BMW e23 build

[Thingsandstuff]

That thing looks awesome!! Can't wait to see morrreeee. - Subscribed.

[B Rod]

im gonna be down in sj soon. gotta pick up some goods coming in through greyhound shipping i'll hit you up man.

When is this "down in sj soon" happening?

Oh, and by the way. I'm sure you've noticed this. But, you sir, are doing WORK! Love it.

[Rdn86lude]

Shit! This is insane. I own an 86 e23. Your doing everything I want to do to mine. Jealous

[Chuckdee]

gangster build! what do you have planned for the car entirely?

[Zack01GC]

Bump for more laid out pics. Makes me miss my E23 obscenely.

[Marsss]

love it!

[NegativeCamber]

no new shots of the car yet, as I've been busy with other things, but here are some of the things I'm working on.

i have all the parts for a 5 speed swap.




electric fan upgrade

[DannyE32]

sweet .. keep it up

[p4ddy]

badass 7er

[MikeG]

Oh DAMN this could be good. I love E23s

[jacbo]

How did I miss this?! Awesome build.

Can't wait to see the wheel choice.

[rossrz]

keep going please. so my girlfriend and I don't have to rent a movie. we find this build is very intriguing.

[WideFive]

i think i need to cop the 735i like this one that's for sale locally now....and do this haha

[NegativeCamber]

So the stock alternator had worn out brushes and was taking a pounding with my two compressors running for the suspension. The stock '83 alternator was a weak 90A, so I decided it was time to upgrade with a larger unit. The cheapest way to get there is to use a stock 140A BMW e32 unit. Rebuilt ones can run under 100 dollars, so there is much bang for your buck. Here is how I made it work.


First remove the top nut so that you can slide out the adjustment bolt.



Lower the fan shroud so that you will be able to pull the lower alternator bolt out. You will also need to remove the oil filter housing, since it will be in the way when you install the new lower alternator bolt.






On the e32 alternator, you can see that the mounting points on the housing are much further apart than the e23 unit.



A 5.5" long M8 bolt should do, but I couldn't find one of that length, so a 6" long 5/16" bolt would do as well. You will need to fill that gap with spacers.




After measuring how long the spacer needed to be, I taped up the washers so that its easier to handle. Jiggling that lower bolt in from up top can be tricky. You will need to insert the lower bolt starting from the oil filter side, as the new bolt is too long to be inserted from the radiator side.






Once that is in place, a couple of washers are needed to space out the top adjustment bolt as it may be a tad long. You will need to crimp a new larger wire ring terminal for the D+ post, as its a bit too small. You can see here that its necessary to remove the oil filter housing in order to access inserting and tightening the lower bolt. I will later install an elbow for the alternator's air flow port.

[budski]

awesome, saw one of these at the junkyard yesterday and was strangely attracted to it.