marinersfan
03-12-2008, 01:47 AM
Well Damn guys!! It seems like it's been forever. Maybe that's because it HAS!! I know it's been since Winter 2006 that I totally rebuilt the 2.0 in my '78. I no sooner got it home than the shift-fork in the tranny broke. I gave it to a small private shop and he diagnosed the broken fork. JT was kind enough to allow me to procure a spare tranny he had. Essentially the car sat from Feb to August 2007. When I got the tranny in is when things began to happen.
First off after having the car running like a swiss clock back in Feb it now ran like crap. I took it about 3 blocks around the neighborhood and the car ran rough and died. I had it pulled back to the lot where I worked on it and discovered that the dizzy wasnt even turning as I was looking to set it to TDC. I took the valve cover off and discovered that not one, not two but ALL FOUR bolts that hold the cam timing sprocket were missing and the gear was just lying to one side. Miraculously ALL FOUR bolts instead of dropping down the chamber that goes to the bottom of the oil pan, fell instead to the little pocket just above the timing chain tensioner spring. So I used Loc-tite and put the sprocket back on but the engine sounded bad. I took off the valve cover again and it appreared as though no oil was getting to the head.
Remember the engine only had less than 20 miles on it. Since it was nearly out of gas the entire time it sat until I could get the tranny in, a mechanic I was getting advise from said he thought I'd might be the injectors having gotten gunked up from bad gas and just sitting. I took his advise and got some REAL injector cleaner ($18 after I shopped around) and it said to run it for 10 mins. Almost immediately after 10 mins the engine seized.
Now all of the time from Jan to Sept of 2007 my wife of 25 years was heavily addicted to Xanax and different pain meds and to make a long story short I left her. In order to do this I had to get my car from Minneapolis, MN to Springfield, MO. No one would rent me a tow bar unless the car I was pulling with had a towing capacity of 3 times the curb weight of the bimmer. Worse yet no one who rents SUV's or trucks rents them with trailer hitches. I had to leave Minneapolis and leave my car with a private mechanic. In all my years I'd not had anyone other than myself work on my cars so this was a huge trust factor.
Upon inspection he told me that when the timing sprocket came off the engine continued to spin and it sent the valves slamming against the head and damaging them. At first he was sure they could be reground but ultimately we decided to just replace them. (When I rebuilt the block I had the head cleaned and resurfaced and put all new seals in but I reused the injectors, cam and valves.) Once the valves were replaced he ran the engine and then discovered no oil pressure. He pulled the pan off and discovered that the brand new bearings I put in were toast. When I ran the injector cleaner for 10 mins there was no oil pressure then either so that's when the bearings were ruined. I was devastated. It was nearly all my hard work had been undone. Knowing the cost was not going to be cheap we worked out a deal where no matter what he had to do the total bill was not going to be more than $1,000.00 but I had to buy the bearings. He put a new sprocket on the oil pump, installed the bearings and put the whole thing back together.
I was due to get the car on Jan 1st but the Ex-wife messed with my VA pension and I couldn't afford to get it. Finally on March 1st I took a bus for 22 hours to get the car which was supposed to be ready to go. It wasn't. He had put a new battery in it and now the alternator was not working. So he found a new one which cost $68 his cost and put it in. It ran for a bit but died again. So he found another one and this was Friday night at 8pm and put it in. It seemed to work better.
While we were waiting for the new alternator he swapped out the front springs for me. The ones that were on there had been torched to lower the front end. It worked well but the suspension was so stiff it shook the whole car when you went over a bump or a hole in the road.
With everything back together I made the trip back to Springfield at about 10pm Friday night. I had a meter that you just plug into the cigarette lighter and it tells you how the alternator is charging the battery. By 1am it wasnt charging well so I got a motel for the night and decided to finish the trip by day and not having to use my headlights would help.
The next day I made it within 90 miles of my 600 mile trip. The car just died completely. Fortunately I coasted to the front of a house on the 2 lane highway that had a separate garage with a power outlet on the wall facing the road. This was great since I had a long extension cord and a battery charger in the trunk. While the battery was charging I started inspecting the wires. Lo and behold the mechanic had failed to ground the alternator to the mounting bolt that allows the alternator to pivot. I got my tools out and hooked up the wire correctly and voila'! It worked flawlessly! Probably nothing wrong with the first new alternator either and we wasted all that time when I could've been on the road. Needless to say I made the trip home from there without incident but my nerves were racked the whole way.
So now after nearly 2 years before REALLY being able to drive my car it seems almost surreal that she's back on the road. Yeah he missed some things but he was true to his word about working on the car and after having it for 6 months he still only charged me $1,000.00 even with the new battery and alternator and swapping out the springs for me. He tallied the cost of parts and man-hours and said normally it would have cost me $1800.00.
The only new problem I have is what I think is the fuel pump. When the tank is under half full it starts to hesitate and sputter a bit. As I drive along it gets worse. BUT!!! Once I'm driving and I push in the clutch, turn the key off, let the engine die and then restart right away then it seems to run fine for a few miles. I at first thought it was picking up gunk off the bottom of the tank and then clogging the fuel pump screen but just turning the engine off and then on right away wouldn't or shouldn't fix that so I dont know what it is for sure. Maybe just old wiring to the pump is not allowing the full electrical current to hit the pump after it's been run a bit. Anyone have any ideas? Sorry to be so winded about this thread but many of you helped me along the way and I thought you'd all want to know what all had transpired.
Thanks again to JT for parting with the tranny and nagging phone calls to him at all hours and thanks to shadyduck1979 for donating the springs!!
If anyone has some spare parts I need the following:
Left rear lens
Shift Boot and knob (the kind that screws on)
Heater Blower Motor
Also still looking for a single 15" Panasport Minilite to use as a spare.
