Ownership Verified: I've jumped the shark(nose)! 1986 BMW 735i

True. That is a valid enough reason. My E32 happened because I was looking for E24s and it was in wrong category on mobile.de :D

The E23 happened because I was looking for pre-99 BMWs with large enough engines (>2.8l) and manual gearboxes on mobile.de, mainly to find nice E36 328i Tourings. I then got distracted by a Dutch E23 on mobile.de, which got sold two days before I called the seller. After that I just couldn't get 7ers out of my head, started looking for them in earnest, found this in .nl, and after two weeks of doubting gave the seller a call. Two days later it was mine.
 
Had it up on a lift yesterday, and it's all good news from there. The car looks wonderful from the underside. Still a good layer of underseal, and besides from some surface rust on a few components, no rust to be seen. The diff is dry and has hardly any play to it. The steering box, however feels like the balls are quite worn, and is one of the parts that need attention. The strut mounts also need attention, at least the driver's side one sounds quite broken. Another issue that popped up in the wonderful weather of the past few days is how the roof isn't completely watertight. With the amount of water that's fallen from the heavens, the leaks are pretty minor but still there. At least the roof panel was one of the first fixes on my list anyway.
 
:thumbsup:
 
That's a neat find with great engine and proper gearbox. :cool: But i demand you to find rubberbands for thoose wipers!


Forget modern air suspension and what have you, this is what gets you comfort.

Veleeeeeeuuurrrr, moncher!

That interior reminded me of swamp seats in my '79 244GL. You sit, you wait and you slowly go down. ...deep.

You guys with your compact cars... :p

ROFL, someone rep this admiral Injector for me :lol:
 
This morning I decided to see what's what with the instrument cluster.
2016-06-08%2008.50.13.jpg


Turns out, one of the cables between the main board (the one with the fuel gauge and temp gauge) and the Service Indicator board (the one with the two batteries and the ribbon cable sticking out) wasn't connected. After putting everything back together:

2016-06-08%2010.06.12.jpg


RESULT! I now have a working Service Indicator.

Couldn't test the speedo yet, since the battery is dead, and my Anker starter battery is due to be delivered in a couple hours.
 
Sooo...

(One of) the previous owner just disconnected the cable so the pesky Service Indicator came on? :p
 
Don't know. Sadly, the speedo isn't working yet, but since everything in the binnacle looks good, I'm chasing other potential culprits first (like diff sender unit and the cable from there to the binnacle). FPO also installed the rear headrests wrong (the were just hanging loose, not in the mounts that are bolted to the rear bulkhead. Fixed that too.
 
One of the greatest joys and pains at the same time when buying a car of a certain age is trying to understand why the POs did what they did :D
 
Why and what the 17 previous owners did. :p
 
Why and what the 17 previous owners did. :p

According to the registration office, there were only 7 :p

And yes. With every strange situation you wonder if there was a valid reason for that decision.
 
And yes. With every strange situation you wonder if there was a valid reason for that decision.
Reasons that normally fall into one of two categories, "Oh alright, I get it." Or "Goddamned motherfucking idiots."

Car looks great man, looks like a really nice cruiser.
 
Well, it survived ringmeet, got driven by some people, drove a lot more people around the Eifel. Sadly, I didn't deem it ready for the rigors of the N?rburgring just yet, but it did perform a lot better than I anticipated, and it felt right at home in the twisties. As with the E36, there's a soft layer of comfort on the surface, but when pushed, the car responds beautifully, and gets into its groove.

In the past months I've had far less tim than I had hoped to tackle stuff on the car, but I did find a few new issues. The front of the engine is quite wet, and it drinks coolant like a mofo (about 2l per 100km), so I guess the waterpump or thermostat housing is leaking (even with an engine bay this big, I cannot see enough of the front of the engine to see where it's coming from). Also, the cluth appears to be leaking from somewhere, my guess is slave cylinder. The rate of leaking isn't enough to be annoying, so that's down the list of stuff I need to fix. Front suspension needs new shocks and new strut mounts, which will be the first job I tackle. Then there's the alternator and battery, which are both in a sorry state, requiring me to grab the Anker for every start of the car, which is okay if you need it once a week for a 10km drive to the train station and back. But it gets annoying if you want to use it more than that, so those will need fixing as well. And lastly, the issue of the non working speedo, I suspect it's the SI board, but I cannot rule out the diff plug, which is a cheap enough part to change out anyway. If only it wasn't held on by rusty bolts on the lower rear of the diff housing....
 
Thanks for the opportunity. It was quite fun to ride and drive.
 
I need a list of parts that you need from that burgundy e23 735i that was crashed by a tree.
 
[video=youtube;-jNiv1EkLNY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jNiv1EkLNY[/video]

Took the car out for a short drive today, and decided to finally test the cam I got from work as a christmas gift.
 
:thumbsup:
 
I like how tight the road at 5:45 is. It's so tight that even with a Corsa you had to back up.
 
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