Sort of Custom Air Cleaner

I never really liked that the Weber carburetor's K&N filter had a lot less filter area than a stock air filter. The stock air cleaner setup also offers use of the cold-air "snorkel". While I'm not entirely sure how much efficiency and/or power the slightly colder air gives the engine, I like utilizing the stock setup. Also, even though I'll be swapping this all out for the EFI manifold in a few months, I like the aesthetics of the stock equipment, too.

So, Jay and I cut a big hole in the underside of the stock air cleaner and cut an adapter plate form a piece of ahem found flat aluminum.

Rear Spring Pads and Some Serious Camber

I noticed that my rear wheels seemed to lean in quite a bit, giving me way more camber back there than I need. Since 1600s and 2002s have no camber adjustment built into the suspension, I was informed that ride height was the only means of adjustment. Grice had a good used set of "2 dot" spring pads, so I swapped tehm to find that my existing spring pads were really thin and kind of torn up. I also found that my existing pads had no "dot" rating.

Before:

After:

No more ridiculous camber and no bottoming out when backing out of a driveway.

Trigger Wheel Blues

A few weeks ago, the car started runnng horribly. Backfires and stumbling at idle pointed to a timing issue, but EDIS is known for being all but bulletproof. After rewiring the ignition system and swapping out the ignition module, coil pack, plugs and wires, I moved onto the carb. After two carb rebuilds, a few new fuel filters and a strong consideration of the use of goat's blood, chicken bones and a witch doctor, I was at my wit's end.

As a last resort, I pulled the crank pulley off to check the trigger wheel up close. To my surprise, I found that the wheel was loose.

The JB Weld had finally let go. I readjusted the wheel and added a nice, thick filet of JB Weld to resecure it.

After weeks of poor idling, the car now runs smooooothly again. On to air conditioning and EFI!

Battery Mount

Tom Rafalski made this great underseat battery mount. the battery is a Miata-sized WestCo dry-cell unit. The cable is made to mount the battery on the passenger side, but I only figured that out after I already grounded the batter on the driver side. The mount is really nice stainless steel with a CNC'd hold-down and it came with all the cabling and hardware. Watch for these at http://www.02again.com/ soon.

Readying for Another Roadtrip

A few weeks ago, the car developed a pretty serious misfire and idled like a drag car. I mean that in the worst possible way. Every symptom felt like a timing mishap, which meant that my distributorless ignition system would have to have a fault somewhere.

So, Jay and I dove in.

First, Jay rewired the entire EDIS harness. I originally wired it in another car and the harness looked like a third grader's science project. Jay did a great job replacing it and, though I'm glad that it's really solid now, the car retained it's Rain Man-esque stutter. After buying a new coil pack, we again saw no change.

Finally, we noticed that the clear fuel filter had about a teaspoon of bottom-of-the-tank rust. After some advice that a lean condition can cause a backfire, Jay pulled the top off of the carb and gave the jets a quick cleaning. Instant improvement. I ordered a rebuild kit for the carb and cleaned the whole thing out this afternoon. The result is that the car runs as it should; smooooooothly. I can only imagine how electronic fuel injection will run. Stay tuned for that.

It's good to know that the electronic distributorless ignition system (EDIS) hasn't skipped a beat in three years of operation. Even with a carburetor, it's really worth running.

UPDATE: Roadtrip Fail.

About 20 minutes into a roadtrip to Wisconsin, the car began overheating and running rough again. I cleaned the carb twice before conceding defeat and packing everything into the Toyota. I am currently working with a few local guys to root out the problem.

Vintage at the Vineyards 2010

We made it! With only a few minor hiccups, the 1600 made the trek to Shelton Vineyards in Dobson, NC in fine style. This was my first V@V, and I'm hooked. Scott Sturdy really does a great job planning and executing this event. Seeing and meeting all the BMW people that I have only met online was a great experience.



You can see the 1600 right up front!





I was surprised to see that Steve Petersen (BLUNT of www.blunttech.com) drove all the way from Minnesota to join us. I feel like kind of a wimp for only driving six hours.



The 2002 brethren had a really great "2002 Ambassador" area with several very nice examples of each variety of 2002. Many volunteers were on hand to talk about 2002s, which didn't require much coaxing.



I just love this trailer.



This Voll Cabriolet 1600 was just beautiful. I need to find one of those license plate brackets for my 1600.





Later that evening, we went for a drive down to Elkin, NC. I doubt that I'll get to park next to a Turbo again any time soon.







At the vendor section, I scored this early 1600 cluster (6 volt clock?) and this set of grilles. Notice the early 1600 10-slat kidney grille. Score!





The Drive:





I was so excited to hear the car running, that I didn't mind driving sans radio.



We got about 100 miles into the trip before we realized that we forgot to run an alternator wire. There was a Wal*Mart nearby, so it took just a little time to get the necessary supplies and solder up a wire. A local BMW and Porsche enthusiast named Chance gave us a jump and we were on our way.






Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. I met a bunch of really nice people and discovered that dehydration is ever so much more possible with a lot of sun and a bottle of wine (who knew?). I look forward to next year.

Lastly, Dana and I stopped at the gas station closest to the vineyard just before we began the trip home. Whilst perusing the small section of wine bottles inside (the station and the Hampton Inn franchise are both owned by the same people that own Shelton Vineyards), an older man began asking us which wines we liked. We talked with him for a few minutes about which ones we liked, which ones we bought and how much fun the even was. At some point in the conversation, he introduced himself as Charles Shelton. He was happy to hear that we had a good time at his vineyard.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Done! Sort of.

At 1:30 AM, I drove her home. I still have some adjustments to make before making the trip, but everything looks good. Dudley, Dan and Jay followed me home through downtown DC, only to do a few more test runs down my street.



A big thanks to Dudley Williams, Cuttie Bacon, Jay Swift, Dan Shor, Grice Mulligan, Bill Williams, Jim Gerock, Marc Spicer (and his friend, Jeff), Chris, Rusty, and the women in our lives that allows us such tomfoolery (thank you Dana!).