How To Install BMW E30 Drive Shafts, DIY Steering Limiters & 6-Cyl Coding Plug Install | 057

How To Install BMW E30 Drive Shafts, DIY Steering Limiters & 6-Cyl Coding Plug Install | 057

Following on from the MOT prep failure that was the previous video on this BMW E30 build, I took on the task of solving the problems I'd uncovered on its inaugural test drive.

Here's what I used in this video:

Good news and bad news. Firstly, the good news is that the clutch no longer seems to slip, which is a huge win considering that was the main heartbreaker last time. It remains a bit of a mystery, but all we did was remove the slave cylinder, look at it, and then put it back.

My two current theories on why it slipped on the first drive:
1. The clutch slave cylinder rod was misaligned with the pivoting arm, hence removal and refitting solved it.
2. The clutch disk was somehow contaminated from storage, and it's taken a few miles to burn off and bite again.

Also good news was the large jolt through the steering did turn out to be the undertray I'd refitted. As suspected the track rods were catching on it, and it was already starting to self-clearance. I removed it and cut a couple of over-sized semi-circles in it for clearance at any ride-height. This seemed to be a great success.

With that good news aired, let's move onto the bad news. Unfortunately, after that initial drive, I got under the car and noticed a continuous streak of black CV axle grease up the length of the grey underside I'd so painstakingly refinished earlier in the series.

I cleaned that off immediately as it made me very unhappy to see such a mess. It turned out that the source of this were a couple of pin holes on the differential-side of the half shafts. These shafts are original to the car and I'd only given them a coat of black paint hoping they would last a few more years. Evidently not.

I had a look for rebuild kits, and while I am sure they are available, I opted to fully replace both axle shafts with new SKF E30 half shafts. SKF is a well-known bearing brand so I feel confident in their quality, the actual shaft rarely fails on an E30, so it's the bearings that count.

With them unboxed I got to fitting them on the car, this proved to be quite fiddly, but actually less difficult than I imagined. I showed how to fit E30 drive shafts in a fair amount of detail in the video as a how-to guide.

Another unexpected bit of bad news was that the front tyres were catching on the chassis rails in the wheel wells. I was not expecting this to be honest, but it should be expected as a considerable amount of the front end of the car has changed.

We have the front 5-lug swap featuring the SRS Concept front control arm bushings to recentre the wheel in the arch, the steering rack was changed to a Z3 rack. Plus 16" style-5 wheels from an E38, wrapped in 215-section tyres.

It contacted quite badly to the point of the inner rim of the wheel actually touching the front ARB when the suspension is at full droop. Guaranteed to be an MOT fail, and even if not, potentially dangerous.

To solve this I measured the rack part of the Z3 rack and decided to purchase some 27mm inner-diameter, 4mm wall aluminium tube to create some of my own DIY steering limited, AKA rack limiters.

On a car like this you are generally looking to get more lock, more steering angle can help you catch a slide, and on a light RWD car like this, slides aren't uncommon.

However, in this case, for safe wheel fitment, we actually need to limit the range of the steering rack. BMW even did this on some M3 models for the same reason.

With the aluminum tube, I chopped off an 8.5mm slice for the drivers side, and an 8mm slice for the passenger side which gave me around 1.5cm of clearance preventing the wheel and tyre contacting the chassis.

With this unexpected work done, and feeling very satisfied with my new driveshafts, and steering rack limiters, I took the opportunity to swap in the E30 instrument coding plug to correct my RPM gauge now I have swapped the engine from an M40 4-pot to an M52 6-pot.

This was quite easy to do, the coding plug lives just beneath the cluster and can be popped out following the removal of the knee roll and a couple of trim pieces.

The work culminated in a much more successful test drive!

