Starting the Big Jobs

It's starting to get wet and cold here in Seattle, well, relatively cold. So I decided to get racking on the rear end rebuild and steering rack. I found a 98 Z3 steering rack at a scrap yard for $120 delivered, got it the other day and it looks to be in good shape and includes the tie rods and ends. I've had the subframe bushings and several other rear end parts lying around, just waiting for me to dig into the back end. I figure it will be more enjoyable if I take my time, working a little bit each day, only until I feel like I've accomplished something.

I decided to drop the entire rear end. The upper fill bolt for the rear differential is a little stripped and I can't get it out with it in the car, so it's a good time to go ahead and take care of all of the rear end parts that need replacing.

Started today. Got it jacked up, exhaust out, and about 80% of the rear end bolts undone. It's been pretty simple so far, the main axle bolts still had the factory retainer in place, and once that was off they came out easy. I decided to stop today when I got to the drive shaft bolts, they are on there pretty good, which is expected, so I'll tackle them later.

I also have a complete shifter rebuild including the Z3 lever on the way, will probably do that now as well.

Finally some movement

Been a while and busy with the move to Seattle. The car started to show signs of leaking coolant, and the best candidate was the water pump. Sure enough, I pulled the old one out and it was a complete POS. The impeller was stamped metal instead of cast, the bearings and seals were crap, and the housing even snapped while removing it. Replaced with a proper Meyle water pump, car runs just a hair cooler now and doesn't leak a drop.

Cost $60.

I was also just driving around in the rain and the rear end was just sliding all over the place, so I decided I couldn't stand living with the crap tires that came with the car any more and had to do something. Upgrading to 15" wheels and tires was going to cost $1k-$1.2k, and I really didn't want to do that yet. I want to get the other items sorted before doing that. So, I had a set of Falken 205/60R14 tires installed on the car. Huge improvement, but then that was expected as the old tires were mix and match POS tires. I'd held off doing the tires because there was so much slop in the steering that an alignment was pointless. However, I have a Z3 steering rack on the way and some other items to fix it up right. More on that later.

Cost: $375 installed.