How Many Problems Can It Have? Neglected, Rare, V12, Manual: BMW 850CSi

[00:00:01]The fight is back on. A man versus '90s insane engineering. You're staring at a rarity. E31 850 CSI finished in stunning Santorini blue color over black leather interior. One of two made in this spec.

[00:00:20]I've already fixed quite a lot on this car because it's heavily neglected. And while I was away, it began to self-destruct. It's broken even more. It managed to do that while it was just sitting and doing nothing. So, let's fix it. In fact, let's rejuvenate it completely.

[00:00:40]The engine is still perfect. Something else broke.

[00:00:45]I already spent two full weeks wrenching on this glorious automobile and it nearly broke me. I'm sure it's going to get easier from here. Spoiler alert, no.

[00:00:54]We're back again at our home away from home. Beamer World HQ in Virginia for round two. On the first trip, the mission was to get the mighty S70 V12 engine to run mint. After replacing around 16,000 parts, we achieved exactly that. We service the engine from top to bottom, overhauled the complete fueling system, cooling system, ignition system, and the S70 is singing and pulling smoothly again.

[00:01:24]This being a Europec CSI, it features a marvel of engineering called Activa Hintterhax Kinematic aka Aka aka Rear Steering. This system has been inoperable much like the car for over 10 years. The reason for that is this super duper hydraulic tandem vein pump, better known as the pump from hell. We found catastrophic damage inside where five piston plungers seized and failed. After much struggle and with the help of Beamer [music] World and the local wizard machinist named Chris who made new plungers from scratch in record time, I managed to rebuild the pump.

[00:02:00]Yes.

[00:02:02]Successfully, I might add, as it was making 160 bar of pressure and not leaking dry. After activating the system for the first time, hydraulic load test is running. The rear wheels moved and promptly got stuck in the far left position. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get them to unlock. I suspect that there's something wrong with the actuating unit in the rear, and that's what we need to troubleshoot now. But wait, there's more. A sizable transmission leak to be dealt [music] with, an even bigger differential leak, blown out suspension, a sagging headliner, and a rust. So, let's rekindle the spark with the Santorini CSI. I've literally just walked in, wanted to say hi to Project Louisville, and then from a distance, I spotted something. They just moved the car into the left, and over there, you can see a puddle. Guess what that is? The car was sitting here the entire time. It's about 2 months. You can see a big puddle there and there. Look at that. The ultimate leaking machine is living up to its name. Right 2 weeks after I left, a big puddle of hydraulic fluid appeared underneath while the car was sitting, not running. In fact, the car hasn't been started since I left it there, and they just pushed it over onto the lift a couple of days before I arrived. The fluid was being pushed out of the venting hole in the hydraulic reservoir.

[00:03:15]The system was not overfilled. The level was perfect, but I suspect that the brake pressure accumulator is bad. When I jumped in the car, the brake pedal was fully firm, which indicates that the brake accumulator is not holding pressure. Combine that with another smaller accumulator in the rear and turning the steering wheel while the car is off, that could explain why the fluid was overflowing. Unfortunately, there are zero available brake accumulators in the US. There are plenty in Europe, but as these are nitrogen filled, it's difficult to ship them. This is something we'll address on the third trip once I figure out how to get them here. You're probably thinking, we're going to start with the rear real suspension. Nine. We're going to start with the headliner and the pillars. They need to be reupholstered. So, we need to remove them and ship them out to have that done. Time to break some clips.

[00:03:59]Apillar trim. I think there's a clip here. Okay. Something popped. I want to try not break anything if possible.

[00:04:07]There we go. I didn't break that clip, which is splendid.

[00:04:12]Awesome. So, that's the clip there. But you can see this is coming off so easily.

[00:04:19]There we go.

[00:04:24]There we go.

[00:04:29]There we go. Hopefully I can remove this one as well without breaking it. Ah, it's already broken. Might be able to repair it. This one did not survive.

[00:04:40]Let's see the seaillars.

[00:04:45]This one doesn't have any screws, just clips as far as I remember.

[00:04:51]There we go. Ah, cramp. All right. Okay.

[00:04:55]Not a single clip broken. Come on.

[00:05:00]Yes, they all survived. Let's see if the stupid sunroof works. I've never tested it. Okay, I guess that works.

[00:05:09]So now if we go back, you know what?

[00:05:18]It has worked beautifully.

[00:05:20]The Oh Handle.

[00:05:27]Can't see it because the headliner is sagging, but there's this hanger here.

[00:05:33]There are several clips here that hold the headliner to the sunroof. So, you got to uncip those. And there's some in the back as well. There clips in here.

[00:05:52]Aha. Should be pretty easy to get it out now, thanks to no SE pillar.

[00:05:58]There we are. I almost forgot about the sunroof cover. First, we need to uncip it. So reach inside with your hands and just push the clip. There is it. Yeah.

[00:06:09]So press that in and then push it backwards. There it is. Okay. So now it's moving freely. Then we have three Torx bolts on each side. And once we undo those, we can lift out the sunroof cover. This also means we'll have to adjust the stupid sunroof later.

[00:06:28]Really wish this car didn't have a sunroof.

[00:06:31]Okay, that side is out. So, you only have to remove the two front ones all the way.

[00:06:37]There we go. This needs to go as well.

[00:06:39]This piece needs to be recovered. I got to remove these sliders here. And to do that, you got to press on this here and then push up. There it is.

[00:06:50]Push up and slide back. So, that's that removed. And these are kaput as you can see. Broken there, there, and there. And then it's the same story on the other side. So I got to see if I can order this new. Now we can slide this fully forward.

[00:07:07]And then we need to open the sunroof fully.

[00:07:13]And now we can I was about to say now we can take it out.

[00:07:17]Yes. Very cool. With everything removed, this is now going to a nearby upholstery shop to get rewrapped with Alcantara.

[00:07:25]Another thing that needs to go out for repair is the mid. As you can see, the pixels are dead. I think first we need to remove the radio which has a code on it. I can't remember code is anywhere in here. Should be I think yes. Six five.

[00:07:39]Yay. There it is.

[00:07:42]>> And I understand that the study has >> do you now. There we go. Radio is working. That's dope. All right. So, we need to open the little flaps here.

[00:07:56]Did you know that there's an option to add Bluetooth to this radio?

[00:08:00]Okay, careful now.

[00:08:06]So, that's going to go out for repair.

[00:08:08]Now, we can start with the rear wheel suspension.

[00:08:15]Up in the air it goes.

[00:08:21]Here's what I'm thinking. Something is mechanically blocking this thing from working and moving as it should. It's locked in this position. So, let's start by disconnecting this mini steering rack from the suspension. And then let's start the car and see what happens. Cuz last time I found an option in DIS that said that when activated, I should be able to move this by hand. So, I want to see what's going on. If I can actually do that. If it doesn't make any difference, then something internal is probably bad with this unit. And if I have to take apart this thing as well, well then we're in for a fun one. All right, let's get the cover off first.

[00:08:56]So, in the previous video, I said that this car has two filters that I'm aware of, and the standard one does have only two, but this one has four, actually.

[00:09:04]There's one here, and there's another one on the accumulator that's located here in the trunk. So, that's another one that we need to remove and clean. I want to start by loosening the swing arm bolts here. And this is an eccentric millionaire bolt used for alignment. I want to mark it as well before.

