Really? Another Miata thread....

[rherold9]

I do that because I have a higher horsepower car. Not usre you need the extra acceleration grip vs higher rate that will give you more cornering grip. Remember, it's a trade off.

Yeah, I won't know if I'll spin tires or not accelerating with the 245 RE-71R's until I actually autocross on them. I'm assuming I will with the more steering input required in auto-x compared to track but you never know until you try it :dunno:

[rherold9]

Fenders are done did good. RickRolled does a solid job and even knows some of the jvhc guys. Also autocrosses his Integra. Ricky is a great guy!





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[rherold9]

So I decided to test fit the wheels from the Mazda3. Will need some camber. Hoping not more than -2.0 once I lower it on coilovers. Didn't rub on my short drive on shitty roads at stock height so that's good.

The wheels look much better than I expected. I actually like them quite a bit even if they are 3 pounds heavier per corner than Rpf1's I might as well save some money for now and use them if I can fit them.

The car feels a lot more rough on bumps which is expected. Car grips like hell but understeers like crazy lol. Also very slow in side to side transition with lots of squat and roll. Definitely need stiffer springs by a long shot.











I also put on a stubby antenna since the stock one is so huge...





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[rherold9]

Auto-x videos if you aren't on FB from my two past autocrosses:

1st autox:
[youtube]4w_hK5UT1U8[/youtube]

2nd autox:
[youtube]FdgAAcMW3-w[/youtube]

Me trying to learn RWD and correct properly: [youtube]wfhi5s138vs[/youtube]





There is another autocross tomorrow as well with I'm sure another video will be coming.

Fun stuff like car mods will be coming soon enough. Don't really care to update build threads much anymore here :bootyshake:

[Beej]

Don't really care to update build threads much anymore here :bootyshake:

Aw boo, why not?

Was FTD of Sunday there on Saturday?

Also I'm thinking of mounting my cooling system to my trunk lid, my exhaust to my roof, and connecting it all with Home Depot shit. Thoughts? If it blows up it just wastes other people's time.

[rherold9]

Aw boo, why not?

You must miss all the fun comments people give that I don't really care to deal with

Was FTD of Sunday there on Saturday?

What car was FTD on Saturday?

Also I'm thinking of mounting my cooling system to my trunk lid, my exhaust to my roof, and connecting it all with Home Depot shit. Thoughts? If it blows up it just wastes other people's time.

:lol: :lol: I have no idea what that monstrosity was but it was just plain stupid. Blew a coolant hose off and water/antifreeze went everywhere

[rherold9]

Fastest run was the 4th run which was a 39.7. On my way to my fastest in my 5th but the car decided it wanted to oversteer after the slalom. Still trying to figure out what I did different that caused it. Need more practice with RWD. I was 2nd in class and only 1.7 seconds behind an FRS with RS3's. Not sure if it had other mods? Regardless was doing quite well for the tires and 95 thousand mile suspension compared to some cars out there with sticky tires :lol: Easily could've gotten in to the mid to low 39s if I was a better driver in some parts.

[youtube]2JsRATKOKjo[/youtube]

[Jake]

Maybe tires got a little too hot and grip fell off between your 4th and 5th runs? Can't watch the video now but if your driving stayed consistent between the two, that'd be my first guess.

[rherold9]

Also, open to hear comments about steering. People saying to not shuffle steer and people saying to shuffle steer :dunno:

What gives? Just a preference thing?

People tend to freak out over shuffle steering for some reason because your hands leave the wheel. I just don't see an issue as you don't want to cross arms as it's less control than one hand being off the steering wheel at a small amount of time. I don't see an issue unless I'm causing the car to get upset, spin, slide, or not correct.

[Jake]

The issue with shuffle steering is that you lose sense of where "centered" is. I try to avoid it, but there are definitely two schools of thought and both of them have their positives/negatives.

[rherold9]

In another news besides look at how bad Ryan drives. I present to you round 1 of where did all my fucking money go?

[ViPER1313]

The issue with shuffle steering is that you lose sense of where "centered" is. I try to avoid it, but there are definitely two schools of thought and both of them have their positives/negatives.

Received opposite advice from a NASA instructor... hand over hand bad bad bad.

I think it's a preference thing.

[ScottyB]

my arms are too short with my seat position to pull off a constant 9 and 3 position in turns where you need more than 90 degrees of wheel movement so i always shuffle, and i've made it work. at some point you just need to do what feels fast to you.

[rherold9]

NC's definitely have 0 body roll stock. On no grip all season's this is pretty atrocious.

:lol:

[rherold9]

Anyone in Richmond want to lend a hand when needed to install some Miatard parts this weekend? Beer and/or food provided. Available during the week at night as well except Wednesdays

[rherold9]

Revived from the dead because 95% of the struggles of the Mazda3 are done. Parting back a half stripped, roll bar, harnessed, full exhaust, suspension, etc... has been nothing but a nightmare for some reason. I guess the car just doesn't want to leave. To sum most of it up, sheared bolt due to torque wrench breaking, destroyed primary 02 sensor threads in stock header, had to cut end links, rounded wheel lock, rounded header to mid-pipe nut, etc... Car is stock and done except ABS sensor (that looks like it's lost in the mail or wasn't shipped. Thanks USPS and Rock Auto), paint, and clean so I'm focusing on the Miata for now.

So no more of the Mazda3 talk and on to Miata stuff.

No pictures as of yet but will be posting some once everything gets assembled and on the car.

Last night I started with removing the front struts, shocks, whatever you want to call them... And of course something has to happen. Story of my car life lately.

Got the driver's side out no problem. Passenger side end link wouldn't come off the lower arm and struggled for a bit on that. Was able to get the sway bar side end link off instead. I'll come back to that tonight on the lower arm. They need to come out because I have a FSB and new end links to install. Got the passenger side out though.

