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#1. Eibach Swaybar Group Purchase - from Suzy Kraft
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:28:19 -0500 From: Suzy Kraft <suekraft@mindspring.com> Subject: Eibach Swaybar Group Purchase I just spoke to Rob at Top Notch and there are still 5 swaybar sets available at $300 plus shipping if anyone is interested. You need to contact him directly to participate in the group purchase either by phone 1-800-841-5394 or email <rob@topnotchauto.com> Please remember to mention the E36M3 mailing list or you will not get the special price. Top Notch Auto has also agreed to donate a small percentage of the sales from this group purchase and any future sales to help in the maintenance of this list and the bmwmpower web site. It won't be much, but it certainly will help. This is very generous of them to offer such a great price and be willing to help support our list at the same time. Their web site address is http://www.topnotchauto.com if you wish to check out the other products they carry. Again, you need to mention this mailing list or the bmwmpower web site to get special pricing. Suzy
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#2. Re: [E36M3] sways-back to technical stuff - from Sean Hester
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 09:42:27 PDT From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] sways-back to technical stuff >To all, > >I've heard that the sway bars will reduce understeer without effecting >drive >quality. Is this true? Since my autox'er is also my daily driver, I'm >trying to decrease understeer without feeling every bump in the road. nothing's ever free. you can't make a handling change without some downside(s). but in general i'd say sway bars come as close to that ideal (car handles better but isn't any harsher) as anything. (much closer then stiff low springs and shocks do) ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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#3. [E36M3] engine noises - from Sean Hester
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 09:51:33 PDT From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: [E36M3] engine noises the day i bought my "new" 95 M3, jim c made a post to the effect of "people get too excited about every little engine noise, when 90% of them are 'nothing'" well... since my stereo is F-ed up i can't listen to it at all, i've spent three days driving around town with nothing to listen to but the <sarcasm> wonderful </sarcasm> noise(s) of my engine. as far as i can tell, i have more noises now then the 95 M3 i sold to get rid of engine noises. here's a list of my current ones. 1. vanos gear grinding noise, at 3800rpm, and 1400rpm. pretty much the same as my old car. 2. lifter noise at low rpms ALL the time. (idle to about 1600 rpm) my old car made this noise only for the first minute before the engine was warmed up. 3. classic "knocking". just like my 1984 dodge K-car did. heard mostly under hard 2nd and 3rd gear acceleration, but it's VERY loud. and it happens with almost ALL acceleration to some extent. my old car did not make this noise. 4. a high pitched grind/rattle/gurgle under deceleraion. it happens when i shift through gears. it happens ALOT LOUDER when i lift my foot off the gas and coast while still in gear (so the engine is dragging my down) my old car made this noise, but not as loud. so... do M3 engines just make the noises? is it nothing to worry about? is it just an excuse to get the damn stereo fixed as soon as possible so i don't hear the racket? or... should i let someone fix it? ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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#4. Aftermarket rims - from Dave2664@aol.com
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Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 13:05:56 EDT From: Dave2664@aol.com Subject: Aftermarket rims Has anyone purchased the ATP type 5 (M contour style) rims. I plan on purchasing a new set of tires and rims from tire rack. They look the same as the OEM setup but are a lot cheaper. Any help appreciated. Dave98m3
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#5. Group Purchases - from Suzy Kraft
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 12:10:15 -0500 From: Suzy Kraft <suekraft@mindspring.com> Subject: Group Purchases Hey gang, Sorry if I lost my temper and offended anyone over this group purchase thing yesterday. Group purchases will still be allowed, but you do need to check with me and get permission first. This is the same rule that applies on most mailing lists. Once a group purchase is approved and announced to the list, anyone who tries to interfere will be banned from the list. I know this sounds harsh, but it is the only way GPs will work without chasing all the vendors away. The same rules apply whether I organize the GP or someone else does. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I have not yet denied anyone the opportunity to organize a group purchase that wanted to have one. Suzy
