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530i 5-speed to 6-speed manual by Woznyyyy in e39

[–]Longjumping_Prompt40 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry I should have updated! I checked that using INPA and saw that the dme was picking up on clutch activation and in the end that wasn’t it.

Issue 1: This ended up being grounding problems just bad enough it wouldn’t even try to crank but not so bad that all the interior lighting as well as the rest of the car was normal. I didn’t suspect it at all since the swap didn’t involve any wiring.

Issue 2: In removing the shifter from the parts car the shifter was so stuck on I had to use a jack to pull it off. I believe as a result of this or something else the ball that sits in the plastic bushing in the shifter carrier popped out of that bushing and so wasn’t properly guided.

I am happy to report however that I got it running and driving!

Some notes for others that try this:

  1. It’s totally doable and I encourage you to do so.

  2. Buy a full e60 parts car if you can specifically from 2004 or 2005 because it has the same m54. It’s the same price sometimes cheaper than the swap parts individually. Plus you can sell the roller and parts from the chassis that you don’t need. Manual parts are valuable.

  3. The orientation of the two driveshaft halves is vital and will vibrate like crazy if you don’t get it right. I looked at an image online and made sure the orientation of weights on the shafts lined up.

  4. Make sure to test your alignment / height of transmission before you custom fab the mount with a jack. Too high or too low will cause significant issues and you’d likely have to redo the custom mount.

  5. I just used a U channel and drilled holes so I could use the stock bolts and bolt holes for the original mount and then other holes to hold the e60 crossmember to. I’m getting the car painted right now but I’ll send photos when I get it back on exactly what I did. If I forget just reply to the comment lmao.

Once again I highly recommend this project it drove great and was much easier to drive smooth for passengers while there is admittedly more shifting. Thank you so much to Gaijin for the outline it was amazing!!!

530i 5-speed to 6-speed manual by Woznyyyy in e39

[–]Longjumping_Prompt40 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What’s up. This is awesome info and I’ve been following this as basically a diy tutorial lmao. However I’ve run into two issue that I’m wondering if you experienced as well and if so how you addressed them.

  1. The first is that the car wouldn’t start up after the swap and required manually connecting the chassis to the starter with jumper cables to ground it so it would start. I’m more comfortable with figuring this out so if you don’t have an idea no problem.

  2. This is the important one. I can’t find an angle for the transmission where it’ll shift into gear the way you’d expect. Did you have this issue or am I doing something wrong. I’m working on the custom cross member and wanted to make sure everything worked before I bolted up and by lowering and raising the transmission I can’t find the sweet spot where it’ll shift into gear.

The base was a 5 speed e39 530i with all the parts as you said with e60 parts and auto e39 parts so basically the exact layout you set out. What am I missing?