[00:09:22]Okay, that's marked. And now some penetrating fluid.

[00:09:28]Now let's try to undo it.

[00:09:35]That is fused.

[00:09:38]Okay, there it is.

[00:09:43]So that's free.

[00:09:47]That eliminates suspension being the problem cuz all of that is nice and loose. So I think at this point we need to disconnect this. The grinding that you can hear in the background, that's Phil trying to grind down a wrench that can fit here so we can undo this tie rod. Phil professionally grinded down this wrench. That's what I'm here for.

[00:10:14]Nah, that'll just round it off. So, I'm thinking maybe to try and heat it up here and then try to hammer it.

[00:10:42]Now, I've made a decision. And this thing is coming out. I have a diagram for this entire unit. And there's a mechanical lock inside. Maybe in this part of the housing or this here. And I suspect that's what's causing the issue here. Maybe something is stuck inside and it's clamping on the rack and it won't let him move it because I just play with DIS a little bit more. And seemingly there are no issues. There are no errors even. But it just won't move the rack. So let's start by undoing the filter here and all the lines. That's going to be se, isn't it? Yep. Let's do some penetrating fluid there.

[00:11:21]No.

[00:11:23]What about these [snorts] lines?

[00:11:27]Okay, that one moved. Okay, let's close that and see what's going on with the top one. Ah, okay.

[00:11:36]I [snorts] think I'm going to twist the entire pipe off.

[00:11:41]Oh, yeah. I'm twisting the whole pipe off. This line we're going to need you.

[00:11:48]Ah, there it is. I want to see what's inside of the filter.

[00:11:56]Filter looks fine. We'll clean it. Put this back on so dirt doesn't go everywhere inside of the unit. And now getting this entire unit out is going to be difficult because I can't undo the tie rods here. They're completely seized. And if I strip that or destroy the tie rod, it's game over. I can't find replacement parts. So, I'm going to remove this bolt here from this lower swing arm. And then this entire arm is bolted up to the subframe on the top with another bolt. So, if I can remove all of that completely, then we can get the unit out. And then there's a nut here on the inside. If I free up the unit, I can get to it. And then I can undo the tie rod, get it off, and then we can replace this boot here.

[00:12:35]I can't even get the Everything's so rusted on. And it's ridiculous. Oh no. Nah, that's not going to work either because I can't remove the bolt. It'll hit the Yeah, jet lag is kicking in. I didn't really think it through. Sit wrap. I tried absolutely everything in my power to undo the ball joint ends or the tie rods, whatever they're called.

[00:12:56]But this is seized solidly inside of the swing arm and I just can't get good grip on it. It's immediately starting to strip. So, this inner nut here that I can do pretty easily on this side, but because of the way that this rack is stuck, I can't get to this nut here. So, what we need to do is actually um drop the entire subframe. Yep. This swing arm needs to come together with this entire unit. And the bolt for it is on the top there. You can see it. And if I undo that, it's going to hit the chassis of the car. So, yeah, the entire subframe needs to come out. Was not planning on doing that. I I don't want to do it because I got to deal with a lot more stuff, rusty bolts and lines and whatnot, but I don't see another option.

[00:13:36]So, without further ado, let's get the subframe out. First, the exhaust, then the prop shaft, which I need to remove in any case, and then the rest of the stuff.

[00:13:46]All right, say adios to the rusty exhaust. I made an executive decision and reached out to Super Sprint and they sent me new mufflers and new middle section as well. So, this thing, it's not only going to look a ton better because it's a proper stainless steel exhaust, it's also going to sound a ton better. So, I'm very excited for that.

[00:14:06][clears throat] [clears throat] Holy Schmidz, that hanger was loose.

[00:14:18][applause] There we go. Good news. The constant velocity Jonathan is torn. We need new one of those. Bummer.

[00:14:34]discombobulate the O2 sensors.

[00:14:39]Okay, >> I think grab the front end. That's all unbolted there.

[00:14:46]>> I grab both both sides here.

[00:14:48]>> Okay.

[00:14:48]>> And then I'll do it undo it here.

[00:14:52]>> I'm used to inline sixes, man.

[00:14:54]>> Yeah.

[00:14:56]All right. Got it.

[00:14:58]>> Easy peasy.

[00:15:07]This is what we need to replace.

[00:15:09]Thankfully, I managed to source a replacement part.

[00:15:15]Wat.

[00:15:19]Rustwise, we're not looking too bad. Wa!

[00:15:22]Look how wonky that is. Oh, this is from the guys when they did the what you call it the clutch. This is not aligned correctly at all. But center shock bearing seems to be good. Yeah, it moved, man. They they they made scratches like there and there, but this one moved.

[00:15:41]Yeah, they tightened in the wrong place.

[00:15:46]So, this is where it should be.

[00:15:51]There we go.

[00:15:58]Do it.

[00:15:59]All right.

[00:16:05]Nice.

[00:16:11]Very good. All right.

[00:16:19]There we go. Oh, center shaft bearing a shot.

[00:16:23]Let's get the flex joint off completely.

[00:16:29]The transmission leak. I thought it's going to be the exact same thing as on project Merced, which is that shifter shaft seal, better known as the condom that's behind that plate. But if you look closer, it's actually dry. It's just a smidge wet, but it's definitely not leaking. And if it's not leaking, I'm not going to mess with that. The leak is coming from the output shaft seal behind the flange there. We have a big seal just like on a diff and we need to replace it. That perhaps makes it a bit more complicated because that seal is not in stock anywhere. Phil is now trying to find something based on dimensions that we have from the parts catalog. That's going to come probably in 3 to 4 days. In the meantime, I want to clean this oily mess here and replace the input shaft seal on the diff. Okay.

[00:17:24]Now you're going to drain the oil from the diff.

[00:17:28]There it is. So that's the fill plug undone. And the drain plug.

[00:17:34]There you go.

[00:17:37]Huh.

[00:17:39]That is incredibly glittery. Oh no, that diff might be shot.

[00:17:45]Yep, that's some metally soup.

[00:17:51]That is so bad. It's all metal. So, some metal is not alarming, but this is all glitter. Oh, bugger. Look at that. A river of shavings. I think this diff is done. That's some heavy wear inside. The diff has left the chat. That's far too much metal and oil. I'm not comfortable just putting fresh fluid in there and running it. This is There's some heavy wear happening inside. Maybe that's why this is leaking so badly if there's some play or whatever. But the weird thing is I didn't feel much from the back like noisewise when I was driving the car.

[00:18:28]Yeah, it doesn't have a lot of play. But like I said, I don't feel comfortable just putting fresh fluid in. So Phil is reaching out to Diffs Online to see if he can pull a favor and if they can get this quickly rebuilt. That's the only way we're going to get this project back on the road cuz again, I only have two weeks here and I need to get as much as I can done before I leave. My goal is to finish the mechanical rejuvenation of the car before I leave. But so far, this trip is shaping out to be worse than the previous one, or at least on part. That being said, we're yet to dig into the devil's device there. All right, let's see if we can strip this nut here.

[00:19:00]Oh, okay. Well, that's spinning together with a pipe. So, one of these pipes I have new. The other one is NLA. So, we need to preserve this one. Actually, we need to preserve. So, this is the brand new one for the other side. Shorter one.

