GM power steering

Same story as with the brakes, i’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and money on drivability of the car and the power steering implementation is no exception.

Reminder the Power steering on this car has never “worked” since i bought it. I completely rebuilt the OE pump, Picked up another pump sent it to Lares for rebuild (took months) in the the interim bought two additional steering gearboxes and swapped my factory one for a slightly newer OE one.

While on the Dyno in May at Sneed’s we talked about options and Chris suggested a GM pump. So began the hunt, the GM pumps are readily available, serviceable and CHEAP! the issue is the BMW pumps are NLA there are no more core units & rebuilds don’t make the 100-110 bar that they need to. Commonly called the GM type II which is a variant of the saginaw but uses a  remote reservoir.. I ended up with the Allstar performance unit, the proper pulley combination i make the correct pressure and maintain within specs for RPM on the pump.

It took a bit of finagling, with the help of a local machine shop we fabbed up proper brackets. a couple notes:

1. I added a slightly longer Conti BMW V belt.
2. Fabbed some  plumbings fittings and made all new AN lines for the low pressure side.
3. Had a custom High Pressure AN hose made.

i wanted to use the factory filtered res but decided against it, because of the sealing issues and crummy filter. I went with the glorious Billet filtered Reservoir from PSC, the PSC unit is larger capacity, vented, has AN fittings, a great filtration element that’s readily available. plus it looks badass!

Below are the pics:

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Booster delete.

So i’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and money on the stopping ability of the car forever chasing a great pedal without fail.

For a little reminder, I completely rebuilt the calipers, installed a tii booster, rebuilt my factory ATE Master Cylinder,  Installed a E32 Master Cylinder, and then on to Wilwood calipers. Ultimately each iteration above was trial and error, sure they worked but not for me. I wanted the car to feel like it put you thru the windshield not like i had wooden shoes.

My latest attempt at personal perfection, a fully manual setup which meant a booster delete and smaller dedicated master cylinder. honestly the idea made sense, I lost a fair volume of vacuum by going with the ITBs. Even with the additional reservoir for vacuum could I potentially point the finger there for my poor pedal? perhaps. After a fair amount of research i found it had be done, and fairly common.

There are a few off the shelf options for the e30 chassis in europe, a few ebay jams,  and one or two DIY avenues. I was leaning heavily toward the DIY side, then i ran across Chase Bays. They offer many clean components for mostly the JDM, BUT they offer nearly the same support for a few BMW chassis’s. A complete booster delete setup for e30 and e28 cars can be had for a modest price. I reached out to Chase M. direct and he was extremely helpful and won my business, i went with his full Brake Booster Eliminator and the Clutch adapter and Proportioning valve bracketry.

I opted to get the 7/8″ master cylinder from wilwood direct as i wanted the full kit with different reservoir sizes. (though it’s the same as he offers). I spoke to wilwood at great length as well, and believe this to be great option. I did have to DIY a few bits and put my own swing on things.

1. I added a 3/8″ Banjo with bleeder nipple to the master cylinder.
2. I made all new hardlines.
3. Implemented the Wilwood 10mm bubble flare proportioning valve for rear bias.
4. Added new Clutch cylinder and Slave cylinder
5. Made a new pedal linkage for correct geometry

another benefit here the clean bay, and with no booster i can likely go with longer trumpets for the sidedraft.

Below are the pics:

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final before/after

Wilwoods

i know i know. after all that work on rebuilding the factory ATEs. they were nice but thats an old setup and i need sometime to stop this pig…went with the Dynalite 4pot rears @ 295mm  and for the front the Superlites @ 300mm. Ireland sells a kit for the e12 and that fit perfectly.

the rotors did require some attention on the retaining screw, and the directions for install were nonexistent tho not overly difficult. bleeding also takes a bit more effort, i suggest getting a pressure bleeder.

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brake caliper rebuild

someday up to six years ago the brakes on the car decided to seize unbenounced to me until i was behind the wheel. the rebuild was very time consuming, with many many steps.

• you can still get the rebuild kits with a little wait.
• for the prep i used brake cleaner and gasoline, with a great deal of brushing.
• followed by a soak in evapo-rust to loosen & remove pistons. a close inspection of the pistons and channels gave me hope for a rebuild.
• i sanded the pistons with 1500 grit paper, more brushing followed
• then another soak even longer for all bits, several days.
• a cleaning in brake clean & a new soak method but this time in ATE super blue 3 days
• reassemble

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rebuilt master cylinder

i rebuilt  and painted the master cylinder, along with new BMW braided blue lines. the whole system also got ATE super blue fluid.

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rebuilding the output shafts

these things were toast.

side-loader rebuild

rebuilding the 3.45 lsd: new seals and hardware.