Project Track Rat: 1990 Miata

[V1GiLaNtE]

Yesterday I ordered a complete clutch kit (Clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing and alignment tool), a rear main seal, tranny cover gasket, front tranny oil seal, rear tranny oil seal, and two exhaust gaskets for $146 with shipping.

Hold UP.. Pump the Brakes... You got ALL that for $146 with shipping?? hock: GAWD DAMN

[xvxax]

Do you have a garage at the new place? If so, is it large enough to put a car inside to work on it?

[Kaan]

Do you have a garage at the new place? If so, is it large enough to put a car inside to work on it?

the garages are a little tight on the sides... but you can get the job done.

[SlimKlim]

Yesterday I ordered a complete clutch kit (Clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing and alignment tool), a rear main seal, tranny cover gasket, front tranny oil seal, rear tranny oil seal, and two exhaust gaskets for $146 with shipping.

Hold UP.. Pump the Brakes... You got ALL that for $146 with shipping?? hock: GAWD DAMN

Yeah, gotta love miatars. 8)

Do you have a garage at the new place? If so, is it large enough to put a car inside to work on it?

the garages are a little tight on the sides... but you can get the job done.

Yep. And that's where the magic is going to happen.I think I'm going to put it in there tomorrow night and get it up in the air. and just let all the bolts soak in penetrating oil for a couple days. It hasn't been apart in 21 years, and I don't think its gonna come easy.

I might start taking it apart Sunday since I'm only doing one day at Hyperfest.

[Scott]

What clutch did you get and where did you get it?

[andrew_j]

It hasn't been apart in 21 years, and I don't think its gonna come easy....

My stock suspension came right off my car without issue, so you might be pleasantly surprised.

[Kaan]

i think Fairfax Po Po is making him speed up the miatas trip to the garage!

[SlimKlim]

Yeah, came home last night to a $50 ticket for not having tags displayed. In a parking spot. In the back of our huge apartment complex. The only way to contest is to set up a court date, I refuse to loose $100 in income taking time off work to fight a $50 ticket. I should pay in pennies.

What clutch did you get and where did you get it?

Stock replacement from mazdaspeed.

[xvxax]

Dang, that's cheaper than the clutch kit for my ranger by like $100. Miatas are silly inexpensive.

So whats the game plan post running?

Fairfax County police are notorious for ball busting for the sake of income generation, sorry I meant to say the safety and well-being of their residents. Ah but I digress. Welcome to Northern Virginia.

[SlimKlim]

So whats the game plan post running?

Relatively short term (summer through this winter):
Coilovers, Sways, 15x7 wheels, the fattest tires I can fit under the fender, two fixed back seats, harnesses, racing wheel, and a x-brace harddog roll bar. New radiator, hoses, other cooling system refresh stuff. New plug wires, all new fluids, etc etc.

Little bit longer term:
CAI, Exhaust, Cams?

[V1GiLaNtE]

Little bit longer term:
CAI, Exhaust, ITB'S?

There.. fixed that for ya.. :twisted:

[DLingenfelter]

So whats the game plan post running?

Relatively short term (summer through this winter):
Coilovers, Sways, 15x7 wheels, the fattest tires I can fit under the fender, quote]

Street tires or R-comps? Street tires (ToyoR1R, Bridgestone RE11, Dunlop Star Spec) I'd go with 195mm for the 15x7, God knows I should have, the steering response is a lot crisper. With R-comps you could go a little wider.
Have fun with it man!

[SlimKlim]

Got the trans out today.



The mechanic said the pressure plate had collapsed, which is why the clutch had just "gone" at 54k. Apparently not.



There was pretty much no meat left on the friction disc though.



Replaced the rear main seal.



Luckily I have parts for that. New clutch and pressure plate, and a remanned flywheel. Remanned by Joey-With-Emery-Cloth that is.



Like an idiot I used a poorly sized socket to press the new pilot bearing in. It crushed the soft meaty part in the middle there, you can see the difference between the new and old. The alignment tool still fits into it just fine, and it spins freely. But I don't wanna go back in here for something dumb, so I ordered another one.



