thestig
resident misanthrope
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2008
- Messages
- 311
- Reaction score
- 150
- Points
- 43
- Location
- Melbourne's South East
- Members Ride
- E34 535i M - E70 X5 M - E60 M5 - No Fear
After a solid 3 weeks
This project turned out to be a little bigger than first expected.
The pedal boxes on the donor and project had the same part numbers. And in most respects they were identical. Unfortunately they differed on one keypoint.
The pedal box from the manual donor included a compression spring mount that was welded to the back plate of the box.
Project (ex-auto):
Donor (ex-manual):
So this meant either fabing something up that would most likely turn out to be inferior, or swapping the pedal boxes. I decided to go with swapping the pedal boxes. This is a lot of extra work as you have to take out a fair portion of the interior trim, air con ducts, and the steering column. The steering column is the bitch, it comes fitted with an anti-tamper bolt. The bolt is in a hard to get to place with little room for wielding power tools of any kind.
Others on the net have had success with a Snapon "bolt removal tool" pictured below.
I bought the exact same thing and couldn't get the bolts to budge. So took the tool back for a refund. Total tools are good for something after all.
The battle was long and hard, there were two of them, one in each car. In the end I won out with a combination of drill, ezy out, dremel and large flat blade screwdriver.
Needless to say I bought a sane looking replacement:
Removal of the steering column and trim:
The clutch pedal with compression spring:
How the compression spring mounts:
Pedal box out of donor:
The different brake pedals:
Time to tackle the auto pedal box:
Manual pedal box cleaned and installed along with pedals:
Whilst the steering column was out I took the opportunity to replace the cabin air filter. It's right at the back of the heater box and slides out in two pieces to get around the steering column as seen here in this Japanese E32:
Of course I ordered my replacement filter from Pelican Parts where they have left hand drive. The filter is sold in one piece, as the steering column isn't in the way, so in the end it was good that the steering column was already out.
Here's the difference between the filter I took out, and the one I put in, 22 years of crud:
The steering column refitted:
This project turned out to be a little bigger than first expected.
The pedal boxes on the donor and project had the same part numbers. And in most respects they were identical. Unfortunately they differed on one keypoint.
The pedal box from the manual donor included a compression spring mount that was welded to the back plate of the box.
Project (ex-auto):
Donor (ex-manual):
So this meant either fabing something up that would most likely turn out to be inferior, or swapping the pedal boxes. I decided to go with swapping the pedal boxes. This is a lot of extra work as you have to take out a fair portion of the interior trim, air con ducts, and the steering column. The steering column is the bitch, it comes fitted with an anti-tamper bolt. The bolt is in a hard to get to place with little room for wielding power tools of any kind.
Others on the net have had success with a Snapon "bolt removal tool" pictured below.
I bought the exact same thing and couldn't get the bolts to budge. So took the tool back for a refund. Total tools are good for something after all.
The battle was long and hard, there were two of them, one in each car. In the end I won out with a combination of drill, ezy out, dremel and large flat blade screwdriver.
Needless to say I bought a sane looking replacement:
Removal of the steering column and trim:
The clutch pedal with compression spring:
How the compression spring mounts:
Pedal box out of donor:
The different brake pedals:
Time to tackle the auto pedal box:
Manual pedal box cleaned and installed along with pedals:
Whilst the steering column was out I took the opportunity to replace the cabin air filter. It's right at the back of the heater box and slides out in two pieces to get around the steering column as seen here in this Japanese E32:
Of course I ordered my replacement filter from Pelican Parts where they have left hand drive. The filter is sold in one piece, as the steering column isn't in the way, so in the end it was good that the steering column was already out.
Here's the difference between the filter I took out, and the one I put in, 22 years of crud:
The steering column refitted:
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