So It Begins... Winter Project 2014!

The Z3 Coupe is back in the air, and it will be there for a while this time. It's the start of the 2014 Winter Project!

The Project List includes:

1. Remove transmission, and replace the "detents" that center the shifter in the gate. Right now, it wants to go from 2nd to 5th, and you have to search for 3rd gear. Also, I'll rebuild the shifter, replacing all the bushings and links.
2. Check, and if necessary replace, the clutch.
3. Replace the "guibo" - that's the big rubber disk that links the driveshaft to the trans.
4. Check, and if necessary replace, the center driveshaft bearing.
5. Remove the starter and if possible, service the Bendix that engages the starter gear with the flywheel - I get an occasional "ka-ching" when the starter disengages.
6. Remove the differential. After that is accomplished:
1. Rebuild the limited slip, replacing the clutches and dogs. Pretty sure I can do that myself.
2. Reset the gears to remove a significant amount of slack. Not sure if I can do that myself, although I have found instructions on the web assuring me I can.
3. Remove the stuck bolt that I posted about here, so I can get the passenger side axle off.
4. Replace the rubber bushings for the diff and for the rear anti-sway bar.
5. Since the diff will be completely apart, makes sense to replace the bearings in there.
6. I think the axles are fine, but if not, I'll replace their bearings at the same time.

That's all the projects while the car is in the air. I have another whole list of things I want to do, but I suspect by the time I finish the list above, it will no longer be winter!

So, after getting the car into the air, removing the wheels and draining the trans, I started removing stuff. Very quickly, I remembered what a pain in the neck it is when you've left a pile of tools on the floor, and you're constantly rolling out to get something else. So I took half an hour and made myself a little tool tray fitted to my socket holders:

It's sitting on a furniture dolly, so I can roll it under the car with me. Works great!

Not pictured is something that I'm needing over and over so far - a 26-inch breaker bar. Think of it as the biggest ratchet you can reasonably use. Years and miles, and perhaps also the previous guy whose work I keep encountering, have left the fasteners unreasonably tight. It takes leverage and a mighty pull to get them to move. I can definitely feel it in my shoulders this morning!

That's one of two reasons that I was really glad when my friend Kelly Williams showed up - Kelly is a talented mechanic who is also in better shape and stronger than I am. The second reason is that Kelly brought along his genuine official Craftsman transmission jack - thanks for the loan!

But before we could work on the trans, a lot of other stuff had to come out, starting with the exhaust system. Here's Kelly doing the Iron Man thing with it. You can also see the driveshaft behind him - that was the next thing out.

After that, we spent a good hour crafting a custom cradle for the trans to marry it to the transmission jack. There were two reasons to do that. First, the jack is a bit wider than my transmission tunnel - it was sized to pull the trans from a big Chevy pickup. Second, my EZ-Car-Lift gets the car quite a bit higher than the usual jack stand method, so I needed to fill the gap. We could have just lowered the car, but it's SO nice to have that extra room under there.

I said to Kelly that I wouldn't take a picture of that, because it's kind of crudely made. But, I relented - here it is on top of Kelly's trans jack. Even though it looks rough, it's actually precisely made, with exact length and width, cutouts for the drain plug and other obstructions, and ears to clamp it to the jack. I'll probably still raise it another four inches or so with some pieces of 4X4 post.

After that, we started removing the lower bolts that hold the trans to the engine block. These are various sizes of bolts with what is called "external Torx" heads. A bolt and matching socket look like this (thanks to site touratech-usa.com for the image):

I think the weight is mostly borne by four big ones, sized E14. We were working on the easiest to reach, which was threaded over an inch into the block and the other side. It was very, very tight. There's a phenomenon called "galvanic corrosion" that occurs when you have two dissimilar metals in tight contact, like this steel bolt in an aluminum block. In severe cases, you can rip the threads right out of the block. So... we were being careful! 

Since the hole was open at the back, I sprayed multiple coats of penetrating oil, with negligible effect. We'd turn a little (must admit that Kelly was doing probably 80% or more of the turning), then back in, then out a bit more. We did that first using a big ratchet, and then switched to my torque wrench, which is longer and therefore has more leverage. We worked until we were both exhausted, having backed the bolt out perhaps halfway. The rest will wait until another day! Once I have the bolt in hand and can accurately determine the size, I will probably buy what's called a "thread chaser" in the correct size. It's a tap designed to clean and correct the threads in a hole that's already been tapped.

My concert and travel schedule is such that I will scarcely get back to this for nearly two weeks. But that's the nice thing about metal... it doesn't get bored. It will wait.