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Apologies for the lack of updates in recent weeks. I've got a family member in the hospital (non-COVID related) who of course we can't visit, and as the majority of the stunts are performed outdoors I've been dodging rain and cold.
Originally Posted by 18psi
I love/hate this thread
I love/hate this car, so I think we're about even
Originally Posted by boileralum
At least you aren’t putting nitrous in it, lol
That could possibly be the worst decision ever.
Originally Posted by Scaxx
Wooooow, what a hater
Oh, speak of the devil...
Originally Posted by msmola2002
Speaking of bad ideas, does powercard make a DBW add on?
stands would both probably work equally well on a Miata. They are not cheap, but they are very nice and I suspect they'll last longer than my lifetime. Assuming they don't catch on fire of course. Be sure to check the minimum height on these compared to the max height on your jack, I can't use these with at least one of my jacks. I bought the taller ones in hope that they could also be used with my Tacoma.
of stands. I've used these at @aidandj 's place, but can't remember if he has the 3T or 6T variant. Either way they are sturdy as frig, I'd trust them as well.
I second the recommend going for the 10499 if you are using one of the medium sized HF aluminum jacks, as the 10498 min height is almost the same height as the jack's max height. Or at least get one pair of each size so you can get the car on the shorter stands first.
I've got the week off so I was hoping to make some progress.
HoverMiata is in the air as I've decided to work on bushing replacement.
The Energy Suspension Poly bushings were purchased from 949Racing in Feb or Mar of 2012 (back when they still sold Miata parts) which may have been part of one of the first Miata bushing production runs. If not the first then at least very early. Originally purchased for the Orange NB, of course. SadFAB Bronze retrofit purchased back in Nov of 2016 (maybe part of the first group buy?) I attempted to install the FUCA bushings in some new-from-MazdaComp NB arms back in... 2017, but ran into some production variances and ended up sidelining the project. I figured these parts have marinated in the garage for long enough and I should probably do something with them.
First order of business was to extract the zerks and bushings from the NB FUCAs. I probably did this with my thumbs.
Stock bushing removal is always a double bastard, so here's the stupid tool I made for removing stock bushings. It only works on the FUCAs and the LRCA-O bushings. Lol
And for those it works awesome.
Even more awesome with the #TeamRed impact. #notsponsored
Unfortunately it didn't work for the rest so I had to get creative.
Field expedient modifications yielded this clusterfuck
Which resulted in this failure
And eventually led to this brute force and ignorance.
Eventually I reached this point, which was awesome. I then realized the steel crush sleeves were much, much too short, which sucked. It was then I decided I should probably check the instructions...
A quick inventory check shows I'm missing X16 LCA load spreading washers 0.875”x0.135”x0.485” which would account for the missing steel crush sleeve length. Being that I've had these things for more than 3 years and never read the instructions, I can't say if I lost them or if they were never included. Either way I figured I'd probably just make my own.
Baby lathe proves I'm a masheenist
At about this point one of the SADFap guys got back to me and let me know that yes, the washers are "custom", yes, they are hardened and yes, they are stainless. So... ****. Guess I'm not making washers. The @SADFab guys are awesome and offered to send me more washers, so I bought another set of bronze retrofits for the NB
With most of the rears done and my joints aching from the cold and damp, I figured it was time to go inside and sit by the fire and try to warm up.
So then this fatboi stopped by for snuggle times and I was trapped under a kitty all evening.
Today I'm pressing forward to get the rest of the bushings done but I'll have to wait until the new washers get here before the car can go on the ground. I'll try to press forward with other things in the mean time, It would be really nice to have this drivable again by the end of the week, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
These are Esco 10498, although the Esco 10499 "Low Profile" stands would both probably work equally well on a Miata. They are not cheap, but they are very nice and I suspect they'll last longer than my lifetime. Assuming they don't catch on fire of course. Be sure to check the minimum height on these compared to the max height on your jack, I can't use these with at least one of my jacks. I bought the taller ones in hope that they could also be used with my Tacoma.
Alternate recommendation would be the Torin BIG RED series of stands. I've used these at @aidandj 's place, but can't remember if he has the 3T or 6T variant. Either way they are sturdy as frig, I'd trust them as well.
Originally Posted by boileralum
I second the recommend going for the 10499 if you are using one of the medium sized HF aluminum jacks, as the 10498 min height is almost the same height as the jack's max height. Or at least get one pair of each size so you can get the car on the shorter stands first.
