STS2 Miata Build Part Deux - 2008
- Thread starter aMaff
- Start date
Yay! I got the rear control arms back together! I'm very excited. It took about an hour per side (about 50 minutes was the LCAs). I actually had to press the sleeves inside the inner bushings towards the outside of the bushing to get enough play for them to slide in the receivers on the rear subframe. If you've ever worked on the bushings on one of these, you'll know more or less what I'm talking about. Searching Miata.net, there's a boatload of folks that had the same problem, so I guess that's somewhat reassuring. Anyway, I'm really happy with the progress I've made tonight. Tomorrow, the suspension should be 100% back together.
The next steps are to get each corner of the suspension up to it's proper ride height using a jack and tighten all the suspension bolts. Once that's done, I'm going to install the shocks and repeat the process to set the heights for the springs. That should give me at least a drivable setup. After that, I should be taking it to get corner weighted and aligned in the near future. First event's Feb 17th! Now that I'm starting to see the light @ the end of the tunnel, I'm starting to get pretty stoked!
The next steps are to get each corner of the suspension up to it's proper ride height using a jack and tighten all the suspension bolts. Once that's done, I'm going to install the shocks and repeat the process to set the heights for the springs. That should give me at least a drivable setup. After that, I should be taking it to get corner weighted and aligned in the near future. First event's Feb 17th! Now that I'm starting to see the light @ the end of the tunnel, I'm starting to get pretty stoked!
I got the control arm bolts all tightened down and the alignment set to more or less where it was before. The marks all line up, so it should be at least driveable. Also got the shocks and springs on the car. Friday I'll be setting the final ride heights on the coilovers.
Last night the major goal was to get the ride heights set. I did that, adjusted my end links properly and started working on the brakes. The right rear came apart and went together fine. The left rear needed a hammer just to get the caliper to swing open. *sigh* Seized FTL. Fortunately there's a local guy who buys wrecked cars and parts them out, so I picked up a not-seized one this morning. Been kind of all over the place today, so I probably won't get them back on tonight, but tomorrow I should at the very least be able to take a shake down drive to make sure nothing falls off. All that needs to be done is replacing the caliper, putting rotors and pads on the fronts and that corner of the rear, and slapping the seats back in and screwing the front splash guard back on.
Last edited:
Progress! Basically at this point I can bolt the wheels on and in theory it should drive. Just got to clean up a bunch of stuff from under the car. I got enough done today that I don't even really feel like doing all that atm. Definitely tomorrow night tho.
Today I replaced the left rear caliper, installed the pads and rotors at all 4 corners, installed the header blanket, put the seats back in and bled the brakes.
The only thing I 'fear' at this point is that I'll have the car crabwalking or be really damn twitchy because the alignment's not right. I marked the alignment before I took everything off, but you still never know until you drive it. Also the ride heights are a bit different, so we'll have to see.
OMG it has seats and carpet!
Header blanket. It's a very nice piece that should do a solid job of keeping the intake charge cool.
did a half ass job painting the rotors. Anything's better than the full rust hub-hats that I had before tho
^^when I bent down to take this picture, I realized I still had the wrench on the bleeder from earlier. d'oh!
Purdy suspension parts
. Note new bushings 
And finally: I found where I had 'lost' my protege5 hat!
Today I replaced the left rear caliper, installed the pads and rotors at all 4 corners, installed the header blanket, put the seats back in and bled the brakes.
The only thing I 'fear' at this point is that I'll have the car crabwalking or be really damn twitchy because the alignment's not right. I marked the alignment before I took everything off, but you still never know until you drive it. Also the ride heights are a bit different, so we'll have to see.
OMG it has seats and carpet!
Header blanket. It's a very nice piece that should do a solid job of keeping the intake charge cool.
did a half ass job painting the rotors. Anything's better than the full rust hub-hats that I had before tho
^^when I bent down to take this picture, I realized I still had the wrench on the bleeder from earlier. d'oh!
Purdy suspension parts
. Note new bushings
And finally: I found where I had 'lost' my protege5 hat!
lol didn't even notice that. I wonder if it's just the angle of the shot. The car hasn't moved yet, and it's been up for almost 2 months (shrug)
I plan on it. There's a car wash around here that does hand washes that I'm going to take it to. Anything more and it's going to spray water all over the interior lol. Also, I think the car deserves it after everything I've put her through in the last yearyou should give it a good cleaning. at least make the car look presentable
I got both front corners up to ride height with jacks and set them.
Good ideer, I didn't even thin of doing that to at least check the toe.
Last edited:
EDIT because luke's quicker on the trigger than I am...
Yeah, that's right. Which basically means that he's going to destroy me. But on the plus side, the car should be pretty well dialed in by the end of the season, and hopefully I learn a thing or 2 about driving a car fast.
Yeah, that's right. Which basically means that he's going to destroy me. But on the plus side, the car should be pretty well dialed in by the end of the season, and hopefully I learn a thing or 2 about driving a car fast.
Hey, at least your car will finally see some trophies.
Hey, at least I didn't sell my car (fuoops)
Yup. I look forward to beating y'all in a car on street tires (outie)
LOL. We'll see about that. Honestly, I still have no idea if Steve has any idea what he wants to do for wheels and tires. In a month, we may be rocking the street tires as well.
You need to get him to get on that.
Yeah, I haven't talked to him about the car for a while. We'll need to come up with a plan here. Wheels, tires, and coilovers need to be here like now.
