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The whole cookie cutter issue is really bizarre. I'm guessing it'll happen to every car eventually, but some cars slice the bushings right away - this was the primary motivation for changing from our original orange bushings to the firmer, much more durable black bushings for our now-discontinued 863 kit. Really don't know why some cars do it immediately, and some take 30k miles.
Interesting, and thank you for the info. I guess I'll just keep a close eye on these
Glad everyone likes the XJ! I basically completely rebuilt it with a lot of OEM+ style mods and upgrades, and after 2 years of on the side restoration work it became my do it all daily if the Miata is down or impractical for the day. I've put over 40,000 miles on it since the rebuild! It came to me as a tired RWD example and now it's basically a clone of the factory off road package, with some upgrades. Lots of parts swapped off of other Chrysler/Jeep models to give me big brakes, skid plates, better seats, etc. Here's the build thread if you really wanna dive into it. Captain Jerry - '99 Restoration/Modification - Jeep Cherokee Forum
So far the feedback on the Mercedes spherical is... mixed. Bronson hasn't had an issue but he only has them in the rear. Chris says he's had to replace some bearings, but only Dorman, not Moog. Both have concerns about using only one in the FLCA-F location. I'm thinking delrin will be the move, but I'll let it marinate for a bit. I'll be on vacation next week so I'll have time to ruminate.
Originally Posted by Z_WAAAAAZ
Congrats on the PB as well! Nice consistency in that session. Looks like you might have a tiny bit more to give too, seeing that your 9th lap time was almost identical to lap 2, and the car was obviously much hotter at that point.
I was thinking it was pretty inconsistent to be honest! I kept trying to find more time in the infield complex and most of the time it resulted in mistakes. It's a really fun section, much more complicated than the below map would imply.
So turn 6 apexes at a crest in the road, and turn 7 is in the bottom of a valley. It has a crest on corner exit, so right as you're getting on throttle you're also losing grip. It's a fun but scary combination when the wall is right there. This is shown at time 0:47 - 1:00 in my last PB video linked in June.
Or, watch a professional do it with a better focus on the track
On the slower laps I was outbraking myself into T6 and going too wide on exit, then losing out on T7 and thus lacking confidence in T8. Given that T8 exits onto the main straight, I really need to focus more on positioning myself through T7 than trying to feel like a hero into T6.
Upon closer inspection, maybe you're right about the consistency part... or maybe my standards are just lower and my initial thought was still that your time spreads looked pretty good
Dang, you're not joking, that infield looks like a ton of fun! So much elevation change for a roval. Our old local roval (rest in peace) had zero elevation change on the infield, and almost no barriers to worry about either. Us SoCal folks are cowardly compared to you guys with our wall-less tracks haha!
That T6-T8 complex seems like a serious challenge. So many factors at play, as you stated.
No kidding. I miss working on my car and wish I could make daily progress posts like some people. Instead I've been working on my house. Houses are bullshit.
The basement flooded earlier this year because the people who sold us their deceased mothers house did a crap job of moving the gutter drains underground, which got broken/clogged and pushed a ton of water into the basement, destroying the carpet and wall paneling.
When I took the water damaged wood paneling off, I found a lot of termite damage. This wall between my garage and basement got torn down and rebuilt.
Then I can move on from house work for a bit!
Nice work man! I myself have been sidetracked for a little while due to work and we're redoing our kitchen and a couple other small things that came up. Almost done though and hoping to get back to the Miata..
With that said. I'm a HUGE advocate of getting downspouts away from the house with ugly black 4" corrugated pipe above ground until you can bury 3" (or even better 4") schedule 40 pvc to daylight. The black corrugated crap buried ALWAYS compresses, clogs, and eventually gets blocked up. With the recent storms around here, depending on the roof and amount of water coming off of it, 6" K gutters with larger 3x4" downspouts are the way to go vs the standard 5" K gutters and 2x3" downspouts. They flow much more water and don't clog as easily. One of the first things I tell people when they buy a house is checkout the drainage around the house. It's amazing how many people don't pay any attention to it. Also make sure you have a positive slope/grade of dirt away from the foundation wall away from the house. Sorry didn't mean to rant but I think it's important and worth repeating.
