#ZedShed La_Vida_Diver's Blue upgrade and TLC

[GazHyde]

Forgot to put up a few piccies and details from last Friday. There wasn't any car work carried out on Saturday, we spent a few hours racking out the garage cupboard and generally tidying up.

One other note that the rear shocks have to be replaced. We took them out, compressed them and they have little urge to push back out again. Waiting for new ones to come in to GSF which is why no work on Saturday

The reassembled rear beam ready to drop on to the floor. Once we got the diff correctly balanced on the trolley jack the beam went in sweet as anything.

The condition of the guibo rubber prop to gearbox coupling. Starting to deteriorate and crack on both sides, although this side was worse. New one fitted to replace it.

Rear sub frame back in place, shortened springs in place and a nice view of the painted calipers.

...and finally a quick shot of the Basingstoke Blue Zed Fest

 

[GazHyde]

This is going to be a relatively long post tonight, and may end up split on to two!

The new rear Boge branded shocks have been delivered and fitted, so the back end is now complete. Were a few tidying up things to do like fit the anti roll bar on the correct way round, and refit the carpet to the hood well behind the seats. Also a quick double check that everything is connected and nipped up to the correct values.

Missed a picture of the old rear shock top mounts.

We have now moved on to the front suspension, so wheels off - followed by the calipers, the caliper carriers and the discs. The front discs are pretty similar state to the rears (but not so bad).

The front discs helpfully tell you the minimum thickness - in this case 20.4mm.

So being clever we grabbed the micrometer and checked the actual thickness - came in at around 21.77mm, so less than 1.3mm remaining on the discs. New discs and pads added to the shopping list

General condition of the discs, this being the worse of the two.

Front hub minus the disc. Usual mud thick and plastered to everything!

Front shock removed

An unusual view

Front caliper carriers were given a quick dusting off ready for a light spray of silver.

Shock absorber on the bench ready to break down. Few cobwebs to be swept away

Spring clamps fitted to compress them enough so we can get the windy gun on them to remove the top nut.

More to follow on next post...!

 

[Brian H]

I have a feeling @GazHyde that new discs are only 22mm wide so they have plenty of beef left in them! I meant to mention after your last post, if you look at the last pic of the rear caliper you will see two sets of numbers 36/10 not sure if it is common knowledge or not but these numbers relate to the piston size in the caliper and the max disc width. You should find 54/22 in the front

 

[GazHyde]

Front springs Part 2! This is where it got fun...

We've had an interesting hour looking at a large collection of front springs and shock absorbers in the garage at the moment. The list includes

• 2.2 Sport front springs off my car - supposedly 15mm lower than standard
• 2.2 Boge branded front shock absorbers (new from GSF)
• 2.2 original front shock absorbers originals from factory and branded so.
• 2.8 Front standard springs originally fitted to Blue
• 2.8 Front standard shock absorbers originally fitted to blue
• Z3 M Roadster front springs, originally fitted to Lees old ///M (Sophie)

This allowed us to have a really good comparison of spring/shock lengths and take some useful pictures... There will also be a follow up discussion about springs later on in a new thread.

Picture 1. Duncan had supplied some shorter front shock absorbers, and this picture shows the height difference between the two. His original springs were fitted to the shorter shock. Original shock on the right, and shortened on the left - to the eye looks to be around the 20-25mm mark.

Picture 2. From left to right. Factory fitted 2.2 Sport shock absorber - Blues shortened shock absorber - Blues original shock absorber. This picture gives a really unique look at the difference in heights between them. (The 2.2 shock may have sunk a little while it was waiting for me to take the picture already!)

Now, on to something else interesting. For those who have ordered after market parts from companies like GSF or Euro Car Parts, you will know you get a choice of the quality of the part. With GSF you have the option of their own brand Vetech, or a premium option such as Lemforder. This is an example of top mounts for my 2.2i Sport.

For Blue Lee had ordered the Vetech top mounts (I also have them fitted to the coilovers on my car and work fine enough). A couple of weeks ago I bought some new ones for mine and they only had the Lemforder in stock. So tonight we had a set of Vetech and Lemforder to do a side by side comparison. This is almost turning in to a public service broadcast!

So, side by side they look pretty much the same (which is comforting), but seem fairly different in construction. The Lemforder looks to be alloy based, and the Vetech some form of cast heavier metal. In fact the Lemforder seemed to weigh almost half that of the Vetech part (we didn't have any scales to hand to be scientific!).

Top Side view.

Underside

The other main difference between the two parts was that the Lemforders bearings were solidly packed with a thick grease

Whilst the Vetech seemed to have some kind of light (Lithium?) spray on them (which you can't really see in the picture!)