I also ordered the front tranny cover gasket. I went in there to replace a seal, but the guide I used forgot to list it in the parts list for the project. I also replaced the rear tranny seal.

Halfway there, the stuff I ordered is coming from Rosenthal Mazda in Arlington, so I might still have 'er back together by the weekend. 8)

EDIT: Oh and by the way, this has to be the dirtiest job I've ever done on a car, and I've done some pretty dirty stuff. Everyday I've touched it I've turned completely black all the way up to my biceps, from my knees halfway down my shins and on my face and neck. Ive just been keeping a bottle of fast orange in the shower...

[SlimKlim]

Welp. Got the parts I was waiting on, put the new front cover gasket on, greased all the stuff you're supposed to grease, put on the new throwout bearing and reattached the throwout arm. I got the new, undented pilot bearing and installed it less like an idiot this time, and then bolted up the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate.

Then I dragged the thing back under the car and shimmied it into place with rope and a floor jack. At a certain point though we had to use the floor jack to change the angle of the motor and I just had to manhandle the trans to get the input shaft into the pilot bearing. Got all the bolts on Wednesday night, installed the slave cylinder and reattached it to the "power plant frame"which is mazda for "weird thing we used in place of a normal tranny mount," and put the driveshaft in. Thursday, with the help of Jake and Meg, we torqued all the trans and PPF bolts to spec, put the downpipe and cat back on, filled the trans with fluid, put the underbody panel back on and installed the shifter and center console.

THEN WE DROVE THAT SHIT, around the parking lot. Leaving work early today to go to OG and get another quart of trans fluid, the DMV for tags, and registration, and autozone for some clay, polishing pads and some top treatment.

Hurray!!

Total cost to get the car on the road so far:
$500 Purchase
$146 Parts
$ 45 Title
$ 54 Moar Parts
$ 25 Fluid
$ 80 Tools (I actually spent more but I'm returning about $60 worth, you could argue that tools aren't part of the cost, but its the cars fault I went and bought em)
$ __ Tags+ Registration later today

$850 Total so far. Tagged, Running and on the road. I'm not counting insurance, because listing it as my DD offsets the insurance cost on the M3 enough to break even. I still pay $145 a god-damn-month though.

The car has fresh motor oil, fresh trans oil, freshish looking coolant and plenty of life left on the brakes. I'm planning on driving it quite a bit to break in the clutch, but depending on how terrifyingly shitty these old tires are at stopping the thing, I might wait until I have new wheels. Speaking of which, I found a guy with three good TRmotorsport C1Ms and 4 good Kuhmo XS's for $280, I can get a new 4th for $89 and I'm into a set of track wheels for less than $400. If that deal goes smoothly I'll be on the prowl for similarly used/cheap coils and sways.

Next steps this weekend and next week are to detail the every loving shit out of the blessed thing. Clay bar, polish, wax, top treatment, headlight and glass restoration, trim de-rusting and repainting, and I might take a look at slowing down the rust in the rockers to buy me a year or two before I have to have it fixed fixed.

I am planning on trying to keep an accurate running total for this thing, I'd like to see how cheap I can get it on the track.

[kcook]

makes me want a miata seeing how stupid cheap everything is... and one of my best friends just picked up a black NB with a roll bar. if joey can fit, I can fit.

[Jake]

Surprise, it runs and drives and sounds like a 1.6L Miata!

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/25556493[/vimeo]

[V1GiLaNtE]

Joey I need you to buy me a lotto ticket when I come to town.. Somehow you always get stupid lucky cheap deals.. Otter is coming along nicely sir!

[.RJ]

THEN WE DROVE THAT SHIT

:lol:

[Goodspeed]

Felicitations all around, nice work. I can tell in that vid that you're going to need to get lowwww with a roll-bar installed. Foamectomy maybe?

[xvxax]

This is awesome. I wish I had motivation for weekday wrenching. Is that Meg?

Want to come shake it down? July 8/9, or July 15/16? Good autocrosses both days of both weekends. Goodspeed, you too.