I wish I had some more pictures of the house without all my crap in it. Unfortunately, it's just an extremely poorly placed house on the lot, and relative to the sewer system.
The sewer line exits the house halfway up the basement wall, as it is the lowest house on the block. Any water that gets below there has to be pumped out, so the only plumbing downstairs is for the clothes washer. There is no drain in the basement, and the backyard is almost flat, so the natural drainage isn't great.
The basement walls on the uphill side are cracked, and in fact some walls were cracked before the foundation was poured. Part of the purchase agreement was to have the wall "repaired", which was simply carbon fiber epoxied to the block in order to prevent it from getting worse.
Said cracked basement walls actually pulled the sewer drain in two. The basement flooded with sewage twice before I figured out it was due to a broken drain and not just a clog. One of my first house repairs was digging this up and repairing it. Thankfully the poo water didn't get into the finished part of the basement. That's right, in total I've had to sweep and push water out of this basement 4 different times, sometimes with poo in it.
Like I said, houses are bullshit. I can't wait to move.
There's a company car show coming up. I'm sure I'll win with my $3,750 Mazda Miata. Here's my "all about me" show and tell slide.
I wish I had some more pictures of the house without all my crap in it. Unfortunately, it's just an extremely poorly placed house on the lot, and relative to the sewer system.
The sewer line exits the house halfway up the basement wall, as it is the lowest house on the block. Any water that gets below there has to be pumped out, so the only plumbing downstairs is for the clothes washer. There is no drain in the basement, and the backyard is almost flat, so the natural drainage isn't great.
The basement walls on the uphill side are cracked, and in fact some walls were cracked before the foundation was poured. Part of the purchase agreement was to have the wall "repaired", which was simply carbon fiber epoxied to the block in order to prevent it from getting worse.
Said cracked basement walls actually pulled the sewer drain in two. The basement flooded with sewage twice before I figured out it was due to a broken drain and not just a clog. One of my first house repairs was digging this up and repairing it. Thankfully the poo water didn't get into the finished part of the basement. That's right, in total I've had to sweep and push water out of this basement 4 different times, sometimes with poo in it.
Like I said, houses are bullshit. I can't wait to move.
Ouch.. sounds like you've had your share of headaches. My house also has a sewage ejection pump for the basement plumbing and a drain that exits chest level in the basement but *knock on wood* no problems with it so far. Just a tradeoff based on how high the street sewage pipe is. The lot is sloped down in the rear for an almost walk out basement so I'm sure that helps with drainage issues. A flat lot and a basement dug in fairly deep would make me a little worried as well as the water has no where to go. Unfortunately lots of poorly placed houses out there and something you obviously know to look out for. A friend did a new build and set their house back towards the bottom of a hill in a flat area and his sump pits in the basement have water gushing in during hard rains..
More spam content. Naturally, the latest TNiA freebie picture came out just prior to me sending in my slide. Sigh...
I can't wait to get a picture with the painted hardtop, spoiler, and spats. I'll probably get latter two painted by a professional shop for quicker turnaround. Just need to decide on if/how I want to toughen up those 3d printed parts and how I want to attach the spoiler - 3M VHB tape, or drilled holes?
Alright, time for more ridiculous hand wringing and deliberating over considering the possibility of working on my car.
It's floating now.
I put it on stands to play with underbody aero ideas. I was disappointed with all of them. More hand wringing required.
However, I do have a plan for the spoiler.
It's made out of two pieces, bonded together. Here's the underside.
It's a great fit to the trunk lid, well done Carbonmiata!
Here's my goal - adjustable downforce, without a wing, and without a Blackbird style spoiler (no longer available anyways) that looks like a Home Depot special. Just imagine the four red dots are bolt holes, and the blue thing is a spoiler blade.
