Lights ! This is one of the topics that took a lot of time to decide what type to choose. Our ideas changed a few times but finally we decided to go for LED technology. It’s just a matter of time for Led to take over the light scene !
The past few weeks we didn’t post any updates on the site but a lot of time was spent on working on the car ! Some pictures to prove it !
We have already had some sleepless nights but we are on the right track despite the failure of our homemade laser alignment tool.
We had conceived the bright idea of placing a laser module in the center point of the drive shaft on the Vbak. The theory was then to raise the Vbak until the laser cross was projected into the center point of the differential. However, turning the Vbak exit taught us that the center point did not stay in place. We attributed it to the lack of precision of the lathe but it could just as well have been a faulty turner because we had made that tool ourselves 🙂
But don’t worry we’ll get it right. On Monday, 12mm uniballs are ordered, the rubbers to give the box a very small amount of freedom of movement we have already turned and then we only have to think about making a height-adjustable Vbak support.
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.
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…
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 !
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
Sme pictures from the in and the outside of the box.
The siftware is ready for 95%. Just the PWM functionallity needs to be implemented and we need to design a nice label for the outside !
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
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 :