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#6. Re: [E36M3] How do you adjust rear Konis (single adjustable) - from Sean Hester
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 10:14:15 PDT From: "Sean Hester" <seanh_race@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] How do you adjust rear Konis (single adjustable) this might be hard to explain without showing you, or without a picture at least, but i'll try. first off... to adjust the rear shocks, you need to compress them completly. i've heard this can be done with them still on the car, but i can't see it, and i never tried. i always took mine completly off. with them off you'll notice a BIG allen head on top of rod end the shock. this is for the adjustment. get yourself a big handled allen wrench for this. i found a great tool at a bicycle shop that had three allen sizes in a big handy handle. perfect for this job. (if you live in seattle i'll give you mine, i don't have the car with konis on it anymore and don't need the tool) so... while standing, put the shock between your feet (silver rod pointing up) and put the allen wrench in the top. push down on the rod until it is COMPLETLY down. (this is hard, and if you don't weigh 200lbs like me you might have problems) once it's all the way down twist the allen wrench (which will twist the rod) and you'll feel some "tabs and slots" catch as you turn it. it may take half a turn to get the internal parts to "mate". now that they are "mated" you are adjusting the shock. just like the front, CCW is looser, CW is tighter. it's actually pretty HARD to tell if your twisting is doing anything. (it's not doing anything unless you were COMPLELY down and you got the parts to mate) when i was doing it, i'd always go CCW until i felt the "end" of the movement. if you get to the end you know you're adjusting, if you're not "mated" you can twist the thing for ever and ever and nothing happens. my rears were about 4 turns "lock to lock". so if you turn more then 4 turns and don't feel anything, you're not "mated", try again. the lack of "knowing" weather you're mated or not (it's easy to slip out too, and you won't know, bummer) makes it next to IMPOSSIBLE to make mid-stream adjustments. meaning, if you want "half a turn" tighter, you can't just get things mated up, and go 1/2 turn CW. there's no marking, and there's no way to tell how much you turned it, because you can't tell when (or even IF) you mated the mechanism. so... the ONLY RELIABLE way to do this is to get things mated, turn the thing CCW until it's at "lock" and then you know you're at ZERO. then turn the thing a number of turns CW, and WRITE IT DOWN. let's say you did 1.5 turns stiff. now... next week you decide you need another 1/2 turn stiff. can you just dial in another 1/2 turn in the stiff direction? NO! (at least not if you're anal like me. and if you're doing all this horrible adjusting of shocks, you must be anal) what do you do? you get out your notes and see that you're currently at 1.5 turns. and you want 1/2 more. so you go completly CCW (to get your bearings) then dial in 2 full turns. hopefully that all makes sense. are you sure you want to mess with them? ;-) >From: "Pieter Van Dien" <pvd1@worldnet.att.net> >Reply-To: "Pieter Van Dien" <pvd1@worldnet.att.net> >To: E36M3 <e36m3@bmwmpower.com> >Subject: [E36M3] How do you adjust rear Konis (single adjustable) >Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 07:17:37 -0500 > >Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 08:12:50 -0400 >From: "Pieter Van Dien" <pvd1@worldnet.att.net> >Subject: How do you adjust rear Konis (single adjustable) > >I just put in a set of rear Konis shocks last night. I got this set (of >four, fronts will go in this weekend) used and have no instructions on how >to adjust the rears. The prior owner, a successful auto-xer, told me to >basically leave the rears the way they are, but I'd still like to know how >to adjust them. I believe it requires removing the bottom mounting bolt? > >One of the shocks I purchased did not have the square metal plate on the >inboard side. It looks like this plate twists on over the ridged bolt hole. >On the left shock, which has the plate, the 19mm bottom bolt does not event >make contact with the plate. What the heck does this thing do? Is this a >problem not having it in place? If needed, I hope I can order that piece by >itself. > >Piete > > >************************************************************* >List Commands >UNSUBSCRIBE - (in subject line) unsubscribes you from the mailing list. >************************************************************* > > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
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#7. Re: [E36M3] Re: Stock Ride Height - coil-over tuning... - from Andrew E. Kalman