[00:19:13]This one we need to custom make. Let's see if the other side is any better.

[00:19:18]Same same story. Okay. So, I'm just going to cut the lines off because I want to preserve both of them. Was wrong doing this.

[00:19:27]There you go.

[00:19:33]Well, that is one strong stud there.

[00:19:40]All right.

[00:19:43]This line here we got to save as well so we can reproduce it.

[00:19:48][clears throat] Come on now. Let it go. Come on. Come on. Please. [snorts] Come on. Yes. Yes. It moved. It moved.

[00:20:02]It's very hot, but it moved.

[00:20:05]All right, [groaning] I'll disconnect the wheel speed sensor here while at it. Try not to break the box.

[00:20:13]Okay, calipers we need to rebuild. That's why I'm removing them.

[00:20:23]Let's loosen up the output shafts now.

[00:20:38]Now I'm going to release the parking brake cables. And as the parking brakes are adjusted, I made a mark there as you can see so I know where to reinstall the nuts later.

[00:20:47]Yep.

[00:20:51]>> There we go.

[00:20:59]This bushing is actually in very good condition for the age.

[00:21:04]Woo.

[00:21:11]>> There you go. Lost the mic here, but I unbolted the lower line and unplugged the connector. Time to break out the hydraulic table. This one, however, is lacking that first part. It's just a tablet. Normally, I'm underneath of the car doing this. But now, now we got to go a bit old school. Hope this is going to work. Where are we going to support it?

[00:21:31]Add that. All right. Go, go, go. All right. Stop.

[00:21:38]Easy. Yeah, I think that's good. I'm going to start undoing the bolts.

[00:21:44][clears throat] Okay, that's the subframe bolts out.

[00:21:57]Stop. That's good. I just want to get the springs out.

[00:22:01]All right. Looks good on this side.

[00:22:06]>> Yeah.

[00:22:10]>> You know what? The chassis is rust free there.

[00:22:12]>> It looks really good.

[00:22:13]>> Short interruption to show you something you likely find useful. Vever two-way articulating boroscope. The rigid cable endoscopes with three cameras on the end are not bad, but this is better. This has a flexible cable that doesn't tangle and a camera on the end that swivels and bends 180 degrees. This makes it so easy to use and inspect and see tight areas, say like this disgusting CCV valve. The overall quality and finish are very good. It has a 5-in detachable screen, which makes it compact to store and or carry, and 1080p resolution for clear viewing. 4,500 milliamp rechargeable battery via USBC that will power the device for 4 to 6 hours. The camera has eight adjustable LEDs and is actually waterproof, so even if your cylinders are swimming in water, you'll be able to see your cylinder walls. Operation is dead easy. Rotate the knob and the camera will swivel. I especially love this when inspecting cylinders as it allows you to quickly and easily see every part of the cylinder without trying to bend the cable or switch cameras. Frankly, I didn't have high expectations here, but for just €96, this is nice, man. It's a bit impressive what it can do at that price point, and it even comes with foam storage, so you can neatly put it in your tool chest.

[00:23:28]Out of many cheaper endoscopes I've tried over the years, this one is by far the best. Approved and would recommend, and you can grab the additional discount using the provided code. The beast of the subframe is out. The subframe bushings, I wanted to replace that cuz, you know, while in there, fortunately, they're not available. So, the rear ones are available. The front ones, however, not at least none in the US. And as you can see, there is some crackage going on there. So, I would love to refresh them.

[00:23:55]Yeah, there as well. So, let me poke that with a screwdriver and see what's going on. Now, I got to come up with a plan and see what we can extract first.

[00:24:02]Either this contraption or the diff. I wonder why are these CSI specific? And that feels pretty solid. Yeah, I had bushings in the past pass this pointless screwdriver test and still turned out to be worn out. More on this later.

[00:24:24]There.

[00:24:26][clears throat] Okay. So, I think now just these two and this is going to boop drop out.

[00:24:42]All right, let's see if we can wiggle it out. There's nothing else holding it in, is there?

[00:24:52]Something tells you this is going to be a nightmare to put back in. All right, it is out. It is out.

[00:25:03]This is the one that started to twist.

[00:25:05]Let's get the diff out. Undo the bolts there.

[00:25:15]There it is. The diff is free.

[00:25:20]Careful. Careful. I got it here. Yeah, that's You're clear with that. Grab it.

[00:25:25]Got it. Just put it on the ground.

[00:25:28]All right. Mission success. No one was hurt in the process. Excellent. Thank you, fellas. The chassis above the subframe is actually in very good condition. Look at that. No rust to speak of. A little bit of surface rust there and there, but we'll take care of that. It's not a big deal. We got to do that anyway. The diff is on the floor and this needs to be shipped out tomorrow to diffs online. And I really hope they can rebuild this thing in time. Even if I wanted to do it myself, I can because if you remember, Florian showed us that you need specialty tools and different shims to set the preload and just to make sure that this thing is going to last. And I have none of that.

[00:26:03]Another thing that kind of worries me is the oil cooler lines. How does that work? Is there a pump inside or impeller or something? How does the oil flow? So hopefully it's not too different than the standard ZF LSD. That line there, I got to take that tomorrow to a hydraulic hose shop and see if they can make a new one. As well as these lines here. So let's remove that next. Where the spare tire lives in the trunk also lives another accumulator for the suspension in the back. Let's get to it.

[00:26:34][clears throat] Original BMW tail.

[00:26:37]Remind me to buy a new spare tire. It is shot. Completely dry rotted.

[00:26:45]Hello. Another contraption. So, this is the washer bottle for the headlight washers in the front. And that there another accumulator. So, now I got to undo all the lines here. That line there appears to be leaking a little bit. You can see some fluid there. fresh fluid.

[00:27:00]Anyway, before I undo all of those lines, I need to try and undo this one here and this one here. If that's not going to come off, then there's no point in touching them. That line looks pretty seized. Let's see if I can undo that.

[00:27:16][groaning] Let's try heat.

[00:27:23]Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[00:27:27]That one looks like it'll put up a good fight.

[00:27:34]Oh no.

[00:27:36]Here I can't use heat because I'll melt this rubber here.

[00:27:41]Oh yes. I did not think that would come loose. Actually, nope. That's twisting with the line. Well, I'm committed now.

[00:27:51]So, this is going to twist off for sure.

[00:27:53]There is no other way to remove it cuz even the top one I can't. So now this is And if they tell me tomorrow, oh yeah, we can't make that line new. What I'm going to do then? All right, I'm going to jump inside of the car and disconnect the lines there.

[00:28:10]Put a blind plug there. Oh, someone was already in here. There marks on this line here. This particular line.

[00:28:23]So, it's all the lines removed. Sneak them through.

[00:28:28]Okay, let's get this line off. Now the whole thing can spin.

[00:28:33]There we go.

[00:28:36]These are the four lines that we need to reproduce. All right, the contraption.

[00:28:42]Let's first get this end off cuz I loosened this nut earlier.

[00:28:49]Okay, so that's the ball joint. That looks fine. I can put some fresh grease in there, fresh boot, and that'll be good to go. Now I'm going to clean it a little bit from the outside. Then I need to look at the diagram again and see in which half is the mechanical lock located. Might be here or here. Let's get the cover off first.

[00:29:13]Great. That one snapped off. I think this one will do the same.

