316 - 1977 - petroscf - Greece

[petroscf]

Should have updated already, so here is just a quick note and I will come back to this again

B8 and Eibach springs are on. Together with the rear 19mm arb from Jeroen, and a couple of eurometric rear top mounts which were not fitted yet. (aesthetics issue here Jeroen, my Eurometric bushes and these rear top mounts are light blue, the poly bushes on the arb are red, and the rest of the car's rubber bushes are black, so better not look the car from bottom side hahahah)

Car up to now drives fantastic, better than ever. Ok, could be the new shocks and springs that give this fresh suspension feeling. Also it does not feel that stiff.(Also here could be that the old shocks were very old). However, I get a feeling that B8s are the ones to go with springs lower than factory specs, as exactly Bilstein officially claim.

EZ Power steering : Well, I CAN PARK NOW AGAIN!
I do not need to visit an orthopedist after each time. However, I feel the car a bit nervous at high speeds. I hope I get used to this, because if I don't, then I have to say that feeling (at speed) was a bit better without the electric column. I really thought that the whole system had a speed sensor and the power was available up to some km/h and then cut out, but it proved I was mistaken.

couple of other things from the list done, couple other yet to be done when the mechanic comes back (he left for a classic cars rally abroad and left me unfinished hahahah)

So I will definitely come back and with some photos this time I hope

[uwbuurman]

Great that the EZsteering is on. Love to see some pics indeed.

[petroscf]

I am afraid that not many pics were done from the steering column conversion phase-will ask the mechanic who did it just in case he has got any. Otherwise I will remove the panel myself (when I find some time) in order to take a photo from the fitted new column.

Two things have to be mentioned here imho:

First is that they had to cut part of the steering column housing in order to fit the new column. (It is a thin metal tube of cylindrical shape, I have kept the part that was cut, And I would be interested if one can inform me where I could find a similar part uncut)
Second is that the EZ column has a motor attached which is fairly big, but can be hidden in the dash. However, in my car, there was almost no room at all in that part of the dash (just above driver's legs-where the column is found) because it was almost full with cable spaghetti. So the under dash panel was fitted awfully under the column.
I had to take the car to an electrician, in order to find out what was useful in there and what not, as well as what was longer than needed, and then start cutting and reconnecting. And it seems that there not only existed cables from older electric works on the car that no one ever removed, but some of the cables from factory were longer than needed as well.
He managed to remove a lot of non useful cables, so room was created to "push" the column motor a bit further up.
The under panel now, still does not fit perfectly, but it is much better than when the steering column was fitted on the first place.

Another thing we did to the car and I forgot to mention: We fitted a plastic housing around the car fan. This part is sold on Walloth & Nesch only for automatic cars, but we also fitted this (some custom work had to be done of course in order to fit the part on the radiator.). A friend and expert in 02s told me this will be helpful for the radiator to cool the car more succesfully

[uwbuurman]

PM.

[petroscf]

PM replied !

[uwbuurman]

#Metoo

[petroscf]

Thanks uwbuurman

[uwbuurman]

[Jeroen]

Good developments Petros! Now we have an even bigger hunger for photos hahaha!

[petroscf]

Soon

[petroscf]

I have a technical question: Are front arbs different for pre facelift and post facelift E21 cars? I am interested in a thicker front arb, now that I got a thicker (19mm) rear, but if I am not mistaken there are no pre facelift 25mm

[uwbuurman]

If you realy want to improve, I recommend the Ireland Engineering set

Stronger steel, adjustable, so a good deal.

I am in the market for a set aswell, that is it is on my list. But hey, there are a thousand parts on my list...

[petroscf]

Yes, I 've seen the item, here is the question though: I think the Ireland set is for facelift cars.
And afaik the rear is the same, but I already fitted the adjustable 19mm I ordered from Jeroen. But I heard varying opinions concerning the compatibility of the front arb (between pre facelift and post facelift cars).
So I would like to hear from someone who is 100% sure before I order a front one

[petroscf]

If you visit the iemotorsport site, at the page where the ST arbs set is figured, there is a note saying: "Fits E21s made 10/1978 and after"

So this is why I am not so sure. Ok 10/1978 is a date before facelift, but still my car is from 1977

[uwbuurman]

Ah oke, I am sorry, for the rear ther should be no problem, I think, but the front is different. In that case you'll need to swap the whole lot, trailarms, shocks, subframe.