The 6 shooter looking nuts from the previous picture are adhesive mount nuts. My plan is to cut a hole in the bottom of the spoiler in order to access the open cavity and feed in the nuts. Then I'll use a length of wire to pull the adhesive covered nuts to each red dot mounting point. A few cross drilled studs run through the nuts (imagine hood pins) will let me wrap the wire around something that can pull through the top side drilled holes and orient the nuts properly. For track use, I'll be able to experiment with different blade lengths. Longer ones could even get support rods to the trunk, like the Blackbird spoiler. For street use, I'll remove the blades and cover the holes to prevent water from getting in. Then I can deal with the third brake light.
Once I've got a solution for rear downforce, I'll start thinking about getting the DCBE spats and a splitter (or at least a flat undertray) on the front end.
More projects coming soon. Just waiting on other people and the mail.
I love this, can't wait to see where it goes. The BBFW spoilers are cool, biut it'll be cool to see something a little bit different on the back of your car.
So I asked for delrin FLCA-F bushings with a 1" center sleeve and two additional center sleeves for my brakes. My buddy is playing with his new 3d printer and included some extra toys that I wasn't expecting! The red Miata is actually a key hanger with working pop ups. And for some reason he sent me a single fog light brake cooling duct. I'll need another if I'm going to cool my brakes! For now I'm going to use it to feed air to the cold air intake area.
New stuff on the left, original equipment on the right.
The smaller sleeves my buddy made are new stainless bridge bolt spacer tubes for the Afco F88 calipers. The originals are aluminum, and the black blotches on them are galling damage from the brake pads rubbing on them. Stainless is a bit heavier, but should be better able to deal with it. I'm still probably under the factory Sport brake weight.
A few people with Afcos have had the bridge bolt shear in two during brake servicing due to the crappy lock nuts Afco selected. I went ahead and purchased some extra bolts with 1/4-28 fine threads instead of the -20 coarse thread. Fine threads are stronger and less likely to back out, and as a bonus the hex head bolts are zinc plated instead of black oxide for rust resistance.
New stuff on the left, original equipment on the right.
The smaller sleeves my buddy made are new stainless bridge bolt spacer tubes for the Afco F88 calipers. The originals are aluminum, and the black blotches on them are galling damage from the brake pads rubbing on them. Stainless is a bit heavier, but should be better able to deal with it. I'm still probably under the factory Sport brake weight.
A few people with Afcos have had the bridge bolt shear in two during brake servicing due to the crappy lock nuts Afco selected. I went ahead and purchased some extra bolts with 1/4-28 fine threads instead of the -20 coarse thread. Fine threads are stronger and less likely to back out, and as a bonus the hex head bolts are zinc plated instead of black oxide for rust resistance.
Very nice! I ordered some new bolts from mcmaster carr that need to replace the questionable homedepot bolt that's in there now. Question for you on the sleeves. Is it me or is the sleeve maybe a 1/32" or maybe a 1/16" too short? I'm not sure if that's by design and it needs to close a tiny gap in the caliper or it's just a little short. One time I noticed the bolt snugged down but the spacer still spun. You got some cool friends making you some nice stuff!
The smaller sleeves my buddy made are new stainless bridge bolt spacer tubes for the Afco F88 calipers. The originals are aluminum, and the black blotches on them are galling damage from the brake pads rubbing on them. Stainless is a bit heavier, but should be better able to deal with it. I'm still probably under the factory Sport brake weight.
A few people with Afcos have had the bridge bolt shear in two during brake servicing due to the crappy lock nuts Afco selected. I went ahead and purchased some extra bolts with 1/4-28 fine threads instead of the -20 coarse thread. Fine threads are stronger and less likely to back out, and as a bonus the hex head bolts are zinc plated instead of black oxide for rust resistance.
Originally Posted by SlowTeg
Very nice! I ordered some new bolts from mcmaster carr that need to replace the questionable homedepot bolt that's in there now. Question for you on the sleeves. Is it me or is the sleeve maybe a 1/32" or maybe a 1/16" too short? I'm not sure if that's by design and it needs to close a tiny gap in the caliper or it's just a little short. One time I noticed the bolt snugged down but the spacer still spun. You got some cool friends making you some nice stuff!