[00:29:19]Okay. Three out of four. Now, let's get this box off.

[00:29:30]Those are the solenoids or the proportional valves.

[00:29:35]Okay, I think we're not going to mess with that part, but we do need to clean the crud here.

[00:29:42]Okay, I've cleaned it up a little bit.

[00:29:44]And looking at the diagram, I believe the mechanical lock is in this part of the housing as well as some sort of distance sensor. So, let's try to undo the four bolts here. This we should be able to rotate now. Yep. See if I can even open this.

[00:29:59]Okay, it's one loose loctite.

[00:30:06]It's coming apart and can't be removed because it's hitting the ball joint.

[00:30:15]Splendid for this. The ball joint needs to be removed. I can see an O-ring and wires in there. So, let's go to the other side.

[00:30:27]Okay, this is under tension here, man.

[00:30:30]Well, it's no longer in tension.

[00:30:37]There's an O-ring there and shims. So, let's keep that in order.

[00:30:43]Oh my god. How many shims does it have?

[00:30:48]Let's keep Oh, that in order.

[00:30:51]Wow. That's why it's under tension. Look at that. These spring plates are actually part of the mechanical lock.

[00:30:56]And as soon as I remove this end, the rack unlocked.

[00:31:00]>> Make sure we don't lose that. We're stuck. We can't take it apart.

[00:31:06][laughter] Okay, I'm finding some debris in there.

[00:31:09]Like small debris there. Looks almost like silicone. Well, what do we do now?

[00:31:16]Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Ah. Is that good or bad? I don't know. But I can access the nut now to remove stupid ball joint.

[00:31:29]No, 19 mm wrenches here are not 19.

[00:31:32]They're 19 1/2, which is a problem when you're trying to remove a nut. That's 19 mil precisely. Okay, that looks more promising. Snap-on.

[00:31:45]Yes.

[00:31:50]All right. All right. Snap-on worked. So now we should be able to slide this off, right?

[00:32:00]Yes.

[00:32:02]So, we have a gringo there. Okay. And a seal on the end as well. So, this I can't pull out all the way cuz this, I believe, is the distance sensor.

[00:32:13]So, the shaft spins. Does that mean we loosen the shaft? I need to go and get some sleep and then we'll pick this up tomorrow morning. With the AA unit finally unlocked, we can now start testing and try to understand what's going on. There are five solenoid valves in total. And based on these diagrams, we can see that we have two hydraulic locking valves labeled HSV1 and HSV2, one mechanical locking valve labeled MSV, and two proportional action valves labeled PV1 and PV2. All of the pins on the connector are numbered, and using the wiring diagram, we can apply 12 volts to each solenoid and see if they are working. If yes, there should be a distinctive clicking sound from the solenoid.

[00:32:57]Yeah. Okay, that one is working. After testing all of them, the HSV1 solenoid is the only one that's not clicking. And that's one of the hydraulic locking valves. Think we found our problem. I tried lightly tapping them to see if the one in question wouldn't freeze in case it's stuck, but no. Next is to check the resistance of each solenoid. If the solenoid has a short or is dead, it will show 0ero ohms. However, they all showed seemingly correct resistance around 9.13 ohms for the three locking valves and around 2 ohms for the proportional valves. This is a good sign as it means the solenoid is not totally dead. Figuring out where the bad solenoid is located was tricky.

[00:33:39]It's all one solid block of metal, so not even with a stethoscope could I tell which one is clicking as it just travels throughout the housing. After tracing the wires and looking at the schematics, the HSV1 should be the one above the mechanical lock. So, we figured out which solenoid is not working. And of course, it's the one that's the least accessible, the bottom one here. So, let's see if I can get to it. So, I don't want to disassemble it yet. I want to see if I can loosen it. If yes, slowly back it out and then see if it's clogged because it's it has the same resistance as the rest of them as the other two that are working. And it's getting power. It's just not clicking.

[00:34:16]So, maybe something is stuck in there.

[00:34:18]Okay. So, first I'll have to remove this one and then the bottom one cuz I don't have a This is 27 mil and this is the thinnest wrench that I have here.

[00:34:27][clears throat] Come on, man.

[00:34:47]I can't get this solenoid to move. Not Not even a little bit. I can't use heat because there's definitely an O-ring behind. Maybe more orings inside. I don't want to melt that because I'm not going to be able to replace any of it.

[00:34:59]So, I'm running out of ideas. I have penetrating fluid doing its thing. And I grinded this 27 mil, which immediately opened even more as soon as I tried to remove this thing. This one kind of fits, but I don't think he has enough clamping force to undo the solenoid. I don't know what the next option is. I can't believe that won't do it. It's like it's welded now. See, just wants to round off, right? I'm going to start with a little bit of heat. I don't want to because I know there must be an O-ring here. I don't want to melt it, but at this point, I have nothing to lose. This thing is just not coming out. So, I'll start with a little bit of heat. Try to expand the metal here and see what happens.

[00:35:50]No, this is slipping. Now we have this going on. It just does not want to budge. This is like proper grip on it right now and no dice. I was running out of ideas. I was applying a lot of force and the stupid solenoid still wouldn't move. I didn't want to do any irreversible damage and ended up talking to Chris the machinist who said, "Yep, I can make you a special tool for that."

[00:36:14]So, we'll pick this up later and in the meantime deal with the rust. This car spent the first year of its life in Munich, clearly driven in German winters given the presence of surface rust.

[00:36:24]There is no bad deep rust anywhere. It's just surface, but it looks very ugly and I wanted to address it and stop it from spreading further. The first step is to grind down the rust and expose bare clean metal.

[00:36:41]>> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:37:11]After exposing clean metal and prepping the surface, I imported good old Brunox, a twoin-1 rust converter and primer.

[00:37:18][music] The first layer goes on, then the second one after 45 minutes, and then it needs 24 hours to cure, and we can paint over it.

[00:37:38]>> [music] [music] >> While Brunox is curing, now we're going to overhaul the shifter bushings.

[00:37:48]Disconnect the shifter lever.

[00:37:56]All right, now let's go up top and remove the lever because we got to replace the cup there as well. All right, let's get the AC schnitle shifter out.

[00:38:09]>> That bushing is all chewed up.

[00:38:13]Thinking let's try to extract the whole thing out together, which I'll need to lower the transmission a little bit.

[00:38:23]Okay, now we should be able to get it out. There it is. At least I hope so.

[00:38:32]There we go. Nice.

[00:38:37][sighs] Very good. That's everything off. Got all brand new parts here. Bushings and stuff. See, this one is toast. Look at that.

[00:38:47]Destroyed. So, that goes on the top. You can see arrow pointing up and you go.

[00:38:53]Okay, let's uh let's get the shifter out. Ha, I put the boot on the list as well. This one just to store.

[00:39:02]The lever itself is in is in good condition. So, let's get this thing out.

[00:39:09]There you go.

[00:39:12]All right, let's extract the bushings.

[00:39:14]These are not too bad.

[00:39:18]There we go. Yes. So, we're going with Rogue Engineering oval carrier bushings.

[00:39:24]Del ring. So shifter will feel tighter.

[00:39:29]So this goes here like so. Next this we have a new cup.

[00:39:40]Pop that in.

[00:39:42]And then we have some white lithium pogrigio.

