03zoomzoom
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda 3 i Touring
The Ohio Random Thread... aka We Should Probably Be Working
- Thread starter THE Phen
- Start date
gotcha
What I like about 99% of the Mazda folks I've met while in Columbus and up here is that everyone is open to all sorts of people, ideas, types, cars, and so forth. That's why I continue to put myself around the people. I have the utmost respect for everyone I've met because of that. I just don't wanna see it slide down into a closed minded state of being.
hope I'm not in that 1%...
anybody ever try the high heat ceramic paint on their headers? It says 1300 - 2000 degrees but I'm not sure about it. One coat is already on so I'm gonna find out anyway but didn't know what to expect.
anybody ever try the high heat ceramic paint on their headers? It says 1300 - 2000 degrees but I'm not sure about it. One coat is already on so I'm gonna find out anyway but didn't know what to expect.
PrinceValorum
Member
- :
- 95 626 FS, 89 Toyota Derux 4x4
It's up the road
I did learn a thing or two in biology class, lolI haven't tried the paint, but I've heard a lot of people talk about that jethot coating. I'm not sure how similar they are.
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I think everyone has their own taste. I for instance own my MSP, love my slow as hell 79 trans am , and just sold me 55 Plymouth Plaza rat rod. Others like slammed rides and "interesting" ways to mod their cars. It's all personal preferrence. I like the more clean look myself with a performance stance, not too low, but looks quick. Just like I'm getting rid of my steering column gauge cluster because I can't see anything else except for the seedo. I would rather just see the tac, but I like functionality over looks for the most part. That Mazda3 looks sweet in it's own way, butI would never do that to my ride.
I think I would like the whole slammed thing better if the tires didn't need all the negative camber. It seems like such a waste of money to wear out tires like that. I guess it is like you said Corey, functional.
^ I rarely say anything in there. Nothing negative anymore, I learned my lesson. I just go in to look, shake my head, and gtfo.^
^ I rarely say anything in there. Nothing negative anymore, I learned my lesson. I just go in to look, shake my head, and gtfo.^
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I agree with both of you. If you don't like seafood, don't eat seafood. If you don't like slammed cars, don't look at slammed car threads. If you don't like boobies, shame on you!
LOL! Now that's something we can all agree on.
Anyway, it's supoosed to be warmer the rest of the week, yay! I can finish painting my wheels and start working in the garage without freezing again.
Perro del Sol
Member
- :
- 2003 MSP, Spicy Orange, 2004 Mazda 6 Hatch, 2004 Mazda 6 Wagon
LOL! Now that's something we can all agree on.
Anyway, it's supoosed to be warmer the rest of the week, yay! I can finish painting my wheels and start working in the garage without freezing again.
I will be stopping by after work to remove the heat shield and to change out tires.......summer tires.....
LOL! Now that's something we can all agree on.
Anyway, it's supoosed to be warmer the rest of the week, yay! I can finish painting my wheels and start working in the garage without freezing again.
Did you go black on your wheels? Or did you try leaving the "face" of the spokes silver? Or are you painting your Enkeis?
03zoomzoom
Member
- :
- 2012 Mazda 3 i Touring
I wasn't trying to start stuff buddy. I was just trying to understand some of the suspension geometry. I still don't understand the sway bar link thing...let alone the strut bar...
PrinceValorum
Member
- :
- 95 626 FS, 89 Toyota Derux 4x4
I dunno, from what I've heard, they don't wear out as fast as people say, as long as the toe is set correctly. Supposedly if you have normal toe, and even a lot of camber, the tires will wear close to normal. Obviously not exactly as long, but again, I'm not speaking from experience.
And tonight, I will try my hand at bending brake line!
- :
- 2016 GT ST 47A
Thanks Wes....lol And I don't go in there looking to start anything, I'll view the pics and laugh at some of the stuff they say and have to say that some of the cars don't look that bad. Would I drive my car like that? No, but that's my preference and they have theirs. For the record, I like...no I <3 boobies. 
PrinceValorum
Member
- :
- 95 626 FS, 89 Toyota Derux 4x4
that looks to be in awesome shape
PrinceValorum
Member
- :
- 95 626 FS, 89 Toyota Derux 4x4
Well, I report back to Team Ohio victorious in my mending quest. I don't think I've done a proper write up on here, and I'm on that loopy sixth wind, so here we go.
Compared to what some of you guys have done, this will probably be pretty basic, but I did all of this myself, and afaik, the most complicated thing I've done before was take a caliper off of my Miata, lol. I mean I watched an engine swap and helped a bit, but that certainly wasn't all me.
So, this started out as replacing my CV shaft. The boot ripped open some time last summer, flung grease all over, and it started making noise while cornering a few months ago. I figured it was time to do something. I also figured (inaccurately) that that would be all I was replacing, besides the end link I knew I would have to cut off (this lead me to believe I was ahead of the curve).