@OptionXIII the stainless sleeves look great. I don't remember seeing galling on mine, but wouldn't be surprised if I did have some. I had the same issues with the lock nut and my bridge bolts. Wish I had just thrown that nut in the trash day 1. In the end, I had to cut mine off, on both sides. I'm also not crazy about the bleeders either, but haven't messed with them. FYI...I do have the ABS up and running now. It works great. I'm slow at writing things up, but if you have any questions, happy to help.
@SlowTeg Sort of answering for O13 here, but with the original bolt / nut my bridge sleeve would spin too. (Even tightening them as tight as I could, which I'm sure helped screw up the threads.) I thought it might be a defect too, but once I got a new bolt and lock nut, they tightened up the sleeve so it wouldn't spin like they are supposed too.
I could have sworn I had read to tighten down the bolt until you cannot spin the sleeve, but all the Afco documentation I have says torque to 75 in-lbs. I'm guessing the engineer that spec'd that figure didn't account for those terrible lock nuts requiring so much more torque. I'm still going to torque until they don't spin, especially now with the fine threads being rated to a higher strength.
Anyways.
This delrin FLCA-F bushing project is absolutely cursed. Halloween vibes have come early.
Here's the split bushing, removed from the car. Oddly enough, it's the front bushing that's damaged. Not the rear one that takes the braking thrust load.
The rear bushing isn't showing any signs of being turned into a donut. But it is damaged. That step you see on the inside diameter, and the ragged edge on the outsideportion nearest the camera (and out of focus), indicate to me that the bushing is actually spinning in the control arm, rather than the bronze bushing spinning. The bronze sleeves are now a loose fit with them out of the control arm.
Here's the damaged FLCA-F bushing. The split goes pretty far down the inside diameter. I've no explanation for this sort of damage on the non-load bearing bushing.
This one inch diameter drill bit I bought was a terrible idea. I don't know what I expected.
On my first attempt to install the bushings, I did it backwards with the larger thrust face on the front bushing. So I had to beat the bushing back out and install it again the proper way. And then since I was so disappointed with the drill bit, I took it to work on Friday hoping the fab shop would have the appropriate bit.
Well, there's a reason it's called the fab shop and not the machine shop. The guy I ended up talking to just grabbed the drill bit out of the box that was labelled for the 1" bit and never even bothered to look at it. He just sent it. He sent it with a 1-1/32nd drill bit. I don't know why I watched in horror instead of taking the thing away from him after his first attempt only pecked it by 1/8" or so. He obviously was not handling it in a way that showed any care or concern. Dude had never even heard of delrin.
Here's the result of his handywork. Hot dog in a hallway style of fit.
So in an attempt to salvage this project, I bought a 1" reamer off of amazon for a 1 day delivery and got it today. Only problem is they sent me an empty envelope, with it taped back together indicating they realize something fell out. I've watched my friend fight to get a refund for a similar situation. This will be fun.
I debated installing the second set of delrin bushings (a third attempt at pressing them in this arm) but decided that the drill bit was so disappointing that I would wait to get the proper tool.
I debated installing the other Supermiata FLCA-F bushings, but decided that was a waste if I was surely going to go with delrin next.
There's an autocross tomorrow my friend has been nagging at me to go to. I'm probably just going to throw the junky bushing back in, set the eccentrics to their previous position, and go for it.
I am disgusted with the entire series of events. I miss living in a machine shop.
Holy heck, what an escapade! That's a bummer man, sorry the repair has stretched out this long.
That sucks about the Amazon debacle. I've received damaged items from Amazon before and just returned them and received a refund, using a random cancellation reason from their drop down menu. One of my dad's buddies owns a UPS store that takes amazon returns and told me a while ago that most of the returned packages just get picked up and tossed in the trash as it's not worth it for the company to re-inventory them.
But I guess that doesn't help you with your bushing concern.
It went really well! The only problem was I took no pictures or video.
I got the car back together that night, and swapped the 225 RS4s and the race seat back in. I think I've finally got the seat set up just right, it only took 8 minutes to go from the street seat to the race seat and buckle myself in. This was the first autocross I've been to in a long time, and I only went because they were going to a larger venue.
