Hier mal wieder das Neueste von der Insel. Wiederum absolut fantastisch im Detail und sehr reich bebildert sowie kenntnisreich beschrieben. Allzuviel kann nun fast nicht mehr kommen, bis der Avusblaue CSi in neuem Glanz strahlend zu bewundern ist.

Update 29.3.2005 - Oelmessstab

Has anyone else managed to break the top off their dipstick too. I managed to break 2 so far!! I must be a bit heavy handed or is this a common problem.



Anyway, I think I have come up with a permanent solution here.



I machined it from a solid billet of Alloy I had around. I left all the machining marks from the mill and lathe as I personally like the engineered look rather than polish it.



I then just added a Logo from an M-Parallel wheel. I think it looks OK in the engine bay.



Hopefully ole club hands wont break this one!!!!!!!!!!!!
1996 M850CSi

Update 10-4-2005 - Getriebeeinbau

OK then my friends on the board. This is the post I have not been looking forward to, so here it is.
You may notice that there are gaps in the pics between some stages. This is because I was on my own and doing both the install and

the pics so I hope you appreciate that it was not really possible for me to pause mid-gearbow lift, (by hand I might add!!!) and

take a pic of my sweating brow at the same time. Also I have had to take some pics "out-of-sinc" as it were, for similar reasons. So

get yourself a large coffee, beer or whatever and enjoy.

My first job in the re-installation of the transmission was the replacement of the pilot bearing in the crank. Here I am using an

internal bearing puller to extract the old bearing.



Followed by the installation of the new by tapping and seating gently with a socket.



Here we can see my completed, 12.5 lbs alloy flywheel ready to fit.





This has now been precision balanced with the mandrells I did a post on recently. Here you can see the small balancing hole

required, located between the clutch locating dowel and the grade 10.9 clutch mounting bolt. At this point I washed my hands so no

dirty fingerprints would put it back out of balance. :-))



Following the fire which occurred within the confines of the bellhousing after the shippers had a go at it, I had to clean off

clutch friction material debris from the inside of the bellhousing and the rear face of the engine with a toothbrush sized wire

brush and small, flat, blunt screwdriver, cans and cans of brake and clutch aerosol cleaner and finishing of with my girlfriends

toothbrush! Then got brownie points for buying har a new one. I powder coated the clutch release arm and fitted a new pivot pin and

arm retaining clip/spring/thingy!



I lightly copper greased the input shaft splines and fitted the new release/thrust bearing.



Here we have the clutch to be fitted.



This was also balanced as can be seen here with the single 6mm and 8mm holes.



I then cleaned off the gearbox externally, removing the powdery residue from alloy oxidation and then prepared it in a satin black,

heat dissipating paint, replaced the corroding bolts with new stainless steel Allen bolts, lightly oiled, then drilled and lockwired

the oil filler and drain bolts for extra security. I finished it off with a new "oil spec" label.







As I had everything out anyway, I decided to fit a new needle roller quickshift assembly. I have the choice of the chrome Schnitzer

or the satin alloy Schnitzer shortshifter knob. Which shall I use?



With the new flywheel lifted into position and located on the single alignment dowel, the 9 new retaining bolts are fitted by hand

.....



These are E39, M5 Torx bolts fitted with a gall plate to prevent the bolt heads digging into the alloy flywheel. These bolts are

required because of the extra thickness of the new flywheel mounting flange.



The bolts are then torqued-up in a criss-cross pattern to 105 Nm



I then fitted the center-plate together with the clutch aligning tool.



Followed by the pressure plate.



Which is then secured with 6 new grade 10.9 mushroom head Allen bolts torqued to 34 Nm. (If grade 8.8 bolts are used the torque

setting is 24 Nm.)



As the clutch and flywheel were balanced together,they need to be installed in the correct position, here the index marks can be

seen in alignment.



The gearbox can now be lifted up, aligned with the clutch and slipped onto the back of the engine. Putting the gearbox in gear

allows you to "jiggle" the output shaft to aid in the alignment of the splines. The gearbox is secured with 10 male Torx headed

bolts, 2 @ M8X50, 4 @ M10X55 and 4 @ M10X65, 2 of which retain the starter motor with nuts and washers and 2 which are too long for

the lower bellhousing mounts untill the exhaust bracket is fitted later. I however scrapped all these and replaced them with

............yes, stainless steel Allen headed bolts with S/S locknuts on the starter.



To reach the upper bellhousing bolts, you need 18" fingers or this.



The gearlinkage can now be fitted to the gearbox. The lever arm is fitted here...............



with a new yellow nylon washer and retaining clip.



The linkage body is secured with 2 new pins through the gearbox casting.....................



and rotated to lock onto the casting like this.



Refit the bracket to the underside of the floor which holds the O2 (Lambda) sensor plugs with an M6 nut and refit reverse light

switch multiplug.



Then secure wiring to gearbox with the clips.



Now the gearbox rear mounting and suspension unit can be refitted to the powder coated alloy crossmember and the rear of the gearbox

lifted up into position and secured with the 4 nuts and washers.



Whilst at the front of the car, I refitted the front anti-roll bar with Powerflex rubber lubricant in the new bushes, securing with

4 new 8mm locknuts and washers.



Here the clearance between the engine, newly re-inforced "X" brace and the anti-roll bar can be seen.



At this point, the clutch slave cylinder can be refitted with the 2, M8 washers and locknuts. As I did not disconnect the pipework,

the cylinder did not require bleeding. I will however do so with my remaining racing brake/clutch fluid when I do a clutch fluid

flush and change.



The propshaft can now be refitted with the 3 large nuts and bolts, (21mm head) through the rubber drive flange at the front, 2 8mm

Allen bolts fitted in the center bearing mount........



and the 6 new studs and nuts in the differential flange. Here you can see how I repaired the split rear joint gaiter by using a

normal cv gaiter fitted on the outside after re-packing the cleaned joint with fresh cv grease.



followed by the powder-coated "bridging" plate, loosely secured with the 4 new washers and locknuts.



and the catalytic converter heatshield.



The front section of the exhaust is reconnected at the downpipes with 2 new gaskets and 6 new copper nuts each side.



The front support bracket, held in position with those 2 lower too long bolts mentioned earlier, is now mounted.



The center exhaust mountings are fitted to the bridging plate loosely fitted earlier, and the 2 piece center exhaust support hanger

fitted.



The 2 Oxygen sensors can now be reconnected. Here you can see how I colour coded them on dis-assembly to ensure correct refitment.



Here I have used a conventional 54mm exhaust clamp in combination with the stock bracket. I found this to be more supportive and

less liable to twisting.



Next, the center/rear "twin" silencer is fitted.........



At this twin clamp section.



Finally, depending on your exhaust system, you have either the right hand rear silencer as part of your center twin box, or, as in

my case, 2 seperate rear silencers. On mine, the right silencer is a normal slip on and clamp fitting, but I believe in almost all

cases, the left rear silencer is secured with a metal "O" ring seal and clamp like this.



And that completes the installation of the transmission and exhaust system. Time taken was approx 3 hours with maybe 20 mins of that

taking pics so not really the scary job it first appears to be.
After sitting on stands for 7 months, the motor fired within 10 secs once I had primed the fuel filters.

Hope this was of interest to some of you.

Regards to the board, Gerry. 1996 M850CSi