What have you done to your Miata today?
- Thread starter Antoine
- Start date
Thanks!
This is stretching the memory back a little, but it went something like:
-Pull seats
-Pull door sill trim
-Pull carpet
-Remove hardline from brackets under car
-Carefully cut off hardline mounting brackets and hammer them flat for re-use later (used an air-powered cut-off tool)
-Line up frame rails to ensure that you'll be able to get to each bolt <- VERY IMPORTANT STEP
-Drill holes and bolt in the rails with some sealant/oil/paint/grease to stop rust in the holes. A step drill or a good sheet metal drill makes life not suck here. Drill/bolt 1-2 at each end of the rail to hold it up while you do the rest.
-Mount hardline brackets and hardlines
-Install carpet
-Install door sill trim
-Install seats
If memory serves it was around 2-3 hours. Not too hard, assuming your original frame rails aren't totally beat to crap and you have the right tools. Only a little hammering was needed to un-smash a part of one rail. It REALLY helps to have two people for the drilling/bolting, one to hold a wrench on the bolt head inside the car and one underneath with an impact or ratchet to tighten them. I had a well-equipped garage available when I did the install, and a very car-savvy friend helping. Obviously YRMV.
Made a big difference in handling, mostly in how responsive the car felt, and there were fewer rattles in the car.
Thanks man!
The effort is worth it IMO. Stiffer chassis, real frame rail protection, better jack points, very little added weight... it's a good product.
Re-read the description just now, I had forgotten than they were stainless steel bolts. I would STRONGLY encourage anyone who installs this to put anti-seize, or at least some grease, on the bolts/nuts to keep them from galling to each other during installation. My roommate just re-learned that lesson the hard way last night installing a rack on his Ridgeline. About half of the nuts galled in place before they were tight, just using hand tools. The studs snapped off when we tried to remove them...
princess peach
Member
- :
- '92 Miata, '06 MS6
it seems like a good upgrade, especially if it gets rid of the random shakes.
And then something amazing happened: My wife's parents were in town, so she was able to run the car. Her first time in the car, her 2nd autocross in about a 3 year span, her first time in my car in its current configuration, and her first time on true slicks. So I present to you, Jen's fastest run (53.052):
She was running DPL, but she would have won DP open by about 3 seconds (boom07). Peter and I run in our region's Pro class so we have some (a lot...) competition
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We installed a set of Mazda Comp motor mounts on my car a few nights ago. Love them. Not much more vibes at all and almost all the transmission and motoro movement is gone. Now the rear end doesn't feel as solid though so I want to get a set of ES diff mounts.
Also installing my TB/water pump/assy belts/5x racing timing wheel/front main seal and cam seals this coming weekend. Can't wait! 95K is long enough!
Also installing my TB/water pump/assy belts/5x racing timing wheel/front main seal and cam seals this coming weekend. Can't wait! 95K is long enough!
That's a big list!
There is at least one diff bushing how-to that doesn't require dropping the differential completely out of the car, but I do not have the link on-hand.
FM seal installers (cam, front main, etc) help a lot, I would suggest looking into getting the ones you need.
Filled up the transmission with AMSoil, connected the loose ground wire, and she fired up on the second crank!
Let her run up to temp, drained the engine oil, changed the filter, and refilled with more synthetic oil. Dropped her on the ground, tightened up the lower shock mount bolts, and attempted to take the insane amount of toe out of the front wheels. I can't fix the front toe though, the new steering rod-ends are a little longer than the old ones. I'm going to look into some thinner jam-nuts or perhaps the correct tie-rod ends.
Took her for a quick spin, the toe-out made it quite horrifying to drive, so I only went about 1/4 mile on pavement. Brakes appear to have air bubbles in them... they only build pressure on the second pump, but the pressure holds. Going to try a gravity bleed as suggested by the spec miata community.
In good news the engine is running quite nicely, transmission works (will have to give it time to evaluate the new AMSoil trans fluid), and the new suspension is smoooooth. I feel like I could rally race it compared to my old setup.
Nice to have her running again, now to sort out the remaining small issues...
Seriously considering the FM hub stands to make aligning it not suck. Anyone have any experience using them?
If they start failing before your next timing belt change you'll be really unhappy to tear everything apart again to replace them.
Let her run up to temp, drained the engine oil, changed the filter, and refilled with more synthetic oil. Dropped her on the ground, tightened up the lower shock mount bolts, and attempted to take the insane amount of toe out of the front wheels. I can't fix the front toe though, the new steering rod-ends are a little longer than the old ones. I'm going to look into some thinner jam-nuts or perhaps the correct tie-rod ends.
Took her for a quick spin, the toe-out made it quite horrifying to drive, so I only went about 1/4 mile on pavement. Brakes appear to have air bubbles in them... they only build pressure on the second pump, but the pressure holds. Going to try a gravity bleed as suggested by the spec miata community.
In good news the engine is running quite nicely, transmission works (will have to give it time to evaluate the new AMSoil trans fluid), and the new suspension is smoooooth. I feel like I could rally race it compared to my old setup.
Nice to have her running again, now to sort out the remaining small issues...
Seriously considering the FM hub stands to make aligning it not suck. Anyone have any experience using them?
If they start failing before your next timing belt change you'll be really unhappy to tear everything apart again to replace them.
The FM hub stands look awesome. I don't have them but they are on my list of things to buy.
Also, congrats on getting everything back together. I'm looking forward to hearing your report on the AMSoil transmission fluid. Is the car going to remain those colors?
Also, congrats on getting everything back together. I'm looking forward to hearing your report on the AMSoil transmission fluid. Is the car going to remain those colors?
Thanks!
Eventually the red is all going to be painted over with different colors. Been keeping a list:
Right Fender Dark Blue (painted 3/20/12)
Left Fender Maroon (painted 3/20/12)
Right Door Orange(painted 4/6/12)
Left Door Bronze(painted 4/6/12)
Right Quarter panel Gunmetal
Left Quarter panel Bright Green
Rear Bumper Dark Green(painted 4/6/12)
Front bumper Yellow
License Surround Dark Purple (painted 3/20/12) mix of two front fender colors
Window Frame Gloss Black
Hardtop Satin Black (painted 3/20/12)
HLC LH Gold(painted 4/6/12)
HLC RH Beige (Light Gold)(painted 4/6/12)
LH MIRROR Light Blue
RH MIRROR Brown (Josh’s Bike)
Filler Door Silver
Hood Pearl White (painted 4/6/12)
Trunk Bright Blue (painted 4/6/12)
Rear Deck Strip Green (Jetta custom)
Anyone have steering rod end/ball joint suggestions? It looks like the Mevotech ones are simply too long to work with my Miata. Maybe because it's lowered? Frustrating problem...
Haha, yes. The particularly astute might have noticed that the only parts that have been painted so far are the removable ones.
But my thinking behind it was that you had sourced replacements from different color cars. 
Mazda.
What I'm reading is: "Moog, Mazda, or GTFO." I ordered two Moog joints simply because they're more readily available with next-day delivery.