[00:39:48]Just rock it in there. Again, there's an error here. We'll use silicone spray.

[00:39:58]There we go. First, we got to clip this in. That goes in there. It has to click.

[00:40:05]Yes.

[00:40:07]Double. Yes. This can now go over this.

[00:40:10]And this is usually the tricky bit.

[00:40:16]Clean the shifter.

[00:40:21]Bit of grease.

[00:40:24]Oh, there it is. Slid in. Slide the ring on. Perfect.

[00:40:32]That is nice and tight.

[00:40:34]Rodney, this one does not use plastic washers.

[00:40:40]Now, perfect. Okay. Shifter going in.

[00:40:48]Yes. So, I think for now we can just get that in place like that and even click the bushing.

[00:40:55]Ah, yes. Connect this. So, we're going to need a washer here. All right. That should make one nice tight shifter.

[00:41:04]We'll finish this off later. I still got to wait for Brunuk to dry and then paint and clear coat. Onwards we go with the ball joints. There are eight separate ball joints in rear, all of which are shot. I got these from our friend Ed from v12 throttle.com. So, let's replace them. Careful with these clips.

[00:41:26]All right. This is an eccentric millionaire bolt used for alignment.

[00:41:29]Let's make a mark.

[00:41:36]Nice.

[00:41:47]This is the first ball joint that we need to replace. Completely destroyed.

[00:41:52]Bushing here in very good condition. And then we got to do this one as well. All right, let's get this ball joint out.

[00:42:03]Nice. One ball joint out.

[00:42:07]Destroy the ball joint out. I'm going to clean this up. Time to press the new one in. And I have a special socket here to go over the boot so we don't damage the boot. And you don't want to press here cuz that'll just destroy the ball joint.

[00:42:26]So that's the easy one done. Yet another bala joint.

[00:42:33]All right, let's see if this is going to work.

[00:42:44]most excellently.

[00:42:49]Let's see if this is going to work.

[00:42:52]That should go straight like that.

[00:42:59]Going slowly cuz I don't want to put a lot of heat into this tool.

[00:43:08]Fantastic. That worked out easier than I thought.

[00:43:12]Put some silicone grease on the boot here so the cup slides over easier. But yeah, that's two ball joints done. The upper arm going in.

[00:43:23]Cool. And then got new software for the eccentric here.

[00:43:29]Made a mark there that lines up with that. And then new washer.

[00:43:34]The ball joint 127 Nmters.

[00:43:40]Here we have a rubber bushing. So we're just going to go fingertight. And then the torque is done with the suspension at right height.

[00:43:48]And this one here is used for wheel alignment. So for now I'm going to tighten by hand. And then wheel alignment needs to be done.

[00:43:58]And that's one side done. Get a cup of paste in the other one.

[00:44:04]That's this side done as well. The lower swing arm.

[00:44:13]Yeah, that's a sharp ball joint. That one is going to be tricky to remove because of access. And then another one here.

[00:44:28]That is one messed up ball joint out.

[00:44:36]God, that is perfect. Bang on the money. All right, here we go.

[00:44:52]Very good. I'm destroying this tool, by the way, but that's fine. As long as I get this job quickly and easily.

[00:45:02]Let's see if this is going to go in.

[00:45:03]Space is really tight, so I'm not so sure.

[00:45:11]Okay, that was super easy.

[00:45:15]Fantastic.

[00:45:17]Here's peas lamb squeeze.

[00:45:23]Ah.

[00:45:28]Nice.

[00:45:29]And that's all of the ball joints replaced. This really wasn't too bad. I thought I was going to struggle a lot more, but it worked out nicely. So, eight ball joints in total. Now, I'm going to replace the subframe bushings.

[00:45:42]The subframe bushings, according to the parts catalog, are CSI specific, and the front ones are no longer available. So, Beam World ordered only the rear CSI ones that are available and then front and rear from standard E31. And look at that different part number from BMW.

[00:45:57]375. That's for CSI. 839. That's for standard E31. And if you look here, this is 375. What do you see there? 839. So, BMW is just using standard bushings and labeling them as CSI for some reason.

[00:46:13]So, yeah, safe to say that standard E31 bushings are going to work here, even if the CSI bushings are stiffer. It's still going to be better than old 30 old bushings. Silicone spray.

[00:46:25]And in it goes.

[00:46:40]There you go.

[00:46:44]Fantastic.

[00:46:52]The front ones didn't arrive yet, so we'll do those later. But that's the rear's done. The front diff bushing, I think it's fine, but Phil placed an order for it just as a precaution. So, since we have it here, might as well replace it. Okay, this smaller impact from Milwaukee is really good. I got to get one of these. I have a bigger one. a bit smaller one, but this one is good.

[00:47:21]We'll do just fingertight here. And then once the diff is back in place, we can torque this to spec. The sway bar bushings a little bit blown out, don't you think? It doesn't look the greatest.

[00:47:32]That one as well. I mean, it doesn't look too terrible, but it doesn't look great. Fortunately, these are discontinued by BMW. can't get the original ones, but Beimo World has something in stock that will work. So, let's go and pick them up. It's uh Friday evening, 1:00 in the morning, so technically Saturday. What more can I tell you about Beimo World that you don't know? They've been pivotal in the restoration of this car, supplying me with parts, tools, and space to do the work. I'm proud to call them our friends, and I thoroughly enjoy working with them. If you own a BMW and need parts, they've got everything. genuine OE OEM aftermarket performance or race parts. They are big on the race scene and racing professionally with BMW.

[00:48:11]Their experience and knowledge are fast, but also their customer service is second to none. Give them a try and I know you won't regret it. Use the link in the description for a discount. Here we are.

[00:48:23]It's going to be this. I'm not the biggest fan of poly bushings, but since nothing else is available for this car, we're going to have to go with this.

[00:48:31]It's gonna be better than blown 30-year-old Zybar bushings. Anyway, this is still very much cool by myself.

[00:48:40]Think that's coming off.

[00:48:46]Round it off.

[00:48:52]Nice. Who's going to remove that from the socket now?

[00:49:00]Yeah, that bushing is kaput. Right, we got to apply PTFE/ silicon grease that comes with the bushings.

[00:49:11]Slide that over like that. I had to repaint this. It was so rusty. I couldn't stand looking at it. Apply some grease on the inside as well. If this ends up squeaking, I am never ever using poly bushings again in my life. Okay.

[00:49:35]21 mm. Click with Bruno cured. Time for a lick of paint.

[00:49:45]I also used 2K epoxy primer as this paint didn't fancy Bruno that much.

[00:49:55]What do you think of that paint match?

[00:49:57]Huh? And lastly, 2K matte clear coat.

[00:50:03]Chris the machinist came through for us again.

[00:50:07]You know what this is? This is a special tool to remove the solenoids from the stupid AKA actuating motor. But let me show you this beautiful piece of metal.

[00:50:17]So Chris came by yesterday. He looked at the devil's device and he said, "I got you." And then he went home and made this apetial for 850 CSI. So this is 27 mil 24 mil.

[00:50:30]But wait, that's not everything. He made an extension like a cheetah pipe. So that screws in there. And now we have plenty of leverage to try and undo the stupid solenoid. If this doesn't do it, I don't know what will. So I'm going to go tighten this. And then let's try to undo the stupid solenoid. Okay, first step, Xacto knife to kind of break the seal here, the paint seal. [snorts] Second step, penetrating oil. This has been soaking in penetrating oil for days, by the way.

