My car 318 76 model converting to 323i

[Jeroen]

Regular tail lights only have a single bulb on, this sounds as if the fog lights are also connected. Values are marked on the silver housing, regular is 10W, fogs and brakes are 21W.

[Atle_323i]

Vacation is over....

I´ve fixed the thread, so that I can install the damper. I ordered a M48 1,5 thread tap on Ebay from China, for about 90 euro, a cheap fix.

Front strut is installed, hub and brakes also.
The height on the car was also checked, it´s abit low, I can´t rise it anymore than it is now. MTS says I need 5,5cm of threads into the spindel, which makes me wonder how this MTS is going to lower from 20 to 90mm, when you have 4,5cm of threads.
I´m not very happy with the MTS coilover kit, so I have ordered a BC, which I will install during this winter. BC offers more setup options, like damper stiffness, and proper coilover in the rear not just spring compression.

Still a few things left, but getting closer to the finish line.

[Atle_323i]

Finally the time has come to do a startup of the engine.
We checked the timing, installed the distributor, connected fuel lines to injectors.
Tested the fuel pump, found a leak, which I had to fix. Had to take down the pump unit, and tighten everything again. All good finally...

I thought we were all good, but no. When I turn the ignition on, the ballast resistor goes glowing hot.
So I had to abort everything before cranking the engine.

I have to figure out why it goes glowing hot, don't know why yet, but something is grounding the circuit.







Adjusting the fuel distributor to basic settings.

[Jeroen]

so close! and such a lovely clean engine bay

[Atle_323i]

so close! and such a lovely clean engine bay

Yeah, very clean for now. But it won´t last long when I get the car out of the garage

[Atle_323i]

I´ve done some checking around the ballast resistor going red hot. I´ve found out that the solenoid on the starter has 1 connection for activating the solenoid, and 1 that has 12V output when cranking the engine.

But why does the solenoid meassure ohm on both the contact set? The contact set for 12V output when cranking should be endless high, because it is a mechanical switch, and the solenoid contact should have ohm, as this is a resistor coil that get magnetized when given 12V.

Connection 50 and 16, has ohm to ground.



Is the solenoid faulty, or is this ok?
My old starter has only ohm on the solenoid contact and endless high on the other, which makes sense.

I´ve ordered a new Bosch starter from a dealer in Norway to see if the starter I have is faulty. The "old" new is a Eurotec starter, not sure if that brand is crappy or what.

Time will tell.....

[BertjeConti]

There is one wire in your schematic which makes no sense, thats the wire going from the coil directly to the starter solenoid.
I've checked other schematics, where this connection isn't present.
Only 1 wire goes from the starter solenoid to the common connection of the ballast resistor.
When cranking the ballast resistance is reduced from 1ohm to 0.6 ohm.

When the starter solenoid is faulty and the ballast resistor connection is grounded, then your resistor will go verry hot.

I should say, disconnect the ballast resistor wire from the starter solenoid and try again.

[Atle_323i]

There is one wire in your schematic which makes no sense, thats the wire going from the coil directly to the starter solenoid.
I've checked other schematics, where this connection isn't present.
Only 1 wire goes from the starter solenoid to the common connection of the ballast resistor.
When cranking the ballast resistance is reduced from 1ohm to 0.6 ohm.

When the starter solenoid is faulty and the ballast resistor connection is grounded, then your resistor will go verry hot.

I should say, disconnect the ballast resistor wire from the starter solenoid and try again.

Could you send that schematic to me, so that I can have a look at it? Message me for mail if you can mail it to me?

[Atle_323i]

There is one wire in your schematic which makes no sense, thats the wire going from the coil directly to the starter solenoid.
I've checked other schematics, where this connection isn't present.
Only 1 wire goes from the starter solenoid to the common connection of the ballast resistor.
When cranking the ballast resistance is reduced from 1ohm to 0.6 ohm.

When the starter solenoid is faulty and the ballast resistor connection is grounded, then your resistor will go verry hot.

I should say, disconnect the ballast resistor wire from the starter solenoid and try again.

I've been thinking about what you have written. My wire harness is from preface, and from pictures I've found from the donor car, the ballast resistor has the same connection in my "new" car. So I can't see why I should need to do anything else than connect it as the schematic is showing.
If I remove the wire from solenoid to coil, there will still be a closed circuit from the common connection at the resistor to solenoid, as the contact point on the solenoid is grounded with a resistance about 1.3ohm. So when I turn on ignition, the wire 294 from transistor box, gives 12V, meaning the 0.4 resistor on ballast will be in seriell with the solenoid contact point, which leads to ground. This circuit gives a total of about 1,8ohm, and 12V gives about 6.6Amps, this will make the ballast go glowing red.
The main problem is that the contact 16 on solenoid should not go to ground, as this is suppose to give 12V output when cranking.
I'm not sure how the facelift model is wired, as this has another transistor controller, maybe facelift model is connected like you're telling?

I tried google wire schematic transitoriez ignition k-jet, I found a schematic for the E9, it has the same wire setup as E21, except that E9 does not have a wire from solenoid to coil. But I´m not sure that the wire goes directly to coil as shown from the E21 schematic I´ve posted above. I will have a look at this on sunday...

