Terry Pitts

This Gear’s for you!

THE BASE Auto Craft Shop had been closed for a few months due to Corona Virus. Today was the first day back open. I had a really productive day working on the car. I planned to work through my list until I got tired or finished. I got it all done:

Oil Change
Coolant drain and fill
New ignition coils
Grounding strap replacement
Transfer case oil change
Transfer case gear change

The transfer case gear was the biggest “win” of the day, but first a few thoughts/tips about the others…

Foxwell Code Reader — My new toy, a Foxwell scanner, showing codes for misfires in cylinders 2 and 5.

I try to change the oil every 3,000 miles (5,000 km), but I don’t mind if I go over. Maybe every second oil change I’ll use one of the engine flush treatments (Gunk, Wynn’s, or transmission fluid). Not sure what all it does, but I’ve never had a problem. I open the oil fill cap and the oil filter housing before draining the oil so there’s no vacuum slowing things down. Whenever possible I like to have something else to work on so I don’t get bored waiting for the last drops to drain! I usually get Mann filters from eEuroparts.com.

The transfer case uses a specialty lubricant. The first time I did this I bought it from the local dealer because I needed it the next day. I got an aftermarket version on Amazon by planning in advance this time! Two tips for this job. One, remove the fill bolt before the drain. It would stink to have drained the lubricant but not be able to replace it. Two, online you’ll often read “refill until it leaks out of the fill hole.” This is incorrect. The maintenance manual requires 750ml that I put in with a small pump, pump, pump, pump… The oil comes in 1 liter bottles, so 1/4 of your expensive bottle gets wasted. Oh well.

I removed the big blue plastic screw from the lower left corner of the radiator to drain a good bit of coolant. I’ve never removed the block drain, but I found it and will likely do so next year. Be sure to get the right coolant if you don’t buy it from BMW. BMW’s you mix 1:1 with distilled water. Some of the aftermarket ones are used straight from the bottle. Draining from just the radiator only required about a gallon (four liters) to refill; that’s a bit less than half the system. Put the heater temperature and blower on high while you run the car to bleed. Top off as the level drops. Wait for the heater to be blowing hot air. Check the level the next day to see if more air has worked its way out of the system.

The car had been getting harder to start. I’d turn the key and nothing would happen “for a long time” that was probably just a second or two. AutoZone’s free charging system check told me the alternator was OK, but the regulator might not be. These are classic symptoms of a bad grounding strap. To test, connect the negative terminal under the hood to the engine with a jumper cable. If the car fires right up – like mine did – then it’s definitely a grounding problem.

There are two ground cables, one from the engine to a nearby spot on the chassis and one about half way back connecting the chassis to the exhaust. I used AC Delco cables from Amazon rather than a BMW part. My cable was so corroded that it broke in half while removing it! The car now starts so fast it’s scary. The stereo works better with a good ground, too!

Replacing the coils is pretty straight forward. The boots are shaped to fit into the top of the engine, so take car to align them carefully. I had been having some intermittent misfires on cylinders 2 and 5, and new coils from eEuroparts.com cleared that right up. Nice smooth idle now.

The transfer case gear was an interesting project. A guy on one Facebook group said he spent five hours doing the job, but typically people claim it takes about 90 minutes. There are lots of DIYs online and videos on YouTube. I printed a couple sets of instructions and watched “every” video. Same steps apply to pretty much all the all-wheel drive BMWs as far as I can tell.

I sprayed around the transfer case control motor with a bunch of brake cleaner before removing it, then again after it was off the car. The four reverse torx bolts are awkwardly accessible if you put a universal swivel adapter between the socket and a long extension. I loosened to transfer case support bracket and used a floor stand to support the weight.

BMW has made millions of cars, so it’s not surprising that I have the same issues as others. Still, it was fascinating/rewarding to see I had the exact same mix of grease and abraded plastic gear that others have had.