[00:51:02]Next, I'm going to get a mask cuz we're going to start heating that stuff up and I don't want to breathe in those fumes.

[00:51:07]And then this is how this works.

[00:51:11]Can do it like that or we can grab it here. We might do it here because this one is tighter fit.

[00:51:21]Yes. So, a little bit of heat.

[00:51:27]Okay. Think you just push?

[00:51:29]>> Yeah.

[00:51:31]>> No. Instantly slips. No.

[00:51:34]>> All right. Don't go any further.

[00:51:36]>> Yeah. I didn't strip it, but it's not >> compromised. It's compromised. Yeah, we >> got a solution.

[00:51:42]>> Chris is gonna make some upgrades to the tool. So, to be continued.

[00:51:45]>> Me, too. I'll be back. [laughter] >> Okay, back with the transmission leak.

[00:51:50]So, both the seal and the locking plate here are discontinued. We managed to find a new seal based on the dimensions that parts catalog is providing. The locking plate I got to try and save now.

[00:52:01]It's sitting on the lift and still leaking. That is impressive. Okay.

[00:52:06]It does feel loose.

[00:52:09]All right. Awesome.

[00:52:11]Locking plate saved. So, we're going to do this the same way we would do the diff input shaft seal. As you can see here, there's a pin mark. So, we got to make sure we align that nut because according to the parts catalog, there are various different shims in the back.

[00:52:23]So, we can't change the preload. It has to be exactly the same as before. So, make a mark.

[00:52:29]Okay.

[00:52:31]Okay. Let's see if we can zip it off.

[00:52:37]Easy. Then is that a shim? It is.

[00:52:42]I think that's another shim.

[00:52:45]Yep. It's two shims.

[00:52:59]So, it's going to be one of those, huh?

[00:53:00]Stubborn till the end.

[00:53:07]Seriously?

[00:53:10]Oh, come on.

[00:53:12]That can't be real. Oh, it's coming.

[00:53:16]There it is. So, let's do a little wipy wipe here. All right, let's first see if we got the right one. Yeah, that looks like the right one to me.

[00:53:28]Okay, it's coming out. There it is.

[00:53:32]Woo! Clean the surface.

[00:53:36]Bit of lubrication. So, there's a lip on the inside here. So, the seal will just bottom out once we tap it in. Brand new SIF seal.

[00:53:47]Found a suitable cup.

[00:53:55]It's fully seated. Can hear the tone change. Lubed up flange going back in.

[00:54:00]Hopefully it goes in smoother. They came out the shims.

[00:54:12]So, we can use the impact to drive the flange in just a smidge more cuz I know this was flat on that side.

[00:54:27]Boom. That is perfect.

[00:54:30]marks lined up and I know this cup on the back where this sleeve was sitting flush with the cover here. Transmission leak hopefully fixed the locking plate.

[00:54:43]Transmission mount bracket click click brand new original transmission mount washer on top and a nut.

[00:54:57]Beautiful.

[00:55:03]Click click click click.

[00:55:06]>> Hey, the front subframe bushings arrived.

[00:55:11]Okay. Theory that CSI bushings are different and stiffer is bull. They both have exact same part numbers. 838 838.

[00:55:23]And that's the rear subframe done. We replaced all of the worn out and blown out components. The rest like this integral arm bushing that's all in good condition as well as these control arms.

[00:55:33]So everything that was worn out, we replaced the subframe bushings were not too bad, but still we have new bushings.

[00:55:39]So this we can set to the side as we're waiting on the diff to come in. The paint that looks pretty snazzy. Paint even matches. Yeah, for something that's going to live underneath of the car, that looks splendid. No more rust. And this car wasn't rusty in the sense that it had a lot of rusty panels and metal here and there. It was mainly surface rust. So, I removed all of that, treated it, and here's how it looks. You can clearly tell which parts are freshly painted and which aren't. I did try to mist the paint on sort of replicate how they did it from the factory. But once I apply fluid film and you get a bit of dirt in here, it should blend in nicely.

[00:56:13]And still, this is going to look hell of a lot better than rust. So, I went all around and it's nice that we had the subframe out cuz then I could reach all of the tiny surface rusty spots. There was a decent amount of rust here. This is where the bottle for the headlight washers reside. And took all of that down, painted it, treated it, and now it looks good. This here isn't rust. This is just from the rusty pipe here. The metal underneath the coating that's still protected. But yeah, it all looks snazzy now. And yes, I know there's rust on the other side of the metal that I cannot reach. And to address that, I'll use fluid film. But after a few days, once all of this is fully cured, at this point we could more or less start the reassembly process. But parts obsolete NLA parts. Chris is on his way with the version two of the tool. And hopefully hopefully we make some progress with that stupid solenoid and that stupid AKA actuating unit/mo thingy. I've made a post on Instagram, on YouTube. I've been searching everywhere in the world basically to find a replacement unit, but it seems impossible. I did get a little bit of hope from the president of D31 club in Germany. He used to rebuild them and he told me that he suspended all the services for that because he cannot find spare parts. Surprise, surprise. I don't know if this tool doesn't work out. I don't know what we're going to do. I might cut off the damn thing because the end of the day it's not working, is it? So why doesn't matter? But on the other hand, without that unit, what what do we do with the car? I know a lot of you are thinking just delete it. But to delete this thing, it's not that simple. I would basically need a donor car. The complete rear subframe is actually different. So I would need a new subframe. And then I need new pump, gazillion other hydraulic lines, the reservoir, and even if I buy a donor car, all that is going to be shot. And I got to do all of that again, like the subframe bushings and all that stuff. It's just going to be equally as hard to do that as it would be to fix the system. And I kind of want to experience the system. We want to see it in action and keep the originality of the car. Anyway, let's see what happens.

[00:58:11]Let's see what happens. Today is Friday.

[00:58:15]I have seven more days to work on the car to finish all of this. And we still need to do the brakes. Still need to do front suspension. That's about it. And the headliner whenever that comes in.

[00:58:27]All right. Version two of the tool. So, another bolt was added here. And then we have two sharp set screws. One here and here. So, first I want to position the tool.

[00:58:41]Okay, we'll have to do like this. Is it me or this? No. Fits tighter. Okay, let's see. So, I can't go crazy here, right? Cuz these are small screws. Yeah, it just needs to bite. You know what?

[00:58:53]That's tight.

[00:58:54]>> Rock solid.

[00:58:55]>> That's rock solid. All right, let's do this then.

[00:59:00]And then a little bit of heat.

[00:59:05]All right, here we go.

[00:59:11]>> Nope.

[00:59:13]How come it still wants to No, it's slipping. That doesn't make sense. Someone asked me like if there's any possibility that these screws inside are grabbing the solenoid.

[00:59:24]>> It's possible.

[00:59:25]>> Think.

[00:59:26]>> Yeah, I would almost bet you that one is. And there may be ones from the other side cuz if that sleeve goes all the way up in here, I'd say that's a set screw retaining it.