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 10:09:08 -0700 From: "Andrew E. Kalman" <aek@netcom.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] Re: Stock Ride Height - coil-over tuning... Verne wrote: >As far as the corner weights go, we were not able to get everything perfect... Here are the corner weights for my LWT when it was still completely stock. Wet, empty tank, with 175-lb, clothed :-) driver: LF 800 RF 760 LR 800 RF 765 Total weight: 3125 Front: 49.9% Rear: 50.0% Cross weights: 50.0%, 49.9% Damn, where did that 0.1% go?!? So, I suspect you should be able to dial it in near-perfect, but as you said, there's no point doing that until the cage is in. ______________________________________ Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D. aek@netcom.com
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#8. RE: How do you adjust rear Konis (single adjustable) - from Bob Stommel
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 14:57:24 -0500 From: Bob Stommel <rstommel@iquest.net> Subject: RE: How do you adjust rear Konis (single adjustable) >I just put in a set of rear Konis shocks last night. I got this set (of >four, fronts will go in this weekend) used and have no instructions on how >to adjust the rears. The prior owner, a successful auto-xer, told me to >basically leave the rears the way they are, but I'd still like to know how >to adjust them. I believe it requires removing the bottom mounting bolt? If what you have are the yellow single-adjustable Konis, adjust the rears by fully compressing the shock while gently turning it until you feel the shock engage inside. While keeping it fully compressed, turn the top of the shock all the way clockwise (stiffer/slow rebound). Then count the number of turns counterclockwise (softer/faster rebound) until you reach the other end of the range. Then set the shock at 50% of full stiffness to start. Adjust the fronts after some autocross/track runs until the car is balanced. This will be a good starting point for most autocross/track use. With experience, you can start to play with adjusting both ends at the same time, but that topic is better left for the many good suspension books written by automotive engineers and others with much more experience than I have. >One of the shocks I purchased did not have the square metal plate on the >inboard side. It looks like this plate twists on over the ridged bolt hole. >On the left shock, which has the plate, the 19mm bottom bolt does not event >make contact with the plate. What the heck does this thing do? Is this a >problem not having it in place? If needed, I hope I can order that piece by >itself. The square metal plate at the bottom of the rear shock is designed to keep the shock from popping off the rubber bushing under track use. Install the shock with the plate facing inward toward the centerline of the car. If you install it with the plate against the rear wheel housing and the shock slide off the bushing, it's a real PITA to get the bushing back into the shock at the track (the easy way is with a hydraulic press). Took four of us to finally figure out how to do it at Mid Ohio in a garage a few years ago -- we got it done with a large metric socket, multiple washers, oil, and a lot of swearing. Bob Stommel
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#9. Re: [E36M3] sways-back to technical stuff - from Ken Robb
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Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 13:24:56 -0700 From: Ken Robb <kenrobb@willisallen.com> Subject: Re: [E36M3] sways-back to technical stuff I think you will notice that when you hit a bump with one wheel stiffer bars will make it more noticeable as they seem to transfer the force across to the other side of the car more than with softer bars. However the change is not as great as occurs with stiffer springs and shocks which affect all ride motions. Thsi is my unscientific opinion based on driving a bunch of cars with all kinds of weird stuff done them by folks who did and did not know what the heck they were doing. :-) Ken Robb Mdriver13@aol.com wrote: > Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 19:24:00 EDT > From: Mdriver13@aol.com > Subject: sways-back to technical stuff > > To all, > > I've heard that the sway bars will reduce understeer without effecting drive > quality. Is this true? Since my autox'er is also my daily driver, I'm > trying to decrease understeer without feeling every bump in the road. > > Bob Gill > 97 ///M3 coupe > Philly Region SCCA > 1st AS - '97 > 2nd AS - '98 & '99 > mov'in to ESP in '01 > > ************************************************************* > List Commands > UNSUBSCRIBE - (in subject line) unsubscribes you from the mailing list. > ************************************************************* -- ----------------------------------------------------- Click here for Free Video!! http://www.gohip.com/freevideo/
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#10. Sway bar settings - from David Forster
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Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 13:13:48 -0700 From: David Forster <df@prolifixmedical.com> Subject: Sway bar settings Will someone please advise me on initial Racing dynamics sway bar settings when used with the H&R coilovers? I installed the sway bars at firm both front and rear, and have broken two front sway bar support brackets in 6 month, with street driving only? Thanks in advance David '98 ///M3