by "Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
Published 09/04/2017 at 20:12
by "Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
Published 09/04/2017 at 20:12
Tags: $950MiataProject
STARS: 4
...new clutch! Got this bastard out today. Its coated in oil and grime. I hope getting it out was the hard part...
The downpipe wasn’t as hard to remove as I thought it would be. Just awkward. The top nut can be accessed through the drivers side wheel well. If I had known that, I would have pulled the wheel off before lifting the car.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
09/04/2017 at 20:45, STARS: 1
Oh shit yeah I forgot to tell you that part lol. I remember struggling with that shit for like a half hour until I took the wheel off. Jacking up the car while it was up on a lift was sketchy but gotta do what you gotta do.
"yamahog" (yamahog)
09/04/2017 at 21:55, STARS: 0
fyi -
“tranny” is a slur against trans people, please don’t use it, not even for transmission puns, if you’re not part of the trans community (and if you are you’re probably familiar with the debates around reclaiming it).
"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
09/04/2017 at 22:08, STARS: 0
I refuse to even think about removing the trans right now, even though I’m almost certain it will be in the near future of my NA. I need to start up the very overdue project log for mine.
I figured out literally the dumbest reason why my lights weren’t doing the pop up thing, and it was because someone previously had the center console apart and didn’t reconnect the headlight/hazard switch. The hazards didn’t work, which tipped me off, but it wasn’t quite as easy as I’d hoped to get it apart. Once I popped off the center console bezel, I plugged the connector in, and my one headlight that was up immediately dropped. Honestly, having functional NA headlights was more important to me than much else. I certainly have my priorities straight...
Also learned that I need to look closer at the things I buy, because I nearly bought a seat rail after blindly listening to the seller, only to realize today (after pulling the seat out to get under the dash to find relays and fuses for the lights) that the seat bracket is there, it just doesn’t have a single bolt. At least I can pop one out from the passenger seat and get four new bolts and make racecar noises by tomorrow night. I also need a thread chaser kit. Among other random tools I need to spend lots of money on.
Anyway, today my little NA got the front lower control arms cut off. Those little shits took way more effort than necessary to get apart, but they’re finally off. Next I need to make the endless list of things I need to buy to start putting it back together. Also need to get the rest of the Koni setup and some random bits.
Never buy a car that drove in any Maine winters unless you personally serviced it and know it will come apart.
"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/04/2017 at 23:18, STARS: 0
I’m quite aware of the word and its usage in the trans community. The rule I use is: would my trans friends find this funny coming from me? If yes, go for it. If not, don’t. It’s all subjective but not worth a debate here.
"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/04/2017 at 23:19, STARS: 0
Yeah, I was able to do it without taking the wheel off but it was tricky!
"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/04/2017 at 23:23, STARS: 0
Haha. You’re doing roughly the same stuff that I did on a far more rusted car. My only issue is the 50k+ miles the previous owner drove with oil leaks. Seriously, the sludge is thick with this one. I’ve gone through 4 cans of brake clean on the trans alone and its not nearly clean. So. Much. Sludge.
"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
09/05/2017 at 00:08, STARS: 1
Mine has no leaks, but looking at the oil pan area shows a really sloppy mess. The plan is to clean up a lot of it after I get it running and driving so that if it does start to leak, I know what I’m up against. The good part about this particular car is that it’s manual everything, so there’s very little that can go wrong.
Manual steering, manual windows, manual top, manual locks, manual trans. Honestly, I think the only “features” it has are the radio and starter motor. Heat is kind of a given on modern cars, but it has that too...I’ll be getting my to-do list sorted out tomorrow, ordering things later this week, and then starting to piece it back together. I tested the fuel pump when I messed with the headlights, and it seems to come on and make noise, so I’m going to swap the fuel filter, test for fuel pressure and drain the tank. I’m going to get a little bit of gas in it to see if it runs, and then it’ll be off to the DMV to sort out the rest of the battle with it.
I’m not even going to attempt to align the front fenders until I know I have everything running. Mostly because I don’t want to mess them up....
"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/05/2017 at 01:05, STARS: 0
Fantastic. Only difference from mine would be that I have power steering. Do you have a torsen?
"yamahog" (yamahog)
09/05/2017 at 08:14, STARS: 1
The rule we use here is “be excellent to each other,” so don’t use slurs. It’s not a debate.
"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
09/05/2017 at 10:32, STARS: 0
I do not. In the future, I will probably swap one in. Oddly enough, it’s my only car that doesn’t have a limited slip. From what I’ve gathered, getting a factory car with manual steering and the torsen was extremely rare (according to the sales guy I spoke to at the local Mazda dealer that’s on his sixth Miata).
