cylinder fits similar to how Matt's audi one does, i.e no spacer required.

[E30BeemerLad]

Matey grab a selection of water pipes while your there M40 M20 M50 out they have in there. Cheers bud. Worked
out better anyway Eva is being a little turd today.

I'm on the mo-fo brother - No M50 turds in there at the moment though.

[Dezzy]

Check d cone mate!

[beardymat]

If you take off the master cylinder and look into the servo you will see the end of the rod has a little threaded nipple so you cab adjust it. If you imagine when the nuts pull it tight up its like having your foot slightly on the brake. Still need to adjust mine when I come to finally fit the master but it does look fiddley. And yes of you leave the nuts loose you won't have a vacuum in the servo.

[E30BeemerLad]

Cheers, I'll look into that.

I spoke with my old man and he said also worth swapping out the compensator valve as he said it sounds like it is not allowing the fluid to move back, which could explain why I'm only getting grief with the rears and the front brakes are not on all the time & getting cooked.

[DanThe]

No compensater valve bruv, sounds like you need a thick gasket for the servo/mc

[E30BeemerLad]

What's the valve that sits just below the master cylinder which sits within the rear brake line dude?

[E30BeemerLad]

Number 5 in the link below mate

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mod ... g=34&fg=15

[DanThe]

As it says, pressure regulator, just slows down the fluid going to the rear brakes

[E30BeemerLad]

No compensater valve bruv, sounds like you need a thick gasket for the servo/mc

Time to start cutting up some cornflake boxes and get the silicon out?

[E30BeemerLad]

Pulled the servo off tonight. The adjustment on the rod was already as far in as it would go, but there was some excess thread exposed, so I unscrewed it and then cut a few mm off the end, then screwed it all the way back in. Think it's about right.

A geezer came over to collect the front panel I had for sale, so I lost an hour chatting etc and then ran out of light. So just got to finish connecting up and see what the brakes feel like. I know they are going to feel gash after how they have been, will maybe spur me on to get the 4 pots sorted & fitted. Just hope this cures it so I can make it up to Dezzy's on Sunday

[E30BeemerLad]

I think the brakes problem is sorted now.

Been for a spirited drive around the ring road tonight and no dramas. Infact the car just feels smoother and also the exhaust not quite as boomy. It must have always been slightly working against the brakes.

I've also removed the plastic cover from behind the passenger headlights to get some cold air to the filter, no noticeable difference though.

I've managed to knacker a rear top mount already, so will need to get hold of some E46 cab rear top mounts

[DanThe]

You need a dave f bruv, worth at least 30hp on the arse dyno

[Rav335uk]

I've managed to knacker a rear top mount already, so will need to get hold of some E46 cab rear top mounts

Where did you get the top mounts from ECP????
If you did, they are #SHIT#.
Mine gave up in 100yrds after fitting them.

[E30BeemerLad]

yeah they were non OEM shite

[Dezzy]

Lee I have some good used ones up here you can through in for now?

[E30BeemerLad]

Yeah they'll do nicely until I get some ordered in. It's looking a bit lop sided at the rear at the mo. Cheers mate

[daimlerman]

Cannot remember the detail just after a difficult night shift that involved getting a 45' trailer stuck in a London side street,but seem to remember mention of M3 rear top mounts being even stiffer than E46 cabbie one's....anyone else remember the detail?

[penton08]

Cannot remember the detail just after a difficult night shift that involved getting a 45' trailer stuck in a London side street,but seem to remember mention of M3 rear top mounts being even stiffer than E46 cabbie one's....anyone else remember the detail?

the e30 m3 cab ones are the toughest oem option. e46 m3 cab ones are fine tho and cost a little over £20

[ImysE30]

I got a quote for the E30 M3 top mounts, £117 for the pair.

E46 one's are only £35ish.

[DanThe]

£35 Last time I bought some they were £16 the pair the robbing bastids!

[daimlerman]

I got a quote for the E30 M3 top mounts, £117 for the pair.

E46 one's are only £35ish.

Guess that rules out M3 one's,then!
Cannot remember how much I paid for the last set,but Dan's price rings bells,I would have remembered laying out £35!

[GeoffBob]

I think the brakes problem is sorted now.

Been for a spirited drive around the ring road tonight and no dramas. Infact the car just feels smoother and also the exhaust not quite as boomy. It must have always been slightly working against the brakes.

Lee,

Sorry to read of your misadventures. Have just caught up with your thread for the first time in a while. Goodness she grows quickly.

In case you do have any further brake problems (or purely FYI), BumHole posted the complete opposite problem on the tech help forum here (he couldn't get any rear brakes at all). The problem may have been the opposite, but the posted explanations of the brake system/components should still be of some help to you. Like yourself, Bumhole is also using a clio servo, and his problem turned out (iirc) to be his master cylinder.

HTH
Geoff

[E30BeemerLad]

Cheers Geoff, I did a 100 mile round trip to Dezzy's yesterday and had no dramas.

The bottom line was that although I had no spacer fitted with my clio servo setup, the rod in the servo I have must be freakishly long, so in essence the brakes were always on/ the fluid could not return with the rears and that's why they were getting cooked. Well that's my theory anyway

Just deciding now whether to go to the drag strip today and give it some more punishment

[E30BeemerLad]

Well I went and got a few passes in at the drag strip.

It was a busy day and i didn't get up there until about 12.30. Only managed 4 runs in the end and I had a pretty crap day out with the best I managed a 14.3 @ 97mph. There was very few of us in the class I run in (2ltr + without turbo or nitrous) and low and behold I was running agains another BMW, but that E34 which sits about 5 foot in the air and has a 355ci chevy V8

I haven't sorted my tacho out yet and when I was lined up against the E34 each time, when you are holding it on the revs before launch all I could hear was the V8 running just headers next to me, so could not hear the revs I was holding at, lighting the rears up like a lesbian off the line each time, so my 60ft times were gash at about 2.3secs. Kept hitting the limiter between 1st & 2nd and 2nd & 3rd. So basically pilot error leading to unsatisfactory times.

The track also got closed for a while due to a major oil spillage. A model T dragster (which was running just shy of 8second 1/4's) did an almighty wheel stand off the line, I mean this guy was way above 45 degrees, and when he shut it off monentarily it came back down too hard and smacked the sump to pieces and managed to bend the chassis. Chris (Billgatese30) got a cracking shot of it.

Loads of people come over and show an interest in the conversion as soon as the bonnet is open.

It'll do until the pod and hopefully I'll manage not to kill it before then.

[DanThe]

Sounds like you need to get stuck into that wiring, we need a link to some pics also

[Dezzy]

+1 on the sump smashing pics mate

[E30BeemerLad]

I've just looked on the York forum and there's nothing there yet. The official photographer usually takes until about Wednesday before his pics appear, Chris may spoil us sooner if he's about.

Bumped into Andy (Buster) up there, he was there with his mate Darren who was giving his new weapon a shakedown. It's going to be an animal when it's up & running properly, was running like shite today but when it's sorted on the methanol it will be an 8 second car

[leeparkes]

Is this the 5 foot E34 turd? it was at the pod 2 years ago, hideous effort





+1 cant wait to see the sump cracking pics.

Get that rev counter sorted

[Dezzy]

Nothing quite like american muscle is there?