What have you done to your Miata today?

[aMaff]

Fun in the workshop day.

Made a bracket / hook to keep the coolant re-route on the race car from chafing on the intake manifold support bolt heads and bracket.

Cleaned up the diff mount brackets to install the Delrin lowers to compliment the Delrin uppers.

Modded the old Horrible Freight press. Made the release operable w/o the handle, tacked the handle's 2 parts together, and added a ring to hook a bungee to so the handle reciprocates. More of a fun 'playing with the welder' project, came out alright though.

 

[aMaff]

At the beginning of December, a good buddy and I traded cars so they could use the kraut wagon to take the family and pick up a christmas tree. While I had his Miata, I drove it to the hardware store and back one day, and noticed a LOT of transmission noise. I told him to start shopping for a transmission, because it might be a month, or it might be a year, but it's not going to live too terribly much longer. Since the Miata's his daily, I offered him my spare transmission, so long as he replaces it, if his goes before he finds a suitable spare..

I got a call from him today that started off with "So, uh.... do you still have that spare transmission?"
Turns out it was just over a month.

So while I was waiting for the tow truck to show up, I put the new lower diff bushings on so that I could vacate the OR and prep for the new patient.

In the midst of that, I realize that it's early January, and I have a race car that not only runs and moves under it's own power, but it's race ready. In January. It's race ready. Due to some life things, I haven't been in that position in the last 2 years (and both years, didn't have the car until the last couple events of the season). It feels good.

Though now it feels really weird every time I walk down to the attached garage and instead of walking past the tubby, hateful KrautWagon, seeing a low slung race car. I like it.

 

[aMaff]

Turns out it ain't the transmission. I thought it was because you could roll the car around and the drive wheels weren't locked up, and you could have the engine running, put it in gear and let out the clutch and the motor wouldn't stall (as it would w/ a blown up diff). Then we got the car up on jacks and realized that yes, you can do all that...and the prop shaft is spinning, but nothing is going to the axle.

So that's not good. And then I found out that the car has spent some winter time in New York. Which meant that nothing came apart easily, but everything came apart, except for the last small nut to get the differential retaining brackets out. That one was rusty and rounded completely off. Yay!

He should be picking up a nut-cracker today. We'll see if we can't bust that loose. If not the cutting wheels come out.


I hate rusty cars.

 

[Reitrof]

Ouch, that looks rusty.

Changed the tstat as the temps were running a bit high. Not an easy one as you have to remove the throttle body to gain access. While there I also replaced the belt and idler pulley that was getting a little loose.

Got to run in another autox in LeHigh Acres FL. Was best in STR and the course was a blast. Getting better at shifting into third.

 

[CTt3P5]

Yikes maff! That is the reason why I'd consider paying a shop to do any major work on the P5 at this point, if it made sense. At close to 200K and rust showing up here, there and everywhere, my allowance for "major" work is dwindling.

Nice Bruce! Temps are where they should be now? Congrats on the best in class too!

I've upgraded the dome, trunk, front bumper, rear parking/stop and license plate bulbs to LEDs. Just waiting for the TapTurn module and turn signal LEDs for front and rear to come in and then I'll have LEDs throughout with exception of OEM HIDs and high beams. While shopping I grabbed some LEDs for the footwells and for the ILM center console.

 

[aMaff]

Yeah, it sucked a lot. Tried a bunch of stuff and nothing got that nut off. I still don't understand what those are even *for* because there's a massive 12mm shaft that actually supports the differential. Those small 8mm nuts do nothing but locate the mount in a particular orientation, and nothing more.

Given that, we cut the problem child off, and then used a couple dies to clean up the threads on the rest of the hardware, and will replace all the rusty nuts and mounts with less-rusty stuff (hardware I have, mounts he bought used but are in great shape).

 

[magnumP5]

Yeah, it sucked a lot. Tried a bunch of stuff and nothing got that nut off. I still don't understand what those are even *for* because there's a massive 12mm shaft that actually supports the differential. Those small 8mm nuts do nothing but locate the mount in a particular orientation, and nothing more.

