Re: 1976 BMW 530i "Eleanor" rebuild project
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 9:16 pm
Continued washing the engine parts.
Here, I'm washing the oil pump housing. The Zep degreaser solution was surprisingly effective on removing gunk from the engine components.
I pressed the sprocket bracket and inner oil pump mechanism apart and finished cleaning the remainder of the oil pump housing.
The next chore was to clean the rust off from all the nuts, bolts, and washers from disassembling the engine.
I decided to collect all the nuts, bolts, and washers from all over the engine and lump them together in the same rust-removal solution at the same time.
Here, everything I didn't want to electrolytically rust remove was placed in an off-the-shelf rust removal solution.
While the bolts, etc., sat in the rust-removal solution, I moved onto cleaning the distributor.
Before I got too crazy with cleaning the distributor with full-strength solvent, I removed the Pertronix solid-state component so it didn't get damaged by the solvent.
I also noticed that the ground wire was frayed...
...And that the damage was worse than I expected when I pulled the wire away. The ground wire was hanging on by just a couple strands.
With the knowledge of the frayed ground wire, I continued the teardown of the distributor...
Removing the top plate was simple. Removing the ball bearing and twisting the plate clockwise allowed me to lift it up and remove it. It hung by the grounding wire until I was able to remove the plate underneath.
Once both plates were removed, the governor was exposed.
When I pulled the Pertronix unit, I noticed that the silicon insulation around the wires were frayed. I took some clear Gorilla glue and patched the holes. As these units are over $100, I didn't see any reason to trash this unit simply because of frayed insulation.
I also decided to sand down the crankshaft mains and journals. Here's what I had to work with.
I decided to polish in two stages. The first was 500 grit, to knock down gouge ridges, and using a shoestring, wrapped around the sandpaper, rotated it around the bearing surface, and used WD-40 as a wet lubricant. I finished each surface with 1200 grit to then further level and polish the surfaces.
A better picture of how I wrapped the sanding paper and shoestring around the bearing surface.
And one of the surfaces during sanding.
The crankshaft surfaces post-sand and polishing. Much better than before!
And one more shot.
Much more to come.
Mike
Here, I'm washing the oil pump housing. The Zep degreaser solution was surprisingly effective on removing gunk from the engine components.
I pressed the sprocket bracket and inner oil pump mechanism apart and finished cleaning the remainder of the oil pump housing.
The next chore was to clean the rust off from all the nuts, bolts, and washers from disassembling the engine.
I decided to collect all the nuts, bolts, and washers from all over the engine and lump them together in the same rust-removal solution at the same time.
Here, everything I didn't want to electrolytically rust remove was placed in an off-the-shelf rust removal solution.
While the bolts, etc., sat in the rust-removal solution, I moved onto cleaning the distributor.
Before I got too crazy with cleaning the distributor with full-strength solvent, I removed the Pertronix solid-state component so it didn't get damaged by the solvent.
I also noticed that the ground wire was frayed...
...And that the damage was worse than I expected when I pulled the wire away. The ground wire was hanging on by just a couple strands.
With the knowledge of the frayed ground wire, I continued the teardown of the distributor...
Removing the top plate was simple. Removing the ball bearing and twisting the plate clockwise allowed me to lift it up and remove it. It hung by the grounding wire until I was able to remove the plate underneath.
Once both plates were removed, the governor was exposed.
When I pulled the Pertronix unit, I noticed that the silicon insulation around the wires were frayed. I took some clear Gorilla glue and patched the holes. As these units are over $100, I didn't see any reason to trash this unit simply because of frayed insulation.
I also decided to sand down the crankshaft mains and journals. Here's what I had to work with.
I decided to polish in two stages. The first was 500 grit, to knock down gouge ridges, and using a shoestring, wrapped around the sandpaper, rotated it around the bearing surface, and used WD-40 as a wet lubricant. I finished each surface with 1200 grit to then further level and polish the surfaces.
A better picture of how I wrapped the sanding paper and shoestring around the bearing surface.
And one of the surfaces during sanding.
The crankshaft surfaces post-sand and polishing. Much better than before!
And one more shot.
Much more to come.
Mike