I have the 2 ton low profile, high lift pitsbrugh jack. It can do like 23.5" or something silly like that, so all good on the height front. I currently have three pairs of the baby HF/car parts store ones (one pair is in the recall, need to fish them out from under the project one of these days....). I have been needing to get some taller stands for various reasons and these esco ones look solid. Guess that's where the christmas money is going.
There are much worse places to be trapped. Enjoy it.
I'm glad he's a snuggly beast, but having 20lbs of cat land on your solar plexus at 4AM is one hell of a wakeup call.
Originally Posted by rleete
I got rid of all my stands when I got the quickjack. I will never go back to manually jacking up a vehicle.
The quickjacks are pretty cool, but what I'd really like in the future is a lift. When we finally get to buying a place its going to have shop space, or space to build a shop, and lift is on the menu.
Made some more progress yesterday on bushing things.
FUCA and FLCA on the bench. These bushings are getting more than tedious.
I figured the RUCA-O was going to be a real bastard but it turns out these were the easiest bushings on the car. Who knew?
The clamp may not have actually been required, I probably could have pushed these out with my dick after watching an episode of Downton Abbey.
I <3 incline plane and impact gun. And when that isn't enough?
To the vice & cheater bar! Also, finally found a use for these 18mm sockets. Also also, for whatever reason, the FLCA bushings were a right bastard to get out. I may have damaged my vice in the process, its definitely "tight" in a couple places now. I'll have to pull it apart, hopefully it just needs some grease.
Tappy-tap-tap! Cutting oil in this case is vintage Mobil 1 Synthetic 0w-20, of which I still have a full case that I bought in the early 2000s on the recommendation of miata.net. I've been using it as cutting oil and way lube for years and I've maybe gone through a quart, but I'm too cheap to throw it away.
So now we get to installing the bushings in the FLCAs, and these is where things started to go sideways...
I know I'm missing the SADFab load spreading washers for the LCAs, but I at least wanted to get the bushings and zerks installed so I could move on to other things.
For some reason Energy Suspension decided there needed to be 4 different bushings per arm, so that's 2ea of 4 different bushings. Install order goes like this:
Laying out the parts, I've got...
2x 2693
2x 2690
3x 2691
1x 2692
wait... what the ****.
HAHAHA! I cannot make this **** up. Something like 8 years ago someone at Energy miss-packed this **** and shorted me a 2692 and gave me an extra 2691. ************.
I don't know if this is even worth bothering the vendor about at this point. It's not their fault and there is very little they can do for me that I can't do for myself. I have a whole another set of Energy bushings on the way for the NB (remember that I robbed these from the NB parts pile) and those might get here before a vendor or Energy can ship me a bushing anyway. And nothing is going to get here before the end of the week thanks to the incredibly fuckered national supply chain for ... everything.
Maybe I can use a 2691 in place of a 2692?
Well, not really. The bushing OAL is slightly shorter, which probably isn't a huge deal, but the shoulder flange on the bushing is significantly thiccer. I might be able to freeze this bushing and try to cut down that shoulder in the lathe, but polyurethane cuts like a marshmallow. Its going to take a ridiculously sharp tool but even then the flange is thin enough that its going to flop all over the place and be completely useless. See above Downton Abby reference. I can try to put it in the lathe on a mandrel and back it with a washer, but its still going to suck and I'm only going to get one shot at this.
Also got some weirdness going on with the FUCA-I crush sleeve. Its flush on the back
And way proud on the other side. Both the left and right on both arms are like this. I'm not sure how I feel about this, and this is what stopped me from installing these bushing sets in the NB back in 2017.
Dynamically adjusting caster bushings? I need to get these installed to see if its actually an issue or not.
Here's a fun question for you... I'm right handed yet I keep blowing the index and thumb pads out of my gloves. Why is that exactly?
I guess The Stranger took quite a beating yesterday.
USPS says the SADFab load spreading washers are scheduled for Jan 6, and I have no ETA on the second Energy Suspension poly bushing kit. BIG SIGH
I'm SOOO glad I got the whole week off so I could complete all these tasks >:(
12-29-2020, 01:42 PM
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I've been using it as cutting oil and way lube for years and I've maybe gone through a quart, but I'm too cheap to throw it away.