[00:59:34]>> I mean, I can try to break loose this one here. Or maybe this is just from machining cuz this is all like one solid block. So here you have none. Yeah, for this one you don't have anything. I mean, I don't see like solenoid usually has like a check thingy valve. I mean, there's one here, one here. All right, let's try and remove it. Yeah, I'll try this one here. But these haven't been touched and it fits so poorly.

[00:59:58]Oh, it moved. Nice.

[00:59:59]>> What do we have behind door number one?

[01:00:02]If it's a set screw, I'm going to No, that's a blind plug. Yeah, that's a blind plug. Can see the damn solenoid inside. Yeah, you can see the body of it. Like, normally it's like a It's probably going up until there or something like that. You can see. All right, let's try smacking with a hammer then.

[01:00:18]Did it move or slipped?

[01:00:19]>> I'm not sure.

[01:00:20]>> I think it slipped.

[01:00:21]>> I think it slipped as well. You can see the pop like this grabbed. It's like it was welded on there. It's insane. I mean, look. You can actually see the impression where the screw goes in. It's unbelievable.

[01:00:32]>> It's biting.

[01:00:35]That popped right off.

[01:00:37]>> Now, this thing is something else.

[01:00:40]You're probably stronger than I am.

[01:00:41]>> Of a miracle.

[01:00:43]>> Ready? Three, two, one.

[01:00:47]>> The table.

[01:00:51]>> I think I broke >> pliers broke. [laughter] Well, actually it didn't break. The thing just popped this.

[01:01:03]>> No, we're moving the whole thing. Like, this is unbelievable. Come on.

[01:01:09]>> I'm waiting for the uh solenoid housing to actually come out. All right.

[01:01:18]>> Oh my god.

[01:01:19]>> Yeah.

[01:01:22]>> There you go. Holy crap. Finally. I cannot believe it popped. The stupid solenoid.

[01:01:30]>> All you need was a little bit of muscle.

[01:01:32]>> That homegrown West Virginia muscle.

[01:01:33][laughter] >> Bravo, Chris. Bravo. That's amazing.

[01:01:38]Good job, man. Good job. All right, let's see if we can get it out now without destroying the wiring. I cannot believe it popped. That was a strong pop as well.

[01:01:46]>> Yeah, it was.

[01:01:47]>> And you were right. Turning the pliers the other way around.

[01:01:50]>> Yeah. You always want to go into your jaw like that. Yeah. [clears throat] >> Oh, there's a giant O-ring there. Just don't want to twist the wires too much.

[01:01:59]There it is. You bloody thing. Good job, Chris. Good job.

[01:02:03]>> I'm just glad it happened.

[01:02:04]>> So, this is the O-ring here. So, that's >> that's a good one.

[01:02:07]>> Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, I think we'll have to remove this one as well.

[01:02:10]Let's see if the O-ring is ruined. I don't think it is. But here, you can see that's the valve inside. So, that's how that looks like on the inside. So, I think next step is to see maybe we need to remove this one as well.

[01:02:24]Oh yeah, there you go. The tool did its job after all. Bravo. Functional tool.

[01:02:30]We need to diffuse bombs. [laughter] >> Get that adrenaline rush. That was a tight fit on there. 24 is a really tight fit. All right. So, wiring again. Try not to mess it up. My concern is if I break the wire there, then the whole solenoid is useless. Here, maybe you can hold this one here out of the harm's way. And then I'll try to undo this one.

[01:02:50]Boom. Another one out.

[01:02:52]>> Nice.

[01:02:58]>> Yep. It's right where the valve is. I'll break it off if I hit it with a hammer.

[01:03:03]You're kidding me.

[01:03:06]And the pliers think like this. There's no >> Try popping it that way, but I mean it's risky.

[01:03:10]>> Try it. We have no other option. Let's hope that this one is not as easy as the other one. Okay.

[01:03:16]>> I think it moved.

[01:03:18]>> No, I think it was a slip.

[01:03:19]>> Yeah. All right.

[01:03:26]Slippy, slippity slip. The special tool didn't fit and there was no room to grab it with the pliers tightly. But then Chris mentioned the word chisel and I had a chandelier moment in my head.

[01:03:49]>> [laughter] >> Yes.

[01:03:51]>> You're a magician, Chris. Oh, good job.

[01:03:56]Good job.

[01:03:58]>> Oh, the bastard is off. Why didn't I think of this earlier? I I just had strip transmission bolts. Well, let's not get bogged down with [laughter] >> Yeah, cuz I I literally had transmission bolts on one of the cars that I was restoring and I used this in a hammer and I took every single one off.

[01:04:14]>> Tunnel vision.

[01:04:15]>> Yeah. What >> happened? The wires.

[01:04:18]Hey, hey, hey, here it is. There's fluid inside. Going to clip this area clean.

[01:04:24]But this is That might have been it.

[01:04:29]>> That might have been it. It was stuck.

[01:04:31]>> This was stuck. Not the solenoid.

[01:04:34]I think I think that was stuck cuz that popped in. This is the one that wasn't clicking before. If this clicks now, that means that the solenoid is good.

[01:04:41]And the problem was this valve inside that was stuck.

[01:04:46]Oh no, it's dead. All right. First of all, Chris is an absolute legend. I can't thank him enough for his help on this. And look at this tool. It's a thing of beauty, and it did serve its purpose. It's finally off. The thing is is disassembled. And I have good news.

[01:05:05]So, if you push this valve in and here as well on the solenoid, this one is springy, so it doesn't do that.

[01:05:12]And then we apply power to the one that wasn't working before.

[01:05:17]Did you hear that? That was a click from this one here.

[01:05:23]Okay, I just realized something. We got the wrong solenoid off. [laughter] >> [clears throat] >> So, if I push this valve inside, it'll click once. It'll push the valve out.

[01:05:39]And then this is springy here. And that's why it keeps clicking when it's connected when it's connected to the body. But when it's disconnected from the body, it'll click just once. So, if I press 14 and 13, which is the one that was working before, you hear that? That's this one. And this is the one that I thought was bad. Yeah, that's the one that was there. And then this is the mechanical lock, which is three and four.

[01:06:03]So, those two work. The one that doesn't work is this one here. So, the diagram has it the wrong way around. Fantastic.

[01:06:11]I want to test the proportional valve.

[01:06:13]So, let's let's try this. So, if I hold this pressed in, 15 is negative.

[01:06:19]There you go. See?

[01:06:22]See? It's pushing my finger. So, that's working. It needs to have pressure applied. I cannot believe I removed the wrong solenoid. Like that's what the stupid diagram is telling us. All right, before I tackle the other side and get the solenoid out, that's actually the problem. I want to see if I can pull this out cuz that was stuck and I want to see what's hiding behind it.

[01:06:44]There it is. Yeah, there's no schmutz there or anything like that. Okay, well that wasn't stuck. It's just a normal valve. It's springy. All right, back to the vice. I'm going to go at it with a chisel right away because this one looks pretty rusty, TOO.

[01:07:04]HEY, that turn.

[01:07:06]Yeah, this is the way to do it. Why didn't I think of this earlier?

[01:07:14]There we are. So, here the ball was not protruding like that. Is that a bubble there or? Yep, it's a piece of dirt that was inside. And this is what I was seeing on the front of the pump as well.

[01:07:25]Chunks of something. All right. Does this valve work? Oh, that was stuck as well. Okay, let's go test it. Now, if I take the screwdriver and push the valve in like that.

