Ever removed a Miata gas tank?
 

The lemons car tank is filled with about an inch of rust, its done. I have another donor car to get tank from but according to the book it does not look like a fun job. Any hints
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hehehe. That's gonna suck. Gotta drop the rear subframe assembly IIRC.

Yup, exhaust, rear end, rear sub frame and everything bolted to it needs to come out to get to the tank.
Might be easier to run a fuel cell in the trunk.

I got a parts car that I'm getting tank out of, might just sawzall the thing out the top. But the lemons car....oh boy guess its going to give me a chance to go through the rear of the car and make sure everything looks good.

Could I just drop the disconnect the front PPF and rear dampers and brake lines and then lower the rear sub frame all together? Leaving the rear and axles and all undisterbed.

Only hints I could offer, having never done this, is to do everything possible to make it easier on yourself. Like, spray all the bolts with PB blaster a few days in advance, get the car up in the air where it's easier to work on, impact wrench, etc.

Yes, you can drop the PPF with control arms and rear end still bolted in.
I would probably unbolt the rear shocks from the top and drop those with the assembly as well.

you can drop everything in the way of the gas tank in 20-30min and have the gas tank out in another 10-20min.


Take the 4 bolts out of the drive shaft, 2 bolts out of the ppf at the tranny, 2 bolts on both shock perches, brake line where it meets the sub frame on the passenger side, Both e brake cables, and then 6 bolts holding the sub frame to the car.

the gas tank has like 4-6bolts from what i saw.

when I swapped mine i disconected the exhaust, PPF, the rear brake distribution block and the upper shock mounts. The rear subframe and diff comes out as a complete unit, the fuel tank is held in with 4 bolts.

Really not that bad, 3 hours to pull it out of 2 cars and swap it in. Sounds much worse than it is.

THIS IS FUCKING TORTURE! I hate that you waited until I left to do this shit... I would have been over there every day (as long as you had beer).

Funny you say that, the other day AJ and I did brakes and after the 2nd 12 pack we had to give up. 75% done. Just the rt rear to go...could not see any more. Want to go for the 1st test drive?

dropping the rear subframe isn't hard. The rest couldn't be much worse.

Can you do this job with jack stands? If so what kind of clearance do you need?

Yes. If you don't leave the wheels and tires on, standard 2 ton stands at the pinch welds are more than enough.

Buy some bigger stands, I have like 4t stands, they are much higher, lots of room to do stuff.

You will thank me.