I'll be posting some pics up soon as ya'll are done digesting this thread.
It's good to be back and nice to see all the old faces and awesome to see all the new ones too!!:buttrock
First off after having the car running like a swiss clock back in Feb it now ran like crap. I took it about 3 blocks around the neighborhood and the car ran rough and died. I had it pulled back to the lot where I worked on it and discovered that the dizzy wasnt even turning as I was looking to set it to TDC. I took the valve cover off and discovered that not one, not two but ALL FOUR bolts that hold the cam timing sprocket were missing and the gear was just lying to one side. Miraculously ALL FOUR bolts instead of dropping down the chamber that goes to the bottom of the oil pan, fell instead to the little pocket just above the timing chain tensioner spring. So I used Loc-tite and put the sprocket back on but the engine sounded bad. I took off the valve cover again and it appreared as though no oil was getting to the head.
Remember the engine only had less than 20 miles on it. Since it was nearly out of gas the entire time it sat until I could get the tranny in, a mechanic I was getting advise from said he thought I'd might be the injectors having gotten gunked up from bad gas and just sitting. I took his advise and got some REAL injector cleaner ($18 after I shopped around) and it said to run it for 10 mins. Almost immediately after 10 mins the engine seized.
Now all of the time from Jan to Sept of 2007 my wife of 25 years was heavily addicted to Xanax and different pain meds and to make a long story short I left her. In order to do this I had to get my car from Minneapolis, MN to Springfield, MO. No one would rent me a tow bar unless the car I was pulling with had a towing capacity of 3 times the curb weight of the bimmer. Worse yet no one who rents SUV's or trucks rents them with trailer hitches. I had to leave Minneapolis and leave my car with a private mechanic. In all my years I'd not had anyone other than myself work on my cars so this was a huge trust factor.
Upon inspection he told me that when the timing sprocket came off the engine continued to spin and it sent the valves slamming against the head and damaging them. At first he was sure they could be reground but ultimately we decided to just replace them. (When I rebuilt the block I had the head cleaned and resurfaced and put all new seals in but I reused the injectors, cam and valves.) Once the valves were replaced he ran the engine and then discovered no oil pressure. He pulled the pan off and discovered that the brand new bearings I put in were toast. When I ran the injector cleaner for 10 mins there was no oil pressure then either so that's when the bearings were ruined. I was devastated. It was nearly all my hard work had been undone. Knowing the cost was not going to be cheap we worked out a deal where no matter what he had to do the total bill was not going to be more than $1,000.00 but I had to buy the bearings. He put a new sprocket on the oil pump, installed the bearings and put the whole thing back together.
I was due to get the car on Jan 1st but the Ex-wife messed with my VA pension and I couldn't afford to get it. Finally on March 1st I took a bus for 22 hours to get the car which was supposed to be ready to go. It wasn't. He had put a new battery in it and now the alternator was not working. So he found a new one which cost $68 his cost and put it in. It ran for a bit but died again. So he found another one and this was Friday night at 8pm and put it in. It seemed to work better.
While we were waiting for the new alternator he swapped out the front springs for me. The ones that were on there had been torched to lower the front end. It worked well but the suspension was so stiff it shook the whole car when you went over a bump or a hole in the road.
With everything back together I made the trip back to Springfield at about 10pm Friday night. I had a meter that you just plug into the cigarette lighter and it tells you how the alternator is charging the battery. By 1am it wasnt charging well so I got a motel for the night and decided to finish the trip by day and not having to use my headlights would help.
The next day I made it within 90 miles of my 600 mile trip. The car just died completely. Fortunately I coasted to the front of a house on the 2 lane highway that had a separate garage with a power outlet on the wall facing the road. This was great since I had a long extension cord and a battery charger in the trunk. While the battery was charging I started inspecting the wires. Lo and behold the mechanic had failed to ground the alternator to the mounting bolt that allows the alternator to pivot. I got my tools out and hooked up the wire correctly and voila'! It worked flawlessly! Probably nothing wrong with the first new alternator either and we wasted all that time when I could've been on the road. Needless to say I made the trip home from there without incident but my nerves were racked the whole way.
So now after nearly 2 years before REALLY being able to drive my car it seems almost surreal that she's back on the road. Yeah he missed some things but he was true to his word about working on the car and after having it for 6 months he still only charged me $1,000.00 even with the new battery and alternator and swapping out the springs for me. He tallied the cost of parts and man-hours and said normally it would have cost me $1800.00.
The only new problem I have is what I think is the fuel pump. When the tank is under half full it starts to hesitate and sputter a bit. As I drive along it gets worse. BUT!!! Once I'm driving and I push in the clutch, turn the key off, let the engine die and then restart right away then it seems to run fine for a few miles. I at first thought it was picking up gunk off the bottom of the tank and then clogging the fuel pump screen but just turning the engine off and then on right away wouldn't or shouldn't fix that so I dont know what it is for sure. Maybe just old wiring to the pump is not allowing the full electrical current to hit the pump after it's been run a bit. Anyone have any ideas? Sorry to be so winded about this thread but many of you helped me along the way and I thought you'd all want to know what all had transpired.
Thanks again to JT for parting with the tranny and nagging phone calls to him at all hours and thanks to shadyduck1979 for donating the springs!!
If anyone has some spare parts I need the following:
Left rear lens
Shift Boot and knob (the kind that screws on)
Heater Blower Motor
Also still looking for a single 15" Panasport Minilite to use as a spare.
I'll be posting some pics up soon as ya'll are done digesting this thread.
It's good to be back and nice to see all the old faces and awesome to see all the new ones too!!:buttrock