After I got the car in the air and the wheel and hub nut off, I had to cut off the cinch bolt that holds the ball joint into the steering knuckle. This was my first surprise. I finally got the axle out, and then when I went to put the new one in, it simply wouldn't budge past the spring clip, or C clip, whatever. I had to order a new one at Mazda, plus the dust boot that goes between the axle and the housing that holds the intermediate shaft. This was the first time that I got panicked because the first 3 places I went didn't have what I needed and couldn't get it. The dust seal was a special order (placed last Thursday, supposed to come in on Monday).
The dust seal actually came in on Saturday, and I got excited, thinking that I would get my car back together in "just a few minutes, maybe an hour at most" (lool at the sheer folly of the thought). Well, as I went to remove the old dust seal, I realized just how rusted and sealed onto the housing it was. PB Blaster didn't seem to be helping it much, and I managed to rip a chunk of the metal off of it with the pliars, leading me to become fearful that I would have to then 1) buy more jackstands so I could 2) jack up the car higher so I could 3) fit my newly acquired 25" breaker bar under the car to 4) break lose the bolts on the housing to 5) remove it and hopefully have better luck with it out in the open. Unfortunately, this would also require me buying a second dust seal, since there's another one of the other side...
Becoming distraught with the lack of progress, I turned the much easier task of cutting off the rest of the end link. While adjusting my position so as to avoid receiving sparks directly on my face, I managed to run the still-running Dremel into the rubber portion of the brake hose. Thoroughly insulted, I looked down, and noticed that despite all of my precautions to protect my old and dried up ball joint boot, it tore. I gave up and went to the BBQ hoping to forget my sorrows for a while.
I stocked up on new parts at Autozone, including a rubber brake hose and a new ball joint, plus the rental of a ball joint press. After watching many videos on youtube about the correct usage of the ball joint press, I managed to use it incorrectly for quite some time. I was able to eventually remove the old ball joint, after cutting off the little nub that sticks into the steering knuckle. The new one was much easier to press in. Then I turned my attention to the brake line fitting, which had been soaking in PB. Despite having the proper wrench for the job, it turned on the nut, rounding it off. Dismayed, I hoped the vice grips would better serve me. I was wrong, as they proceeded to further round off any remnants of the hex pattern on the nut. I then accepted the grip reality that I would have to run new steel brake line.
After yet another trip to AZ to pick up 40" of brake line and a bleeder screw (noticed the old one was somehow bent after I removed it), I set to the task of bending the line. It's actually quite easy, and you can do it with your hands, but a tool yields better looking results. I was able to eliminate at least half of the bends that the factory line made, so I'm pleased by my own efficiency. (That was a joke, as it would be next to impossible to duplicate the original line, especially if the engine and stuff was installed.)
Here's a picture of my new line that I bent. Hopefully it's not too dark, it's pretty hard to see on my monitor, and it's really bright. It's coming up out of the proportioning valve cluster thingy, and then over and down.
I attached the new brake hose to it and finished attaching the hose to the caliper.
The two hardest parts (imo) of all this were still to come: getting the new spring/c clip into the little groove cut in the splines on the end of the intermediate shaft, and putting the stupid axle onto the intermediate shaft over the clip. Those were my next steps.
As I was bolting things back onto the steering knuckle, I noticed that the ball joint was backing its way out of the lower control arm. I pounded it back in with a hammer, but then realized that I didn't install this retaining ring.
There's absolutely no way that I could install it myself, as I don't have a spreader tool, and I don't have a welder to tack the ball joint into the LCA, either. I'll check with a shop tomorrow. That's the only bit that I wasn't able to do myself.
Next up was refilling the fluids I had to drain (not necessary, as I didn't remove an axle from the diff, but the Haynes manual said to do it, so I listened. To my knowledge the trans fluid has never been replaced, so I figured it was time anyway, lol). I picked up this handy tube that screws onto the end of the bottle the other day. With a little ingenuity, I rigged up a totally hands-free way to fill my trans fluid. Using a zip tie, I tied the handle of the bottle onto the batter handle, and then cut a breather hole in the bottom of the oil bottle. With the end of the tube in the fill hole, it proceeded to drain itself into the trans without any supervision.
So that's about it. I haven't gotten to bleed the new brake line, since I didn't feel like starting the car, so I'll to that later today, along with checking with a shop about securing the ball joint. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, considering my pretty massive lack of knowledge and experience. I know this was long, and everyone is busy, so if you took the time to read it, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even found it interesting, insightful, or, heaven forbid, humerus if for no other reason than my, and my wallet's misfortune. The best lesson learned is to wear gloves. I didn't shed blood once during the entire course of the almost two week operation!
Here's a quick picture of all of the casualties. In a sort of clockwise manner, starting at the top: Old trans fluid with maybe 86k miles on it, steel brake line, remnants of ball joint, assorted nuts and bolts that were cut off, brake hose, remains of dust seal, old axle, and the end link.
Compared to what some of you guys have done, this will probably be pretty basic, but I did all of this myself, and afaik, the most complicated thing I've done before was take a caliper off of my Miata, lol. I mean I watched an engine swap and helped a bit, but that certainly wasn't all me.