Other than that, there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of physical differences between them. They both rotate nicely, and look to be of solid construction.

Finally, a picture of the collection of front/rear Z3 suspension parts we have... We really need to make a dump run at some stage with the old junk ones.

 

[GazHyde]

I have a feeling @GazHyde that new discs are only 22mm wide so they have plenty of beef left in them! I meant to mention after your last post, if you look at the last pic of the rear caliper you will see two sets of numbers 36/10 not sure if it is common knowledge or not but these numbers relate to the piston size in the caliper and the max disc width. You should find 54/22 in the front

Thanks for the useful info Brian . Will have to check up on that, but from the general condition of the disc and the pads (which I forgot to take pictures) they weren't in the best of condition anyway.

 

[Lee]

I have a feeling @GazHyde that new discs are only 22mm wide so they have plenty of beef left in them! I meant to mention after your last post, if you look at the last pic of the rear caliper you will see two sets of numbers 36/10 not sure if it is common knowledge or not but these numbers relate to the piston size in the caliper and the max disc width. You should find 54/22 in the front

Me and Gary had a chat about this, the surface corrosion is quite bad where the car has been sat for so long. You can defiantly skim them but you will be near the lower limit and therefore reduce the heat dissipation of the disc. Duncan also likes to track his cars so these discs wouldn't last long. All that being said there is no harm in cleaning these up and keeping them as spares for either of the zeds, I bet hazel would get years of use of out them.

Lee

 

[5harp3y]

Great update guys, thanks for putting the photos up.

when my nuts and bolts finally arrive from BMW im going to be embarking on the same journey.

 

[Lee]

Great update guys, thanks for putting the photos up.

when my nuts and bolts finally arrive from BMW im going to be embarking on the same journey.

Give me a shout if you get stuck mate. Duncan's car is nearly finished now.

Lee

 

[Tracy Dee]

Outstanding work just goes to show once you start delving into things how bad some of the hidden parts beneath are mostly due to age related I guess.
Wonder what my 18 year old Zed is like beneath as I use it all weathers.
Keep up the good work.

 

[Brian H]

Me and Gary had a chat about this, the surface corrosion is quite bad where the car has been sat for so long. You can defiantly skim them but you will be near the lower limit and therefore reduce the heat dissipation of the disc. Duncan also likes to track his cars so these discs wouldn't last long. All that being said there is no harm in cleaning these up and keeping them as spares for either of the zeds, I bet hazel would get years of use of out them.

Lee

Apologies to both Gaz and Lee if I seemed to be having a dig/questioning you both, I was not, you are both there working on the car and see far more than the pics show. Well done for the work you do boys

 

[Lee]

Apologies to both Gaz and Lee if I seemed to be having a dig/questioning you both, I was not, you are both there working on the car and see far more than the pics show. Well done for the work you do boys

Not at all, I was only explaining mine and Gary's line of thought. Duncan's driving style + Tired discs = kitty litter

 

[5harp3y]

Give me a shout if you get stuck mate. Duncan's car is nearly finished now.

Lee

Thanks Lee, all my hardware just turned up so im super excited for saturday morning now!

 

[La_vida_diver]

Not at all, I was only explaining mine and Gary's line of thought. Duncan's driving style + Tired discs = kitty litter

As @Brian H knows too. He gets driver of the day I just go round the track! In black I was fairly fast but in Lisa-Amarela not so at all yet! The reason Black went was that the instructor told me I was getting to the point that something on black was likely to break and I was likely to get hurt bad unless I got a full roll cage. Brian H is smoother than I am! So when Blue does do a track it is likely to be interesting as Blue is nowhere near as low as Black was.

 

[La_vida_diver]

Just thought I should identify new spare purchased and arrived in Devon. Now just got to find one for @Nutty_Hazel

 

[Brian4]

Still a 2001 tyre Duncan.

Glad to see Blue is getting some well earned TLC and congrats to @GazHyde and @Lee for their hard work and inspiration to others.

 

[Brian H]

I just go round the track!

Ha ha, hardy Duncan, you peddled Black really well

 

[BMBabe]

Another awesome job well done guys

 

[Brian H]

@GazHyde @Lee it seems a little spooky that Duncan is on the wall behind you (calendar on the wall behind the shocks) whilst his car is in the garage !!!!!!!!

 

[GazHyde]

Lee wondered if anyone would spot Duncan on the wall or not

 

[La_vida_diver]

Still a 2001 tyre Duncan.

How do you know? I only know it is a E46 Spare that I bought off Ebay relatively cheap.