It's Alive!

When last seen, the Bimmer has the motor in place and all the wiring and hoses connected. The last thing to do was finish up the clutch bits. While it seemed to go reasonably well, there was a snag at the end. The clutch fork which the clutch slave cylinder pushes, causing the lever to push the clutch plate just didn't feel right to me. I fiddled and farted with it and was reluctantly coming to the decision that I would have to pull the tranny to find out what was wrong. One step forward, and 2 back. *sigh*

Slave cylinder (round bit on left) and the clutch fork (black lever going into the tranny on right)

A lot of forum reading and poring over poor quality transmission diagrams - it is a 40 year old car after all - and I thought I would give it one last shot. Though a combo of flexible mirrors and precariously perched lights I found the spring lever for the fork had come loose and was out of alignment causing my issue. A bit of fiddly blind work had it back in place and with a bleed of the system, I had a working clutch.

Time to work on the 944 and go racing for the next month or two.

And now I'm back. 

So for the month of November I've been trying to get the 2002 motor running. It got pulled way back in January for the repaint. The motor was cleaned up and painted, new rod bearings installed, new water pump, new exhaust studs, new hoses, new starter, new gaskets everywhere while waiting for the paint shop to return the car. By April I had the car back from the shop and began the 6 month process of putting it all back together again. With some breaks for 944 Cup racing, the car was mostly done and ready to get back on the street again. 

If it would only start ...

With suspension and wheels, it can be pushed around at least.

Did the usual checks. A running motor needs 3 things: air, fuel and spark, hopefully all delivered at the right time. Timing light showed I had spark. Full fuel bowls showed I was getting fuel. And air wasn't a problem, so what? Timing?

I pulled the valve cover and manually rotated the crank until the rockers were aligned correctly and I was sure I had TDC on cylinder #1. I made sure the distributor was pointing in the correct location and not 180 degrees out of phase. The timing may not be spot on, but it should be close enough to start. Hmmm.....

Eventually the path of deduction led to the Weber carbs. I had all the correct ingredients, but nothing was cooking. Gas was making it into the carbs, but was it making it out into the intake? A trip to Pep Boys and a can of starter fluid - kids ask your parents - answered that question. A couple of squirts down the carb throats and with a turn of the key, the engine fired up. It didn't sound healthy, but in truth, a diet of starter fluid isn't what it was tuned for. So it's the carbs.

Off with the carbs. Time to dig into them.

A long time ago, actually in February, I 'rebuilt' the Webers.

In all its greasy, clogged glory.

And as cleaned up

What this meant was clean the outside and repaint, clean all the jets, replace all the gaskets. Kinda like a topend rebuild. Now it was time to get down and intimate with those Italian beauties.

This time I took out all the jets and flushed all the passages with carb cleaning making sure everything flowed where it should. Put it back together and back onto the car. BTW, when I say those 4 little words - back on the car - you should hear in your head 'another 30 minutes of work' - as they came off and on numerous times over the last several weeks. Just sayin'.

So back on the car, a couple of squirts of starter fluid, the turn of the key and Vroom!!!! it's working! Hey wait a minute, it's idling at 4000 rpm. Shit, turn it off! That can't be good for a brand new motor.

So for the next week, time was spent working the high idle problem. Turn the car on, and it would immediately go to 4-4500 rpm. I checked for vacuum leaks and more with no luck. Finally in the middle of one session, the motor screaming at 4500 rpm it just immediately died. Crap! What now? That's electrical, I know the sound of a fuel starved motor. Yup, no spark anymore. Back to square one. That led to several nights of electrical debugging, which was solved by fixing a loose wire on the ignition switch. Damn old cars.

With that fixed, I was back to the 4000 rpm idle motor. More reading, more thinking and Its got to be the throttle plates. Webers back off the car, more cleaning, hey the accelerator pump is stuck, hmm that could be keeping the throttle plate open. Fixed that and 'back on the car'. But before this, I marked the throttle lever and carb body with a red paint dot so I know when the throttle plates are really closed.

And wouldn't you know it. The throttle linkage that connected the dual carbs was out of alignment so when all snugged down, one carb's throttle was open instead of closed shut. Some close personal time with a vise and hammer "adjusted" the linkage so both were closed when they should be. And this is the result of that fine tuning.

Oh yeah, still more work ahead, but that's a major turning point. It's time to celebrate with a beer or two. I just bought some Samuel Smith's Chocolate Stouts and look! they're right here in the garage cooler. How convenient.