I ran in STR and got the perfect assignment - 1st work group, 3rd run group, so you can stand on asphalt as early as possible, watch other people struggle and learn from their mistakes, and you get to leave right after your runs. I was working at the most difficult corner as well, a pivot cone in a box. Most people seemed to lug their low powered cars out of it in second gear, but a few of the faster guys eventually shifting down to first and making it smooth. So when it came time for me to run, I went down to first from the get go. And it was awesome. My car isn't set up for autocross, but it felt fantastic. Fast and loose. I was able to consistently get only a touch of inside brake lockup into the pivot cone, downshift smoothly, and come out powersliding every time. Overdriving the car isn't as fast, but it's a lot more fun and way cooler looking.
I ended up 3rd behind two ND2s. I was 2nd after the 4th run by 0.001 seconds, but on the fifth run he found a tenth of a second. I think I was the fastest NA/NB there that wasn't boosted/swapped or a stripped out racecar. It'd be fun to compete a bit more consistently next year and see if I can beat them, but I'm not going to buy a second set of sticky tires just so I can have something more competitive for autocross/time trails.
Last edited by OptionXIII; Oct 1, 2024 at 08:39 AM.
I got a new tool for the garage, that likely will never go in the garage. I've been interested in picking one up for a while, but it became a much more serious consideration when I was waiting days on other people to use theirs for test parts. I love my friends but sometimes you just want to hyperfocus on your own hobbies without needing outside support.
I held off until I finished the basement to avoid distractions and to give myself a reward. And with that major project (mostly) done, it was time for a little treat.
I got myself a Bambu Labs P1S with the AMS. Months ago I was looking at significantly cheaper options. But about three weeks ago, my guy with the CNC got himself a Bambu X1C and went from a reluctant user of 3d prints for test pieces, do a downright enthusiast. He was raving about how good it was. Soon after, SuperFastMatt posted a video about 3d printing and I took it as a sign.
I joked to my friend it sounded like he helped write the script, it was so similar to what he had told me. And how he's talked about 3d printers in the past. Both of them had the same message though - the Bambu offerings are a zero thought setup, they work right out of the box, and they're almost entirely faultless in operation. You're buying a new tool, not a new hobby that you have to tinker with to support your other hobbies.
Well, I like the sound of that. And I want to print ABS, so I might as well get the enclosed P1S instead of their more entry level models. And if I'm gonna do that, I'll need a way to store the filament to keep it dry, and that's extra steps. Pull it out, hook it up, print, remove, seal it back up. Bleh, that sounds like hobby stuff. Not a tool. Might as well get the AMS system as well. Suddenly my planned expenses have more than doubled. Oh well, order it.
Within an hour of unpacking, I had it printing the standard test print "Benchy" boat thing. There was no tuning, no testing, I just assembled the printer, connected it to my phone, pushed a few buttons on the control panel, and it got to work. Then I downloaded their software to my janky laptop, uploaded a few files, and started printing other parts.
This thing is awesome. I've never controlled a 3d printer before, barely researched them at all, and it's printing stuff without a problem. Wild. I've printed 4 things so far - the benchy, a vintage Mazda logo, a support for my unmounted under dash fusebox (due to the 1.6 dash swap), and a dash light adapter.
This thing. I grabbed a few lenses from junkyard Mercedes cars months ago because I thought it was neat. I'll wire them up with the stock 1.6 dash lights.
I've got a list of parts to print from models off thingiverse, some more bits of my own design, and parts I have yet to design but suddenly see the perfect tool to make them. This thing is gonna be fun!
Last edited by OptionXIII; Oct 4, 2024 at 12:35 PM.
Dude that is sick! I know it’s “just a new tool” but I’d imagine it’s so easy to go down the rabbit hole of what you can make once you have a legit printer. Do you have anything else on the list you to make in the immediate future?
Also, congrats on the result last weekend! I think I started typing out a response the other day and never finished it. Glad the car was driveable for ya still.
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Question for you on the sleeves. Is it me or is the sleeve maybe a 1/32" or maybe a 1/16" too short? I'm not sure if that's by design and it needs to close a tiny gap in the caliper or it's just a little short. One time I noticed the bolt snugged down but the spacer still spun. You got some cool friends making you some nice stuff!
