733i Miscellaneous difficulties (archive)

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Greetings all! I must say I have read quite a bit on this board and am impressed with the dedication and clarity shown by one and all.

I have a 84 733i which I've slowly tried to bring back into shape. There's a few problems I need help with. I have tried to research as much as I can on the archives before asking, so if I ask something obvious, berar with me, I am not trying to be redundant.

1. Temperature gauge. Doesn't move, but if I hit the guage cluster or the top of the dash, it will jump and seems to register for a while before returning to its origin.

2. HVAC. Replaced the vacuum pump and wheel controls. Now, ac/heat/defrost seems to work, accept the pushbutton controls are erratic. Most of the time the ac (dash vents) will run if no buttons are pushed in. Defrost always works. Pressing any of the other buttons results in a series of clicks and the whole system either shuts down or goes back to defrost. The only way to get the dash vents to work again is to bush buttons and finally leave them all in the released position.

3. The drivers side floor is wet. I am in the proces of replacing the water pump. (Rather large amount of fluid lost) is there any way that may have caused the dampness? It seemed to get wetter even if the vehicle just sat.

4. Valve adjustment. Can anyone point me to a detailed description of how to complete this task?

5. Ride. the car rides pretty rough. Seemed smoother when I first got it. What's the difficulty level for replacing shocks?

6. Also, the center track rod and the left and right tie rod assemblies - any hints/thought? Can the rubber be replaced in these or should everything be replaced?

Anyway, Sorry this got to be a long one. Took me quite a while to get the water pump off my car last night, there was no 32mm bolt, and the 13mm turned out to be .5in. : ) I am glad I love the car, or I would get frustrated...

Just for reference, the picture is of the old water pump, and the other style, which I gather from previous posts, BMW randomly put on their vehicles.

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