How bout' some candid XXX pics of Noelle's undercarriage???
This is why her middle name is Pandora.
Transmission was supported by a jackstand in that picture, no difference, as I could bench press the thing. Not seeing it? Here:
Both tranmissions mounts no longer.... mounted anything. They were simply now "supports" That above picture was just from supporting the weight of the trans with a jack stand and unbolting the crossmember from the car. It's not supposed to do that. That trans oil leak is also on the list of things to fix.
2-piece driveshaft w/ Center Support Bearing. The entire exhaust system had to be dropped to get to this.
E30 playa!
Totally shot shifter linkage assembly that allowed un-BMW amounts of play in the shifter. I'm thinking between the extremely shot linkage assembly and the 2 transmission mounts that were.....shot... it may have had something to do with the trouble downshifting into 2nd... so maybe the synchros aren't as bad as I thought. We'll see.
Cost to rebuild the entire shifter assembly replacing every single wear item? $350 in parts from the dealer. Heck I'm just happy BMW still (fully!) supports the E30, you can buy a whole factory dash from them (for $550!) that is even upgraded with the new BMW material. To heck with costs, I just applaud the fact that they still support their old stuff.... GM gives up on things after 7-10yrs.
With that said, $100 of that $350 went to my new short shifter - Z3 1.9, which most E30 fans consider to be just about the perfect blend and feel for a fun daily driver. Stock E30 325i on the left, Z3 1.9 on the right. Maybe now shifting gears in the BMW won't feel like the Jeep anymore.
Once this is all back together, it'll be finished off with a nice, real BMW shift knob, as well as a nice new leather shifter and parking brake boot kit. Seeing as how the manual transmission, IMO is the entire central point of this whole car, this work alone is just huge, and I can't wait to see what it'll be like after words.
These are only a few of the issues/pictures. I never took pictures of the rear shock mounts that were literally not even holding the shocks to the chassis of the car anymore. In fact, I am rather amazed at how well the car, as a whole... still just.... worked. With a certain level of percision too. I mean, the suspension was shot, but she still handled. Every part in the shifter linkage that could wear out, is, and both transmisson mounts are split in half... the shifter had about a foot of play in gear, yet it still went into each gear, every time, I could shift aggressive and it still did it's thing. The distrubutor cap and rotor were original (date code stamped on them) and in turn, about as worn out as they could reasonably get.... yet the engine still ran, with some level of performance (it sounds and revs much better now tho!) Really, it is just amazing how well built this car is, for it to perform the way it was, in the condition it was in. To say it'll be like a whole new car to me once complete will be an understatement.
Ah well.... it's all in the fun. I'm sleepy now.