Swap Geniuses, I need your help!

[PrimeTimeSlime]

Ok, got it all together and went for a ride. Holy hell what a difference! I have wanted to do this for a year and a half. Really a good feeling.

Just a couple other loose ends. We swapped the steering columns since the key barrel on the ti was shot and at the time we were not planning on reflashing the dme. We also swapped the steering rack since the ti rack was on it's way out.

Now the steering wheel has a terrible clunking noise when you turn it. It is really unsettling but the car steers ok. Not sure if it is the rack or the column. I will have to investigate because it is way to bad for me to live with.

The idle is kind of lopey and erratic and I have a CEL. Going to troubleshoot this week.

Also, putting the 328 exhaust in there was not as straitforward as I thought and it looks kind of goofy. It is way too big to fit in there and the tips stick out too far and are at a funny angle. I am planning to buy a magnaflow once my wallet recovers a little.

New Yoko's going on tonight and renewing my expired tag tomorrow.

[Philly]

Congrats man! glad to hear you got it going!

Not sure what to tell ya about the steering clunk without seeing the car. As for the CEL, did you install the secondary airpump? If not, you either need to simulate it or live with the CEL. My best guess for the idle is you need to adjust your throttle cable abit, if you just threw it in off the other car, it could need some simple adjustments. If its closed too much, it could cause it to idle erratic.

For the exhaust, yeah it must stick out a mile if you bolted up the full setup. An exhaust shop could take care of that pretty quickly. A couple cuts on the centersection, a couple bell flares on the catback portion and a couple C-clamps then a torch to get it nice and hot, bend into place to correct the funny angle and your in business!

[slow_ti]

Congrats! All swaps have little loose ends here and there. It'll work out

[PrimeTimeSlime]

Originally Posted by Philly

For the exhaust, yeah it must stick out a mile if you bolted up the full setup. An exhaust shop could take care of that pretty quickly. A couple cuts on the centersection, a couple bell flares on the catback portion and a couple C-clamps then a torch to get it nice and hot, bend into place to correct the funny angle and your in business!

Haha, no that would be completely ridiculous.

We cut the pipe about 8" and had it welded at Meineke. It's just that the muffler itself is so huge, the tips poke out an inch or two to far. Nothing too crazy, just not as clean as I would like.

I am pretty sure the CEL is because the O2 sensor was not reconnected. It is connected now but I think I need to disconnect the battery to reset it. We do have the secondary pump in (Needs a bracket since the battery took it's place under the hood).

Thanks for the throttle tip. I never would have looked there. I'll let you know if that is the problem.

[Philly]

Not entirely ridiculous, it works all the same and then it can still be pulled apart for service instead of having one giant header-back peice. You could put fancy flanges on it to be "proper" but any method works so long as it doesn't leak! A $1 C-clamp has been holding my sections together for years now and since I had my Stromung y-piped, it was obviously crooked as all hell when we bolted it back up, so we just torched it to get it hot while it was on the car and bent it little by little til is sat perfect in the cutout. Nothing ridiculous about it

but yeah, if the o2 sensors are not fuctioning - that could also contribute to an erratic idle but the throttle cable should still be adjusted abit to your car anyways.

[PrimeTimeSlime]

Yea, I was just imagining a foot of muffler hanging out the back! lol.

O2 going to connect the O2 sensors as soon as I can get back to my buddies shop. I'll check the throttle cable too. In the meantime, I need to figure out what the heck is up with the steering wheel. I think the slip ring is messed up since it makes a serious clunking noise when you turn the wheel.

[PrimeTimeSlime]

Arg! still trying to pin down this steering problem. It is not the slip ring.

It feels like the U-joint is at too great of an angle and is binding up when I turn the wheel, making a clunk clunk noise.

I think I mentioned earlier that we replaced the rack with the one from the 328is because the 318ti rack wouldn't fit with the new engine. I always thought they were the exact same but I guess they must be different. We also replaced the steering column, and when I compared them, they appeared to be the same length. Does anyone know if the 328is' column is slightly longer?

I am going to have it up on the lift again this afternoon so I am hoping it may be just some minor adjustment. Anyone had this problem before?

[vishal25pm]

for the steering, i know that chevys had this problem a few years ago. from the bottom of the steering column, the shaft that connects from there to the rack with a bendable joint and was collapsible would go back.. causing this clunking noise everytime the wheel was moved or changed direction. also, if that bolt is loose then it would also cause some play to cause a thump..
my guess would be to look into that, if you have the old one then maybe try swapping that one back in, leaving the column and rack the same. hope that helps..

[dahamler]

You need to replace the u-joint. This happened to me twice.

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by vishal25pm

for the steering, i know that chevys had this problem a few years ago. from the bottom of the steering column, the shaft that connects from there to the rack with a bendable joint and was collapsible would go back.. causing this clunking noise everytime the wheel was moved or changed direction. also, if that bolt is loose then it would also cause some play to cause a thump..
my guess would be to look into that, if you have the old one then maybe try swapping that one back in, leaving the column and rack the same. hope that helps..

Did you ever find out what was under the carpet in your car?

[lazerr]

rather than replacing the ujoint try and spray some lube in there. I found that the ujoint stiffens up when it sits for awhile. I sprayed in pj blaster and turned the wheel a bit and sprayed some more. It cleared right up. Then oil or lite grease it good. Very common issue

[lazerr]

The ujoint that is right at the firewall is the one.

[lazerr]

I do think I remember a prev ious post where the racks are a bit different and some sort of spacer work is needed. You might want to search...

[PrimeTimeSlime]

A couple of updates:

The steering problem turned out to be the column locking mechanism. We managed to screw up both columns when we were trying to swap the ignition assemblies. Got a new column from a junk yard and it feels great.

Also, I fixed the rough idle. There was a vacuum hose disconnected that had gone to a little valve by the MAF that has something to do with the emissions system. Eventually I will reconnect all that stuff but for now, I just plugged it and it runs great.

With all that done, there is one thing left to fix. The clutch.

My brilliant friend decided it would be a good idea to try to do a burn out while holding the brakes and roasted my brand new clutch It drives ok, but it judders terribly when releasing the clutch pedal from stop or when downshifting. I am pretty sure the throwout bearing or pilot bearing got destroyed as well since it now make a terrible noise if it is in gear with the clutch in. I also need to get a hold of a pressure bleeder because I don't think we got all of the air out of the system since it can be difficult to shift into 1st, even with the pedal to the floor. As soon as I get some money again I am going to buy a super clutch kit from pelican and replace all of the little clutch parts. Also need to replace the shifter bushings since we forgot do it before we installed it (had the parts and everything )

There are still plenty of other little details to take care of but it is finally roadworthy again!

[vishal25pm]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Did you ever find out what was under the carpet in your car?

when i ended up back down there i tore apart that whole passenger side, and nothing lol, i was curious myself to see what was down there.

hopefully i can get my car up here and then i can go for a drive with the OP since we are in the same city and all