That probably sounds like a joke to someone unfamiliar with the procedure.

He means to pull the #1 spark plug, put the end of the dipstick down the hole and rotate the engine by hand until the dipstick stops rising. This will tell you that the #1 piston is indeed at top dead center. The timing mark on your crank pulley should line up with the indicator on the timing cover for zero degrees at that point. If it does not, then the outer ring has moved or the whole damper assembly is coming off of the crankshaft. This is a known major issue with early 1.6 cars. The reference was made to JB Welding the damper to the crankshaft, which is one way of doing it. Look up "short nose crank wobble"

 

knew it wasn't a joke, but a bit of clarification was needed. thanks, that's much easier to understand. basically what youre saying is more than likely nothings bent, just the outer ring has moved causing it not to sit correctly. right?

 

The harmonic balancer is held together by a rubber ring. Over time, (20 years in most Miata cases) the rubber hardens and cracks, leading it to separate from the pulley and cause the wobble. It's happened on both my Miata's. Just get a new one and all your troubles will go away.

Unless you have a keyway issue, but you won't know until you pull it off. I'd place my money on the balancer.

 

The keyway issue is prevalent in 89-91ish 1.6 engines with the short nose crankshaft.

 

so the rubber ring was fine. some idiot before welded the bolt to the crank and there was a chunk of slag where the pulley sat... ground everything down and put it all together and now it works fine. no wobble...

did a little more body work too. its getting there. a buddy came over and his jaw dropped at how much better its looking. I don't notice it that much but maybe that's because I know how much more work needs to be done.

 

Since my car is too boring to make a build thread I thought I'd just update this for everyone that probably didn't care anyways, but I found out the nose of my crank is actually bent. It works for now though, so I'll just deal with it until this 200k motor goes. There's no more turbo, no longer running like crap, no longer has blown shocks, and the interior looks more complete. It's STARTING to become a normal Miata again. Next purchase I make for it will become a HardDog M1 Hard Core Hardtop rollbar for it, with probably a harness bar and door bars.

 

Too low, too slow.

Seriously though, raise the suspension a little and add some power and you will have a fun little car.

I've had my car that low before, it sucks on the streets. I'm going to raise my car even more again come spring, because I like the way a good handling car feels more than a low car looks.

 

I don't take a lot of pictures of my car so there's a bit of a time gap. The first pic was still with the old suspension and the second was right after I put the coilovers in and they hadn't been adjusted. It's sitting closer to the Lotus's height currently.
I'm just using it as a good gas mileage daily right now, that's why I'm not bothering with a build thread.
Although when I do get some money to do something with it, I've tossed around the idea of doing an Altezza Beams 3SGE Blacktop swap.

 

Totally, that's the first swap that comes to mind.

 

That's part of why it would be cool to pull off.

 

I don't see how that could possibly be a bad idea.

 

Sarcasm?

 

Nah, I'm not into that.

 

Guys I'm struggling with something. Can somebody help me complete this photo?

 

I think it's this



Edit: maybe it's from this? IDK

 

Really wish I could un-see that.

 

The exhaust is on the wrong side of that Miata...
I don't really know what else to say.