So, this started out as replacing my CV shaft. The boot ripped open some time last summer, flung grease all over, and it started making noise while cornering a few months ago. I figured it was time to do something. I also figured (inaccurately) that that would be all I was replacing, besides the end link I knew I would have to cut off (this lead me to believe I was ahead of the curve).
After I got the car in the air and the wheel and hub nut off, I had to cut off the cinch bolt that holds the ball joint into the steering knuckle. This was my first surprise. I finally got the axle out, and then when I went to put the new one in, it simply wouldn't budge past the spring clip, or C clip, whatever. I had to order a new one at Mazda, plus the dust boot that goes between the axle and the housing that holds the intermediate shaft. This was the first time that I got panicked because the first 3 places I went didn't have what I needed and couldn't get it. The dust seal was a special order (placed last Thursday, supposed to come in on Monday).
The dust seal actually came in on Saturday, and I got excited, thinking that I would get my car back together in "just a few minutes, maybe an hour at most" (lool at the sheer folly of the thought). Well, as I went to remove the old dust seal, I realized just how rusted and sealed onto the housing it was. PB Blaster didn't seem to be helping it much, and I managed to rip a chunk of the metal off of it with the pliars, leading me to become fearful that I would have to then 1) buy more jackstands so I could 2) jack up the car higher so I could 3) fit my newly acquired 25" breaker bar under the car to 4) break lose the bolts on the housing to 5) remove it and hopefully have better luck with it out in the open. Unfortunately, this would also require me buying a second dust seal, since there's another one of the other side...
Becoming distraught with the lack of progress, I turned the much easier task of cutting off the rest of the end link. While adjusting my position so as to avoid receiving sparks directly on my face, I managed to run the still-running Dremel into the rubber portion of the brake hose. Thoroughly insulted, I looked down, and noticed that despite all of my precautions to protect my old and dried up ball joint boot, it tore. I gave up and went to the BBQ hoping to forget my sorrows for a while.
I stocked up on new parts at Autozone, including a rubber brake hose and a new ball joint, plus the rental of a ball joint press. After watching many videos on youtube about the correct usage of the ball joint press, I managed to use it incorrectly for quite some time. I was able to eventually remove the old ball joint, after cutting off the little nub that sticks into the steering knuckle. The new one was much easier to press in. Then I turned my attention to the brake line fitting, which had been soaking in PB. Despite having the proper wrench for the job, it turned on the nut, rounding it off. Dismayed, I hoped the vice grips would better serve me. I was wrong, as they proceeded to further round off any remnants of the hex pattern on the nut. I then accepted the grip reality that I would have to run new steel brake line.
After yet another trip to AZ to pick up 40" of brake line and a bleeder screw (noticed the old one was somehow bent after I removed it), I set to the task of bending the line. It's actually quite easy, and you can do it with your hands, but a tool yields better looking results. I was able to eliminate at least half of the bends that the factory line made, so I'm pleased by my own efficiency. (That was a joke, as it would be next to impossible to duplicate the original line, especially if the engine and stuff was installed.)
Here's a picture of my new line that I bent. Hopefully it's not too dark, it's pretty hard to see on my monitor, and it's really bright. It's coming up out of the proportioning valve cluster thingy, and then over and down.
I attached the new brake hose to it and finished attaching the hose to the caliper.
The two hardest parts (imo) of all this were still to come: getting the new spring/c clip into the little groove cut in the splines on the end of the intermediate shaft, and putting the stupid axle onto the intermediate shaft over the clip. Those were my next steps.
As I was bolting things back onto the steering knuckle, I noticed that the ball joint was backing its way out of the lower control arm. I pounded it back in with a hammer, but then realized that I didn't install this retaining ring.
There's absolutely no way that I could install it myself, as I don't have a spreader tool, and I don't have a welder to tack the ball joint into the LCA, either. I'll check with a shop tomorrow. That's the only bit that I wasn't able to do myself.
Next up was refilling the fluids I had to drain (not necessary, as I didn't remove an axle from the diff, but the Haynes manual said to do it, so I listened. To my knowledge the trans fluid has never been replaced, so I figured it was time anyway, lol). I picked up this handy tube that screws onto the end of the bottle the other day. With a little ingenuity, I rigged up a totally hands-free way to fill my trans fluid. Using a zip tie, I tied the handle of the bottle onto the batter handle, and then cut a breather hole in the bottom of the oil bottle. With the end of the tube in the fill hole, it proceeded to drain itself into the trans without any supervision.
So that's about it. I haven't gotten to bleed the new brake line, since I didn't feel like starting the car, so I'll to that later today, along with checking with a shop about securing the ball joint. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, considering my pretty massive lack of knowledge and experience. I know this was long, and everyone is busy, so if you took the time to read it, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even found it interesting, insightful, or, heaven forbid, humerus if for no other reason than my, and my wallet's misfortune. The best lesson learned is to wear gloves. I didn't shed blood once during the entire course of the almost two week operation!
Here's a quick picture of all of the casualties. In a sort of clockwise manner, starting at the top: Old trans fluid with maybe 86k miles on it, steel brake line, remnants of ball joint, assorted nuts and bolts that were cut off, brake hose, remains of dust seal, old axle, and the end link.
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