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#bmwe30 #e30build #m52 #m52b28 #m52e30 #m50 #e30 #e30m52 #e30m50

[Alanlanger]

You've put so much time and effort in to this build
Keep going
Brilliant to watch you at work

[Vrrrng]

I started restoring my e30 after watching your video. Your e30 is so cool

[shanechiddy]

Absolutely awesome mate.
So happy it’s coming together after your last video low point.
Can’t wait for the next video.

[daldusanjh]

brilliant build thread ....very detailed and informative

[benfidar]

Great! And, hitting 7000!! I don't think I have revved past 6 ish! I bought a CB360 in the 90s, though it was like new and only had 800 miles, the clutch was slipping bad; it had been sitting for years. I figured that I needed to replace it. By the time I got home, say 20 miles later, it was perfect!

[Sckbg]

cant wait to see the car with bodywork done :)

[ajbrar]

I had a similar issue the cv boot on one of mine was torn and slinging grease everywhere. At first I also ordered a new pair of aftermarket shafts, but they were absolutely rubbish, first time I gave it full beans from a stand still one of the shafts totally grenaded itself 😂 in the end I spent about £150 or so quid at my local main dealers and bought the rebuild kits for both my old drive shafts and rebuilt them, after numerous burnouts and standing starts they are perfect. I can’t remember the brand of the drive shafts I bought initially, but the cv boots were larger as you mentioned and were rubbing on the strut so eventually if one hadn’t broke it would have worn through and that too quite quickly. I hope you have better luck than me

[blockpartyvintage]

Your killin it bro. Dont ever stop or get discouraged. Its the journey not the destination 🫡🫡🫡🫡

[Flordeh]

Great news on the clutch and slave issues. Bedding in is always a good plan.

[ImWithSmeghead]

Congrats! I’m doing an m54 swap in my 318 and really enjoying all the tips I’ve learned such as driveshaft lengths, g240 compatibility, etc.
keep up the great work!

[kevvvin]

Been following the series from the start and love watching the videos, keep it up! 💪 I just got my e30 m50 swap done in a week, although not as clean and well done as your work 😅 It's still a blast to drive! The M5x engines are perfect in the e30 chassis 🔥

[bobfrankish]

Nice work. Great news about the clutch. Jobs are getting slightly less now.

[mariosnikolaou]

Mate, the car is acceleration beautifully, this ratio is exactly what you need. You will be disapointed if you install any longer ratio diff. I recently found out, that a really good upgrade on the E46 M3 is the 4.10 ratio swap! If you plan on dailying the car then yes you should change the diff. If you plan having the car for the weekends the don't worry, te excitment you will be getting is gona be worth keeping it in!

[dhilankerai]

The project is nearing completion 👏🏽. What’s the next step after the MOT? Bodywork? Will you be fitting a kit? Excited to see it play out!

[polloloci]

Had a similar thing happen on my 325i after doing a manual swap- has some leaks that soaked my just-cleaned subframe, exhaust etc. 🙄
Now that it runs it’s slowly asking for bushings to be replaced at the rear 🤪 - it’s fun.


Surprised that the wheel is touching the sway bar- many people run these rims but they add small spacers to prevent rubbing.

Had to also replace my coding plug. My car had a 4cylinder version for some reason. I ended up mistakenly getting a 6cylinder ETA plug- so that sucks. Finally got the correct IS plug. 😶‍🌫️

[rotateonthis]

Brilliant! Quick question - how is the self centering of the steering after rack swap and suspension mods? I'm having a little bit of trouble with mine not self centering all the way

[beowolf]

I ve had these new shafts and broke them on autocross next day and swaped back the oem ones which never broke 😂

[alexro]

How are those SKF driveshafts? mine lasted 100 km then had the same play as the originals removed from the car .

[ODYR]

How was the fitment into the wheel hub with the skf's? when i rotate the rear wheels while jacked up i have some play before the halfshafts engage. Its like the splines have too much play.

[CrAzYDrveR]

the clutch should slip a low rpm and where you have torque, maybe it's bedded now...