Didn't have any assembly instructions and there really is none I could find online. I was guessing putting together and all was well but then got to the top mount and was lost. Disassembled the stock front struts/shocks. Still couldn't figure it out. Emailed Karcepts at like 10pm. He somehow was up and responded in like 10 minutes and sent me how to from the JRZ dampers. Well I figured out why I was so confused and couldn't figure it out. I somehow missed the spacers that came with the connecting plate and top mounts for the front. Now I'm waiting on those before I can continue on the fronts... :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Tonight I'll work on getting both end links removed and start on removing the rear struts/shocks. I should be able to assemble the rears and get them on the car. I'll also remove the rear sway bar and replace the front sway bar if I have time.

Left to do once suspension stuff is done:

• Header and mid-pipe
  
• Cobalt tower bar

[rherold9]

To sum up tonight: As usual something has to happen. Literally can't catch a break.

This will be shorter explanation than I planned since I'm not too happy right now.

So, I decided to get the front sway bar on tonight just to get everything done in the front. After struggling with passenger side end link some more I decided to break the end link to get it off. Got it off with vice grips and socket wrench. Driver side came off the sway bar without having to break it but still had to use vice grips.



Followed this guide over Flyin Miata's because there is no need to remove the front plastics. I turned the wheel to full lock each side, pulled sway bar in front of tie rods, tilted bar on driver's side down and guided it out slowly. Took about an hour.





Opened FM sway bar box which had the end links and bushings in it. Now for the 1st problem, alas minor, but still annoying, was no grease. After my recent issue I searched the box 4 times and looked at all the plastic bags twice. No dice. Called to see if there was supposed to be grease and there was but I didn't see any. So, I went to buy grease and grease gun.

Got back and guided the new sway bar in with easy. I turned the wheel full lock each side and the sway bar was back in place. Tightened the brackets and abs line.

Now 2nd problem. Opened the Flyin Miata end link bags and started to thread everything together. Immediately two nuts wouldn't fit the head I started on. I tried each connecting plate and nothing. Was very confused. So I went head to head and got two of them with a nut and connecting piece no problem. The other two would not thread both pieces. Awesome :roll: :roll:

So, I emailed FM since they were closed and got automatic replies of they have large amount of emails and to call them if it is urgent. So I'll be calling them tomorrow first thing when they open. I'm worried because I ordered the bar and end links over a month ago. I'm hoping they'll make a quick turn around of the issue though...

[rherold9]

Sum it up, called FM. Tami was nice and friendly. Got forwarded to Eric. He will have everything taken care of if new part(s) needed.

He said the threads are reverse on two end links (no instructions, so I didn't even think about it). So I'll try again tonight I and see if anything changes. He said to not force on the nuts or connecting pieces become angled again when trying to thread (that's why I stopped last night). So, tonight I'll retry again with spinning different directions. I tried similar things last night but I stopped to make sure I wasn't going to cross thread anything since they were angling weird. The classic probable user error and why I didn't want to slam a vendor . Hopefully all goes well or the sway bar will be disconnected until sometime next week when extra part arrives. Problem solved.

[rherold9]

More and more updates until I get everything on the car:

Last night I was able to get everything situated with the end links and FM had great customer service. I can see why they are recommended when buying parts. Two end link heads are opposite thread as told by Eric. So everything is all good there. They did reverse threading so you can adjust on the car without have to unbolt them. While awesome idea and great to use, when you don't know this you think you got a bad part as in my case. I'm glad they were more than helpful. I recommended to add something in description about the product. Something like "due to these having the ability to be adjusted while still on the vehicle, these end links will have reverse threads on two of the heads so don't feel confused when you first get them and they don't clockwise thread on both sides" would go a long way for ignorance. I'll be fully bolting these once the tires are on the ground so the bar won't have pre-load.

Next I worked on removing the rear sway bar which was a breeze compared to the front. No end links gave me trouble.



I then started to remove the plastics in the trunk to access the top nuts. Didn't realize you'd have to remove every single piece until I got into it. So I removed all the pieces and removed the metal gas protector



I unbolted the top nuts inside the trunk and bolt from the wheel well. Then removed the 17mm on the bottom. I then took a hammer and harbor freight jack stand metal piece and beat on the bottom spring seat to get the bottom of the shock off the little nipple.



I did not remove any arms in the rear as you don't need to. The FM instructions say to remove the lateral link on the bottom. After doing the removal that will for sure make getting the rear shock out easier but isn't necessary. After some patience wiggling, pulling, pushing, and turning I got both of the rear shocks out.





Disassembled the rear shocks. Started to re-assemble.



Got a little rage when I figured out that I would need to drill out some pieces to fit on the MCS damper to re-use the OE pieces. Specifically the cylinder and top piece. I was not informed of this and did not realize this was a thing. The pieces I'm talking about are 14 and 15 of the assembly diagram. I thought these would be included just like Ohlins or Fox but I was incorrect. A little frustrating but it is what it is. No aftermarket top hats for the NC provide the travel the OE's do. At least none that you can buy off the shelf like the front sphericals. Not sure why they designed the NC rears so weird but they do what they are designed to do and give good travel compared to the NA/NB. I wish a company would develop aftermarket that work with these dampers or equivalent dampers that have the same qualities as OE.



I stopped there for the night and will be picking up a drill and drill bits. Also, my harbor freight spinning piece to lower the jack has broken. It barely works to lower it. It gets jammed or something's up. Feels crunchy. I'll be buying that as well I guess.

Hoping to get everything assembled and on the car tonight then start on the exhaust if I get the time.

[*insertusernamehere*]

I didn't read any of it. Congrats! Glad you're making all this progress on the otter!