First Maintenance and Mod performed on the Miata

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 04/24/2019 at 09:50 • Filed to: None

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Today I did some work on the Miata, starting the process of track prepping. First and most essential mod was the Flyin Miata Front Sway bar. It was an easy half hour or so to just put the car on jack stands, take off the stock bar, and mount the bigger, stiffer bar. Then I did my maintenance item for the day, swapping the spark plug wires to try to solve my Cylinder 2 misfire. Everything went back together easily and I later washed the car and drove home. This was also the first wash! So of course I had to stop during the canyon run to take some photos.

Decker road was my test route to make sure the sway bar swap went well. I had taken the same drive the day earlier in order to make a thorough comparison. Here is another time I had been there:

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The difference between stock sway bar and the FM bar was night and day! I felt like going around turns was sketch and unpredictable yesterday. I had to take everything slow just because the body roll was an adventure. Then today with the FM bar, every turn was solid and I could carry way more speed the whole way up the hill. I also observed the difference between the 5spd in this car and the 6spd in the other Miata. Wow what a difference the 5spd is! I can leave the car in 2nd gear much much longer and not have to shift every three seconds. While I don’t mind shifting often since it’s fun to do, it is kind of nice to not run out of gear.

So far so good with the spark plug wires too. The NGK wires are the ONLY part to use on this car. None of the other brands seem to work according to the forums and now I think I’ve seen it first hand. I know I’ve always run with them and even though mine have a solid 20k or 30k on them, they work just fine. I have new ones ordered and on the way, but I had the others in the “parts car” so it’s good for now.

Looking forward to doing some more work tomorrow! New shifter rebuild kit from Miataroadster just arrived along with some new tools!

Hoping to get both cars in the shop tomorrow so that I can swap over the exhaust, do the shifter rebuild, and then start the roll bar removal. It’s gonna take more days to finish that I’ll get there!

AestheticsInMotion > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/24/2019 at 01:07

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Jealous of your wrenches!

I've yet to swap out sparkplugs.... How long are they supposed to last? I've probably put 60k on my Miata 

His Stigness > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/24/2019 at 01:38

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You washed the car so you pulled into the dirt to take a picture.

HEATHAN!

When I just had the Mercedes and TDI and was commuting to work by train and it happened to rain one day, the choice to drive or ride was dependent on how recently I had washed the cars. If they were clean I suffered through the rain. 

Future Heap Owner > AestheticsInMotion 04/24/2019 at 01:50

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Depends on the tip material. Platinum or i ridium can last 80-90k easy.

daender > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/24/2019 at 06:12

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Welcome to 5-speed life! It’s quite nice not having to spend so much time shifting!

Manny05x > daender 04/24/2019 at 07:11

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Im taking my CDL class i can relate, add double clutch, murder prostitute lol.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > His Stigness 04/24/2019 at 09:40

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Lol I didn’t clay and wax so it wasn’t a real clean anyways. Plus it’s gonna get dirty no matter what so I couldn’t care much . I did choose not to do a donut upon leaving for that reason though!  

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Future Heap Owner 04/24/2019 at 09:42

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Miatas run best on copper though and they are so easy to change. With how cheap copper plugs are, you can come out ahead even though you have to change them 2-3 times as often. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > AestheticsInMotion 04/24/2019 at 09:45

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Birthday present from girlfriends parents was an Amazon gift card. Finally went and bought a set of these, looking for to using them! And Idk the window but I usually do them whenever I'm doing something else on the car every 30k or so. 

ateamfan42 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/24/2019 at 10:01

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First and most essential mod was the Flyin Miata Front Sway bar.

Either heavy duty mounts or reinforcing blocks for the stock mounts might be good insurance. The NB front anti-roll bar mounts aren’t super strong and have been known to crack ( particularly with sticky tires).

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > ateamfan42 04/24/2019 at 11:36

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Yeah that is definitely worth doing now that I have a mount that isnt made out of swiss cheese as well. Im surprised I didnt break the ones on the other car considering I had been running with sub 100TW tires for much of my autox and racing. 

MM54 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/24/2019 at 12:29

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The flexy ratcheting wrenches are the bomb, I have a small metric set, need to get a set in SAE.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > MM54 04/24/2019 at 14:21

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Nah SAE is inferior and pointless! Unfortunately its easier to source SAE bolts at the local hardware store though so I definitely end up using them when I lose fasteners. But I use them infrequently enough that I dont really need a full set of SAE stuff.

MM54 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/24/2019 at 18:21

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I use mine far more than the metric set

(looks at chevelle in 1500 pieces)