Most RWD cars have mounts like them somewhere. On the FC RX7 the rear subframe is held in a similar manner. I was told this was so you could loosen and remove the but nut without the subframe dropping.

 

[aMaff]

I suppose. Though I don't see why anyone would do this kind of work without supporting the diff anyway.

Anyway, we got him back on the road tonight for less than $100 for a "new" VLSD & a quart of gear oil, with fairly minimal swearing. It would have likely been back on the road yesterday or Wednesday if we didn't have to deal with rusty hardware and that stuck nut. There was a lot of tap-and-die work cleaning up various threaded bits we couldn't simply replace, and anything that was questionable we replaced outright from my Miata Hardware Stash. Took it for a test drive and it seems to be in good shape.

 

[Reitrof]

Nice work Andrew, your friend must be happy.

 

[aMaff]

I built a bench grinder pedestal for the workshop. The base for the whole thing is going to be the trailer tire in the 1st picture. Need to hit it w/ a coat of paint and pick up some 1/2" hardware to hold it together.

My welding is getting better. Still not great, but way better. The thicker material is WAY more forgiving than the thin sheet I've been working with of late, which helps, but this is the first time I've welded out a complete project without having to grind down a single weld. The grinders have come out, mostly with wire wheels to clean up smoke and spatter from prior passes, but beyond that, nothing.

I love the color. I'm easily distracted by shiny things.

You can tell the difference between the tack welds and the full penetration (#MiataThings) welds on the back side, which is neat:

 

[CTt3P5]

Pretty cool Andrew! Building new/neat stuff and getting more experience, win-win.

Last night I replaced my flasher relay with the TapTurn module. Now I can swap out my turn signal bulbs with LEDs and not worry about resistors or hyperflash. In addition I can adjust the blinkers from 3x to 6x upon tap of the stalk and it has some pretty cool features when using the hazards.

 

[Reitrof]

Interesting Jeff. Did you need to do that because you were using the LED's?

Got my tune done yesterday with Jay from TDR. I think I'm going to lose my license.

 

[CTt3P5]

It wasn't a necessity per say but with it I don't have to use resistors to prevent hyperflash. So the LEDs were PNP which is what I was looking for.

Met Tam at the mechanic's on the way home tonight and left her in the parking lot. Time for her annual safety inspection and emissions test. Just in case I turned the strobe feature of the hazards off.

 

[aMaff]

Finished it up

https://preparedmiata.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/bench-grinder-pedestal-build/

 

[thejeans]

that looks pretty sweet Muff!!!

 

[aMaff]

that looks pretty sweet Muff!!!

Works great too. I ran it a couple minutes last night and pushed on it harder than I have any reason to push against the wheels with a piece of steel, and it didn't move at all. It's nice and stable, and the tire makes a nice foot-rest while working on it, AND it's really easy to tip on the sidewall of the tire to roll it around the shop if I need to.

 

[bazooka joe]

Nice! It's cool that it's made with an automotive theme!

 

[aMaff]

Nice! It's cool that it's made with an automotive theme!

HA! didn't even think about that

The more I use it, the more I like it though. So much better access to the wheels (I also took the cover off of the wire wheel), and I can work with bigger pieces as opposed to on the work-bench where I have to navigate around everything else on the bench. And the fact that it used to rattle small things off of the work bench when it was running, and now that's not an issue, is vurreh nice.

 

[thejeans]

bought a bunch of parts for the car.
Hydra Nemesis Upgrade, new injectors, started building my own LS coil setup, odered matte black vinyl to wrap the windshield frame, and quite a few other things... the next couple weeks will be a very busy time with the car

 

[Foolish]

Tried to add a push-button switch for the trunk lights I added a while back. Didn't work. It needs a stronger mounting point. I might have a solution to that, but didn't have/take the time to re-engineer it this weekend, so I'll stick with the toggle switch that's in there for a while longer. Also considering a mercury switch in the trunk lid instead of the push-button.