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Author: Dirk Verhaert

Handbrake lever !

Dirk Verhaert 0 Comments

It’s still a bit long but we are going to wait to shorten it until Dirk has found his ideal position in the car after mounting the steering wheel and the seat.

The lever (and especially the knob) has drawn eyes and therefore we wanted to show it to the public. Since the R-Box crew is a (unfortunatly) mens only club we don’t see the problem…

Despite the hilarity we want to thank Nick for his nice design. Since the choosen ISO cartel form was not possible we just choose furrows to assure optimal grip.

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R-Box dash

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The dashboard is being wired at the moment.

This is going to be the eye catcher from the R-Box BMW M3 and for that reason we are not going to show pictures before it is finished !

Please wait…

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Hood with or without hinges ?

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We choose the modern aerocatch hood closure system

Dirk planned to use the hood without any hinges but the entire team opposed to it ! We nominated Bert as a spokesman and he convinced our great leader to use hinges. No hinges is practical to work on the engine but what does one do when the hood needs to be opened on a SS ?

We dug up the original BMW hinges system, painted it and mounted it on the car and everybody was happy !

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Engine fit test

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Because we still need to make a few small pipes in the engine bay and need to mount some small items like an oil catch tank, throttle cable,.. we tried to put the engine in the car.

It was also a good test to see that everything fits smoothly…

This type of cars has a lot of space to mount a 4 cylinder engine with some add ons ! With the proper tools it was fixed in a trice.

Some pics of the hart transplant

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Back… ready

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Too long ago that an update has happened on the site but this has everything to do with a chronic lack of time.

Fortunately, the BMW does get shapes even though it does not go as fast as we would like, but we have to row with the resources we have. Fortunately, in recent weeks we have become a lot more numerous on Saturdays, which is highly privileged.

Despite a few small problems, the entire back is now ready. We still had to adjust the plate of the ATL tank because we didn’t really get away with the flexible. We also modified the fuel cap, which was a screw version. The goal was to elliminate everything that can be lost, not that we don’t have confidence in our mechanics 🙂

We also struggled a bit with the bolts of the topmounts, but after redrawing them 3 times and a multitude of assembly attempts, we can finally make peace with the result.

As you can see, the cablage has been able to remain very limited. All rear lights + the 3 petrol pumps are controlled by 1 PWR-Box

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After the back end

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We needed to construct a solid plate to mount the cranck shaft sensor and the alternator support. We were not excited by the original BMW system and the lid that covers the distribution chain sometimes cracks if you use the original system to tension the chain.

We started to think and created a custom made support for the sensor and the alternator.

The cranck shaft sensor is one of the most vital elements to mange the engine performance. This is not allowed to fail.

We used a stainless steel plate folded by 90°. We made a small aluminum block where the E36 cam shaft sensor is positioned perfectly opposite of the teeth of the triggerwheel.

We made a small pipe wit lefthanded and righthanded srew-hread at the ends, we mounted 2 uniballs and it is possible to get the riight tension on the belt. We also welded a small tube on the plate and evrything was ready.

This is the result :

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Turkey set free untill next X-mas

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X-mas or not we needed to finish the diff job.

Dirk skipped the turkey and presents and spent the entire X-mas day in and under the car. The back end is back on track now. Fortunately Guy assisted in this diff-icult matter. The right man for the job… and everything works out fine.

The diff bolts glide in the holes now !! Big smile…

Pity about the lost time but it was necessary…

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Diff back in place

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It took some extra time and is perhaps a bit oversized but we were not planning to take any risks anymore.

We drilled 2 30mm holes in a massive ST 52.3 block so the bolts from the diff fit exactly. In these holes the 2 bushing that support the diff will be mounted. We kept the original principle but improved it a bit with stronger materials.

The differential will be fixed with ARP 2000 studs.

Tomorrow it will be welded and painted.

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