E9 schematic for transitorized ignition.
https://e9coupe.com/forum/threads/help- ... 176/page-2

[BertjeConti]

You're totaly right, contact 16 on the starter solenoid should have high resisance when the starter is not activated, and not shorted to ground.
The E9 schematic is correct.

[Atle_323i]

You're totaly right, contact 16 on the starter solenoid should have high resisance when the starter is not activated, and not shorted to ground.
The E9 schematic is correct.

The new starter I bought is the same on contact 16, it grounds. So all the new starter is not like the old one I have.
I took a relay which gives 12V out to the common contact on the ballast, from the starter, so it will work as my old starter does. The relay goes live when cranking voltage is 12V.
But I haven´t been able to make the engine start. I meassure about 6V at the Coil when cranking, using the ballast resistor. I assume that is abit low voltage or is it ok?
When I look at the spark plug, the spark seems weak.
Not sure what I need to look for, further.
The fuel is at 5bar from the pump, when cranking. So the fuel should be ok into the fuel distributor.

I noticed that the dealer in Norway has 1000ohm rotor for the the distributor. Is that the correct version? There is also a 5000ohm

I meassured the ohm over the coil + and -, and i get about 1,5ohm. Is this the correct ohm? The coil is new, I bought it way back ago, because the old one, was cracked.

[Jeroen]

Perhaps Koos uwbuurman can shed some light here as well, he ran into issues with these early coils with ignition resistor. If I remember correctly, very early models had the resistor and this was combined with a coil with an operating voltage of around 9V, which is what should result from the original 12V after the ballast resistor. Later coils do not use the ballast resistor anymore and work on 12V straight. But you cannot use a later coil as then it is underpowered and you get a weak spark.

The rotor version depends on what type of spark plug cable set you have (1K or 5K plug connectors). Both rotors will work anyway, you may only be limited in the max revs. It is correct that you hardly have any resistance in the rotor itself.

Fuel pump should indeed deliver approx 5 Bar.

[Atle_323i]

Today I continued to try to figure out what is wrong, why the car won´t start.

Well, one of the reason is that there is no vacuum when cranking, so the baffle on the air intake won´t rise, which makes no fuel go to injectors.
When I manually lift the baffle, I get fuel out of injector. So fuel is all good, 5 bar from pump. And the fuel accumulator seems to hold pressure at 1.8bar when I stop cranking, no drop in pressure for at least 30 mins+

I do have spark, but my friend says it looks weak.

So now I need to figure out where the engine is taking in air, beacuse it doesn´t go through the throttle body.
Anyone got an idea where it could be? I have checked all the old EGR vacuum inlets on the manifold.

We have checked the cylinder compression, which is 10 bar, checked cyl 1,2 and 3, so all good.

I also discovered that I got condense water in the fuel, which makes start harder, so I need to sort that out, but that is a quick fix

[uwbuurman]

So on the sparkside of things, like Jeroen says, I have encountered the same kind of problems. The older 323i (type 1(ish) ) have the coil Bosch, ending in 010 numbers. Those work with the balastresistor. The resistor drops the voltage to about 9volts, and the coil sparks things up. The newer, later type 2's dont have the resistor, hensce the coil drops the voltage to about 9 volts.

Now if you go and mix the newer coil with the transistor, then you'll end up with to low a voltage on the sparks. Since both coil and resistor cuts down the voltage. So in that case youxlll have a weak spark.

I see that pink fluidreservoir, I take it that that is not filled up to the cap?

Is that big black cap on the air baffle all solid? No cracks in the rubber? No holes?

Working fuelpump relais?

[Atle_323i]

So on the sparkside of things, like Jeroen says, I have encountered the same kind of problems. The older 323i (type 1(ish) ) have the coil Bosch, ending in 010 numbers. Those work with the balastresistor. The resistor drops the voltage to about 9volts, and the coil sparks things up. The newer, later type 2's dont have the resistor, hensce the coil drops the voltage to about 9 volts.

Now if you go and mix the newer coil with the transistor, then you'll end up with to low a voltage on the sparks. Since both coil and resistor cuts down the voltage. So in that case youxlll have a weak spark.

I see that pink fluidreservoir, I take it that that is not filled up to the cap?

Is that big black cap on the air baffle all solid? No cracks in the rubber? No holes?

Working fuelpump relais?

Regarding the coil, I bought this one. The part number is Bosch number, and when I look at the online ETK the part number for coil up to 1980 model is 12131363629, that number is the same part as the Bosch number when I check with online BMW part seller. But I don´t thrust part sellers, they could be wrong... I also look at the coil on Wallot web, the pictures is identical to mine, and same stickers as mine...


There is no coolant on the engine yet, will fill it up once the engine is starting. I for sure could fill up the coolant, but that should no be the issue regarding no vaccum.
The black cap on the air baffle is brand new, bought a few years ago. But there is no suction when holding hand on the throttle body, which is strange.
I just don´t get it.....