Gustav followed me home

The over-center helper spring mechanism on the pedal could be messed up like Stuart says. had to replace mine - but probably more about effort than bite point. Also had the bottoming out pedal thing - replaced the bracket, master, slave and spring. Generally, running out of pedal is a hydraulic issue more often than wear or mechanical. There are a couple different masters out there - one is about $110 - the other is about $200. Mine got the cheap one. I think I have an extra gauge cluster if you need any bits.

Awesome stea . . . purchase!!

I knew you were going to get it

The pedal bracket looks brand new. The slave looks brand new and isn't leaking. The master looks brand new although if the bracket failed before and was replaced this one could be scored inside, but I think it's fine.

I'm thinking it could be a bad fork pivot thingy or throwout bearing or just an old pressure plate. But the thing is, if I had enough throw it would be just fine.

I'm missing my cable clutch systems right about now. :)

Lots of people on mye28.com have super magical strange ways to bleed their clutches because I guess the typical method doesn't work well on this system?

driver109x mentioned this earlier: "On the clutch, remove resevoir cap, unbolt the slave and push on the piston several times until clear of air." This is considered the best way, although I've been successful bleeding the hydraulics without removing the slave. The thing about removing it is you can move it around to get the air bubbles to flow up and out of the system.

Woops. I didn't remove the reservoir cap.

Also, I decided to try to bleed it with the typical brake bleeding type of method. I got down there and put the rubber hose on the bleeder and it spun! It was unthreading by hand... but it wasn't leaking. So I'm about to bleed it with the traditional method, then I'll pump it with the cap off and see what happens.

One nice thing about Gustav is he came with fresh ATE in the master, fresh redline (mt90?) in the transaxle, and fresh redline in the diff. (So the previous owner says)

Alright, well I tried bleeding it probably five different ways today. All of these ways left me with 1.5" or so of free pedal travel at the top.

Eventually I made a tool like the bavauto tool so I could bleed the slave with the bleeder facing up. Ironically, the system is now at it's worst.

With the system bled, even when installed in the tool, there was 1.5" of free pedal travel at the top. Does this mean that it truly is a bleeding issue and not a mechanical issue?

I knew you were going to get that.

I'm going to try bleeding it one last time with a friend's power bleeder.. slave removed with bleeder screw facing up... then pump it manually at the end. If that doesn't do it, the transmission is coming off and I'm going to inspect it for a bad t/o bearing or pivot pin.

stroker wrote:

ValuePack wrote: Attn: Taiden I hate you. That is all.

+1.

I would just like to point out, that Taiden practically begged the collective minds on the forum to convince him not to buy the car, and was only encouraged to buy, buy, buy!

We are to blame. The blood is on OUR hands.

Good save Taiden.

Finally got the clutch completely bled. I also adjusted the master cylinder eccentric bolt to get the pedal as high as possible... The clutch does not completely disengage at the floor, although it grabs much higher.

Also, the car runs incredibly rich on cold start, sometimes enough to flood out without a little coaxing. (Cold start valve / thermo timer switch?)

And finally, the ABS only comes on at low speeds.

I've been going over the car today. The transmission is getting dropped because I am now in agreement with GPS that it might be that pivot pin. So I'm going over everything and making a Pelican Parts wishlist.

So far, the entire front end is SOLID. Completely solid. All bushings, tie rods, ball joints, struts, wheel bearings, brake pads, and rotors are in exceptional condition.

Time to check the guibo / center bearing / driveshaft / and rear end. There's a significant CLUNK on on/off throttle so I'm assuming it's the center bearing, but we'll have to see.

I'm also going to do the torque wrench test for the rear limited slip.

I would take pictures of the underside, but you all would just cry. Never seen a car that lives it's whole life up here with this little rust. The rocker on one side has a seam that is rusted out, but the rest of the car is in incredible condition.

Just have to get the clutch figured out, the clunk figured out, the gas smell on cold start figured out, and the abs figured out or disabled and change the oil. (PO decided to use 5w30. You'd think a BMW parts supplier would know better?)

Wow. Add me to the jealousy brigade!

It's the pivot pin. I stuck an allen key into it from the back, and was able to actuate the clutch without the plastic piece moving!

one of the rear CV joints is bad. Replacements are $240 haha. I miss my $55 subaru axles right about now.

edit: napa has rebuilds for $75. Should I do this or go for the $240 pelican parts replacement?

edit2: looks like the PP replacement is out of stock. Autozone has them for $59. I think I'm going to go for that.

I am so jealous. I've been hankering for a big German sedan lately, and that thing looks like it's in great shape. Nice score!

Alright so I can change the boots and grease on the remaining CV joint for $42 or I can change out with an Autozone reman for $59.

Any words of wisdom?

Regarding the ABS, I assume what you're experiencing is under normal braking it's kicking in just before you reach a complete stop. If so that's a fairly common symptom of the ABS system not working - it may be a dirty toothed wheel, or a bad sensor. Does the ABS light on the dash come on when you're driving the car?

In reply to Taiden:

I vote for the remanufacured unit. In my auto parts-slinging days, I used to sell those boot kits, but they would always come back all greasy and gross when the customer returned them, claiming that they didn't work. The reman is only a few bucks more, so go for it.

I've never seen anyone successfully replace a CV boot before without some sort of mega failure, but then again, if anyone can do it, it's a GRM reader.

SilverFleet wrote: In reply to Taiden: I vote for the remanufacured unit. In my auto parts-slinging days, I used to sell those boot kits, but they would always come back all greasy and gross when the customer returned them, claiming that they didn't work. The reman is only a few bucks more, so go for it. I've never seen anyone successfully replace a CV boot before without some sort of mega failure, but then again, if anyone can do it, it's a GRM reader.

+1 in order to do the boot change right, you really have to rebuild the joint yourself, and with reman axles only a few bucks more, its an easy decision

I'm going to snag two axles then!

Also, the car appears to have very new Bilstein HD's all the way around. The rear brakes and bushings are all good. What the hell? Haven't checked the diff bushing or the subframe bushing though.

SilverFleet wrote: In reply to Taiden: I vote for the remanufacured unit. In my auto parts-slinging days, I used to sell those boot kits, but they would always come back all greasy and gross when the customer returned them, claiming that they didn't work. The reman is only a few bucks more, so go for it. I've never seen anyone successfully replace a CV boot before without some sort of mega failure, but then again, if anyone can do it, it's a GRM reader.

Ah hah!!!!! I've done it! The Celica has been wearing a boot kit for the last 40k miles.

That said... it was only because the axle was completely stuck in the transmission and i couldn't replace it. I didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter.

Rebuild the axles yourself. It is easy and it gets done right.

OK. So this car is ridiculous. None of the brake hard lines have a speck of rust on them. The rear suspension is in incredible shape. The subframe bushings are on their way out, but are not horrible either. The rear diff bushing is starting to split. Other than that, there isn't much that needs to be done.

My shopping list so far:

• oil pressure switch
• valve cover gasket
• clutch pivot pin
• rear transmission seal
• differential bushing
• two axles

I already have a guibo sitting around, so I don't need to buy that. I also might need a center bearing for the driveshaft.

What are your thoughts on reusing exhaust gaskets?

Any gunk that's worth putting on exhaust gaskets? (Is there an exhaust version of RTV?)

pilotbraden wrote: Rebuild the axles yourself. It is easy and it gets done right.

These axles are "not rebuildable." I wanted to do this.

Just kidding, nice ride.