clamp it with vise grips REALLY tight, hit the vise grips with a hammer. it will slide out easier with light impact than brute force and this way you don't pry on the engine parts directly.

 

the belt drive gear isn't in all of the way, is this the cause or effect?

if you can push the gear on further, you will have more meat to grab on the key,

 

Crowbar'd the bish off. The oil pump housing is a little worse for wear but the marks seem to be superficial.

Waiting for a new belt drive gear and woodruff key from Rosenthal.

Thanks for all the suggestions gehs!

 

Got some more time to work on the engine the last two nights. Short-block is basically finished and buttoned up. Had a hell of a time getting the timing belt on and timed correctly. I bought the FM timing belt tool to make the job "easier" but for the life of me I could not get the cams aligned correctly with the tool. No matter how I put the tool in it would have the cams off a tooth or two and the belt would not go on. Eventually I gave up on the stupid tool and used the "two crescent wrenches and vice grips" method and the belt went right on the first try.

FM Ninja Timing Belt Tool DID NOT work for me, WAS NOT WORTH THE MONEY. I'd like to think it was user error but I literally wrestled with it for an hour and could not get it to work. Tried the other method and was finished in ~5 minutes.


Here's with the FM tool. It's hard to see in the pictures but both cam gears are "below" where they should be. The intake gear maybe more so than the exhaust.






Here's the belt installed...the good 'ole fashioned way. I tried to get a picture with all three timing marks in it. Does this look right?







Here's the shortblock as of last night. Tonight I started bolting really dirty nasty parts to it like the intake manifold and the mixing manifold, etc. etc.








I'm hoping to finish the longblock reassembly this week and maybe start on pulling the motor out of the car this weekend.

Also, I bought a brand new crank timing gear since I pry'd on the other one a few too many times with the woodruff key "issue". I bought a new OEM one from Rosenthal. It broke immediately while trying to install. I pry'd on it just a tiny bit when trying to put it on and take it off and a chunk of the very outer rim broke right off. The new version of the part appears to be some chitty powder metal POS. The old one appears to be forged steel. Anyway, I put the old one back on and cursed the $35+ I wasted on the new and not improved one. Between the new lower timing gear and the FM tool I've wasted $50...a month's worth of beer money down the drain.

Curses

 

Never had much luck with the "Ninja" either.

 

The worst part is I'm too poor to drink bottles of beer that require a bottle opener...so I can't even use it for that!

 

If you're too poor to drink good beer, you're too poor to drink beer at all.

 

Me and about 60 million shitty beer drinking Americans are gonna have to disagree with you.

 

Bud Light Lime in the Summer heat. Nothing like it!

 

So I went to check this out this evening ---> 1994 Mazda Miata - Brilliant Black

I really dislike my red turd quite a bit, so I've been thinking about picking up a nicer NA and selling the red car. I don't know if I want to put all the time and effort into installing the arsesome motor and turblow into a POS car.

Unfortunately, the seller neglected to mention the small patch of rust on the rear quarter panel where it meet's the rear bumper. It's a nice car overall, but I live in North Carolina, I shouldn't have to deal with rust anymore.

Also, my Reverant E-MS2 was built for a 96-97. How hard would it be to "modify" it to work on a 94 or 95? Or even 99 or 2000? Am I better off selling the MS2 and buying a MS2/MS3 specifically for whatever I buy (if I buy)?

 

Just because 60 million other people do it doesnt mean that it makes financial sense.

You can save a lot of money on bud light lime if you mix 3 drops of lemon dish soap per gallon of water and drink that. Its nearly the same. You even get the bud mud the next day just like the real thing.

 

I wonder how many of your 6000 post are useless pedantic drivel...?

 

Leafy, aren't you the one running pathetic power on an efr setup cause you're too poor to put a 6sp in?

 

ahahaha


great

 

5000?

Its not that I'm too poor. I could find the money but I havent for 2 reasons, I dont feel the need to make more torque, and I'm waiting for something better than a 6 speed to come out.

 

 

+1 for the Ninja tool basically just being a Ninja pain in the *** for m.netters that would rather fiddle with a small thing for 30 minutes instead of working moderately for 5 minutes setting timing the old fashioned way.

The crank bolt tool was pretty cool, though. I'm not sure how many times i'd be able to use it (i bent the **** out of it when i used it), or if it was something i couldn't have made myself in about 10 minutes, but it sure worked well.

 

Funny, this is the first time I have heard that the Ninja tool is a POS. Glad I didn't waste money on it.

 

Maybe the new MX-5 will have a 7-speed? Unfortunately Mazda is good at designing shitty transmissions. Even when the gears are strong, the go and add an aluminum bearing plate to just screw it all up! I wonder at what point someone will do a stainless CNC bearing plate for the Miata like they did on the Protege.

 

Same here, I just use the two wrench and vise grip method. Use adjustable wrenches on the cams and clamp them together to hold them in place.