[01:07:37]And if you don't hear it pop out, this solenoid is dead. It works. It works.

[01:07:44]So, why wasn't it clicking while it was on here before?

[01:07:49]Yeah, that absolutely works. So, the solenoid is not the problem. Yep, solenoids are working. Just a minute ago, I was testing it while it was on the housing and it didn't work. Now, I remove it and it works. Okay, now you're more confused than ever. So, the solenoid is seemingly okay. It's not broken. So, when the pressure comes in, this pushes this little check valve into the solenoid like this. So, we can actually Does it screw in? It does. Okay. So, this is part of the solenoid there.

[01:08:21]That's all the way in.

[01:08:26]Why didn't it do that earlier? So, this is the one that didn't work. Quite clearly see it moving the valve.

[01:08:38]Okay. Then, let's remove that valve there. If there's something wrong with that.

[01:08:44]So when the solenoid is not energized, it is automatically closed. When it gets voltage, then that valve inside of the solenoid pushes on this check valve here and it opens up this passage here and that allows fluid to flow through that chamber.

[01:09:02]Quite clearly working just fine. Again, why wasn't this working earlier? Maybe this check valve backed out out of the solenoid. That's why it wasn't clicking.

[01:09:13]It was constantly in an open position but not touching the vault. Before I go to bed, I want to try one more thing.

[01:09:17]So, this needs to screw in before it's reinstalled. I mean, at this point, everything works. I'm not entirely sure why it didn't work before. Possibly this backed out of the solenoid and then that valve inside of the solenoid was not making contact with the check valve. So, no clicky sound, you know, no operation.

[01:09:36]Seems unlikely, but it is possible. So, I'm thinking take this out, clean it thoroughly, and use thread locker on the inside. So, you cannot back out because when we removed the solenoid, it stayed in the housing. Why did you do that? Why didn't it come with the solenoid? Yeah, I think tomorrow we'll just reassemble everything and see how it works. But we do have a slight issue. So, the mechanical locking solenoid, which is this one here, also has a check valve.

[01:10:00]But unlike these ones where there was a shaft that I could pull on, this doesn't have that. It has a smooth machined surface in there. And I cannot grab that with the pliers cuz then I'll damage it and then it won't be a tight fit with this solenoid. That's a machine surface.

[01:10:13]So, we got to get that out without doing any damage to it and then thread it into the solenoid and all of this craziness can be put back together. Okay. So, my first instinct is to try and remove this plug here and see if that'll give us access to this check valve there and maybe use compressed air to try and push it out. Let's try that.

[01:10:34]Ah, there it is. Okay. So, what happens when we apply press there? Huh?

[01:10:43]Oh, that moved the rack.

[01:10:47]No, it's not doing it.

[01:10:50]So, it's all [snorts] open. That won't work. Morning. Since evidently there's nothing wrong with this pump anymore, I think let's clean it and put it back together. So, I'm planning on using Loctite on the check valves so they can't back out. And little bit of goop here on the edge to make sure that the seals because I don't have new O-rings.

[01:11:11]First, we need to extract this valve here. No magnet ain't strong enough.

[01:11:16]Okay. I was playing with compressed air and uh here's where we are. This thing popped out. So, I pushed compressed air here. I put the plug underneath and then it came out here. And indeed, there were some schmootzs here. And you can actually see how this thing clamps onto the onto the rack. So look at that dirt there. And then look at the inside.

[01:11:34]So yeah, this thing was dirty and blocked. Then if you look inside, there's that big piece of dirt that I was trying to get out. And look at the shaft there, the sleeve. So this should just pull out now.

[01:11:48]Like so.

[01:11:51]And that's how it locks with this. So when this slides into that, this is tapered. As you can see, this gap closes and it grabs onto the shaft here and that's how it locks it. That's the mechanical lock. This is actually good news that this thing popped out cuz I wasn't planning on taking this any further. I don't have seals. I don't have anything. So taking it apart, it's very risky. I have to remove this, try to get that out without damaging anything. But the fact that this popped out is really good. I mean, that's properly dirty. That was gummed up. This is what I couldn't understand. Like what is this? I think this is why it was locked. And this is simply from unit not being in use for years because of the pump. So serendipity that this popped out and now you can clean it. So that's coating. That bushing on the inside is coated. And you can see bronze or something coming through there. But that's definitely coating. And I think this is purely from this thing sitting.

[01:12:43]It wasn't moving and it started to eat the coating there. There isn't much I can do about that cuz I don't even know what kind of coating that is. Maybe teflon or something. So the best we can do there is clean it. Okay, Dave has magnets. So, let's try this one.

[01:13:00]See if this will work.

[01:13:04]It is coming out.

[01:13:09]See, I found this pipe in the metal section of the shop and it had sort of similar threads on the inside. Not as fine as this, but enough to just start threading it in. And because this is aluminium makina damaged steel threads on the track valve just pulled it out. I am a genius with a G. As I was cleaning everything and getting ready to reassemble it, I spotted that the Oings on the two check valves here are damaged. There's a little bit of damage.

[01:13:37]And this is the part that goes inside of the housing and seals. So, these need to be replaced. This is definitely not going to seal. So, let me get these off so we can measure and then we can go on McMaster or something and see if we can order replacement ones. I'm still considering taking apart this entire thing. But this has a seal that I'm probably never going to find anywhere.

[01:13:57]This one doesn't concern me. I can use goop here to seal that. There's an O-ring here. So, maybe I need to take apart this thing here, dip pin it, and then I can pull this off. But I'm not going to achieve anything by doing that because there's a big seal inside which again I'm not going to fight find. So I think this part we shall not touch it.

[01:14:15]We shall leave it as it is. That all looks dandy. So let me find a thin screwdriver and get the orings out so we can measure and order them.

[01:14:23]That one is out.

[01:14:27]Boop. And then these two for the mechanical clamping solenoid are fine.

[01:14:32]But if you're ordering new O-rings, you might as well order everything. So let me go get a caliper.

[01:14:40]All right. I measured all the O-rings.

[01:14:42]shall see how quickly we can get them.

[01:14:44]In the meantime, I want to see if we can clean this up. This coating that's coming off. So, let's first start with alcohol and a carbon fiber. Well, it's hanging in there. I think we'll need to try and polish this. That's how that works. This conicle part goes into this, squeezes in, this closes, and it clamps on the shaft. Okay, I'm going to get fine Scorchbrite, which I don't know if it's a smart thing to do, but there's so much of this coating hanging off that we need to remove it.

[01:15:15]I think it's a bronze bushing underneath. Yeah, it's not ideal. It's not ideal. I can't polish it without damaging the coating completely. I think at this point I'm going to park all of this. I want to consult on someone else regarding this coding here. As I was learning and understanding how this contraption works on the go, I'll sum it up briefly now. In its off state, the actuating unit is locked by default.

[01:15:37]Once the locking solenoids receive 12 volts, the check valve opens, allowing the fluid under pressure to travel through it and push the mechanical lock open and enabling the rack to move. In our case, one of the locking solenoids wasn't working. Hence, the rack remained permanently locked. In the next episode, we are going to reassemble everything with new O-rings and see if this old obsolete system will finally work as coaked up engineers from the '9s designed it to also deal with the rest of the stuff and suspension and so on.

[01:16:06]Until then, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.