In the future, I’ll likely also look to do a 6 speed swap, mostly because I tend to do long drives, and having that little extra gearing never hurts.
I’ll be checking the gas tank today, strapping the radiator back in after I try to break free a few more bolts, and running to good old Home Depot for some bits and pieces that I’ll surely still need. Part of the battle is seeing what I do and don’t need and what I can slightly modify to make the car a little simpler, like the radiator hose setup (which is stupid).
Then I just need to figure out what the plan is with the control arms. Looking at pricing, I could just as easily burn out most of the bushings and get a poly kit instead of ordering new control arms. Still deciding what the cheapest route will be to get it back on the road. At the very least, there is one control arm that requires replacement because we had to cut it apart to get it out of the car. I’ll take an extra week of waiting for parts if it means I save a good enough amount of change getting this thing going again.
"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/05/2017 at 12:52, STARS: 0
No torsen here either. I will probably swap once I get the body off to do the exocet build.
That bit about depowered+torsen makes a lot of sense. I think the R-package was the only one that really came that way.
I hear a lot about missed gears on the 6-speed. I can see it making sense for highway miles though.
I haven’t done the coolant re-route yet (or much of anything to the motor really). It does need a coolant drain though. It’s definitely gone sour.
My recommendation: buy the control arm assembly. It’s slightly more expensive than bushings but you will save a ton of time. I put poly bushings in the rear and it was 5x longer than swapping to new control arms in the front. There was a little surface rust on the rear control arms, so obviously I did the rust converter and repaint for them as well. Plus, the two piece poly bushings (apparently) require some additional hardware that they don’t send (washers to keep them from walking away on you).
"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
09/05/2017 at 23:04, STARS: 0
That’s where I get confused. So I’ve got the whole car apart, so I can see what’s going on, and how would these bushings walk away? At least on my NA, there are flanges off the frame that totally cover the bushings on both sides. I’m going to need to buy a full set of the camber bolts for alignment, but the bushings shouldn’t be able to walk at all. My Magnum has poly bushings underneath (literally every bushing from the chassis down), and some of those have been an issue because it’s not fully covered.
I’m all for just biting the bullet and doing the control arms, but I’m having trouble finding the rear control arms new for a reasonable price, which is why now I’m looking at the full bushing kit. I only “need” to buy a single front control arm, and swap the bushings out of everything. Saves me lots of change because the bushings are something I would likely go back for anyway, so doing it now saves me the pain of taking the car totally apart again down the road.
Right now, I’m just looking at the necessities for what can get the car running again, and I’m around $600 in parts to order. Still looking for ways to cut that number down some more....
Correct on the R Package, that’s how it was explained to me. The car would have AC but manual steering. Truly an odd combination.
"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/05/2017 at 23:27, STARS: 0
Here’s a picture of my rear lower - you can see it trying to sneak away since there isn’t a flange (NA6 stock lower rear):
The stock bushings are 1 piece and have a metal flange baked in. The Energy 2 piece don’t, so you need to add a washer to keep this from happening.
I did new control arms in the front and just bushings in the rear. Like you said - rear was pricey or not available.
Yeah that R-Package was interesting. It’s not rare in the 1 of x rare, but rare in a “they made a TON of Miatas and only a small percent were R-Package”. To me, no NA is special enough to pay extra for. There was an edition, and I can’t remember the name of it, that was a special edition made specifically for some autocross series. I think I heard about it on the SlipAngle podcast. That might be special enough, but otherwise, the best special NA is actually an ND :)
"JGrabowMSt" (jgrabowmst)
09/06/2017 at 22:30, STARS: 1
Ah yes, the rears. It slipped my mind because the upper bolts in the front have massive washers. I’m likely going to see if I can find the right size washer (or something that may be big enough) to put on the rears when I start getting them together. I think I may just buy the one control arm I need on ebay to cut costs and do as many bushings as I can get to. Tomorrow after work I’m going to start burning out the old bushings so I can make some headway when the poly kit arrives.
Got my seat bolted in today, but it’s been raining all day, and no garage for me, so I couldn’t do much more. There’s a small bit of water on the floor mat, looks like the door seal will need attention, but the rest of the car was nice and dry, so no worries with the soft top.
I’m going to need to chase some threads to get the steering rack installed again, I’ve got 3 out of the four bolts in. I need the control arms back on before I can make a feeble attempt at breaking the axle nuts off, and getting the ball joints free from the knuckles up front....and my landlord lent me a tool that I managed to put down somewhere and can’t find. Shit.