All of the above work took me five hours plus a bit of time to clean up the work area. I’m fortunate to have access to an Army base’s Auto Craft Shop. This let me put the car up on a lift instead of trying to do it on the floor.

I had a Veepeak code reader that I couldn’t find when I recently needed it, so I treated myself to a Foxwell code reader. This is my fourth “project BMW,” and I think I’m worth it! I cleared all the codes and drove really hard to see if it misfired again or gave more codes for the transfer case. Good to go!

The Foxwell code reader shows lots more things to work on, but these jobs are done and working right. What’s next?

MANY PEOPLE HAVE heard “six degrees of separation” connect us to anyone in the world. I know people in several European countries, people from India, China, and Brazil, so I could connect into some of the largest and most populated regions of the world. Does this really work?

About a year ago I was looking at some of my grandmother’s things I had received when my dad died. One item was a makeup compact with a note written on the mirror saying, “Gift from Ian Ogilvey.” I wondered “Who the heck is Ian Ogilvey? Why did G’mom keep this?” The name sounded vaguely familiar.

Several days later I found the name on my phone. I had written it! Hmm. My dad died in 2013. He had been diagnosed with stage IV esophageal cancer the year before. On one of my trips accompanying him to the cancer center he mentioned a British pilot who had been in flight school with him in Pensacola; they had become good friends, and my dad took Ian home to St. Louis on Christmas leave. (In those early post-war years it was common for British military pilots to train in the US.)

I’m an inveterate google searcher. I wrote down the name with the thought of seeing if Ian were still alive – a mathematical possibility – and maybe connecting them before it was too late. Sadly, my dad died shortly after our conversation.

Jumping forward six years, I realized Ian must have given my grandmother the compact as a Christmas or thank you gift in December 1954. Thirty-nine years later when she died she still had it. Sixty-nine years after that Christmas, my dad still had the compact! Now I was really curious to see if I could find Ian. What a story!

I quickly learned it was too late to contact Ian. He had died in an airplane accident near Australia in 1957. This information came from a “Testing Tornados” I found on google books. The book looked interesting; Ian and author J. David Eagles were in flight school together in – you guessed it – Pensacola!

This is Ian Ogilvey in his flight school yearbook.

David left the Navy and became a civilian test pilot. I was intrigued. I really wanted to contact him. I emailed the Empire Test Pilot School, the publisher of the book, and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He was linked online in one way or another to all three. My contact efforts started with “this is going to sound crazy, but it’s crazy enough to be true…” It worked. All three forwarded my information on to David Eagles.

I learned along the way that in the 50s the US Navy started groups of pilot candidates every few weeks for a year-long course. My dad was in one class and Ian and David started a few weeks later in the next cohort.

David responded to my email. We wrote back and forth several times. David sent me an autographed copy of his book, which I promptly took flying with me and sent him a picture! Late last fall Melissa and I met David and his lovely wife for lunch at a wonderful country pub in England!

My dad knew Ian but not David. The connection was me > my dad > Ian Ogilvey > David Eagles.

Now, here’s where it gets really crazy. Read on if you are still with me.

In 1979 my dad was still stationed in Germany (1975-1980). I decided to visit the US for a while. I flew to Boston, bounced across the country, and flew back from Los Angeles. My seatmates were a German test pilot named Ludwig Obermeier and his wife. They invited me to visit them at home the next time I was in Munich. Some months later on a weekend trip to Munich with some American friends from Tübingen I visited the Obermeyers. Some months later in a random German flying magazine purchase I saw that Ludwig had died in a crash demonstrating a prototype Tornado – a multi-national European jet fighter.

So, who else was a Tornado test pilot? Yes, David Eagles.

The connection was me > Ludwig Obermeier > David Eagles (> Ian Ogilvey > my dad > me). Pretty amazing!

I told my dad once that I try to be on good behavior in public because I often bump into people I know or people who know people who know me. He responded that I should always be on good behavior just because it’s the right thing to do. Just another example of his wisdom that still resonates today.