What did Chief do to his Mazdas today?

[chiefmg]

Miata: The master cylinder brace arrived today. Here is what you get:

There are also a couple of nuts/bolts used to attach it to the other shock brace but I don’t care about those.

I positioned it so the body of the brace was wholly on the left side mount of the shock brace, but that won’t work:

In order to have the brace touch the master cylinder I was looking at only having a couple of threads engaged in the long nut. So, on to the next idea:

I screwed the brace into the long nut and then messed with where I could put the body. I was thinking I might have to get some stainless plate and make a L shape, but looking at everything I will be able to weld all around the body including on the back side. That should give me more than enough strength.

[chiefmg]

Miata: Made a run to Harbor Freight to pick up some pliers etc for welding. When I got home pulled some pieces off so that I could target the MC brace where I would weld it:

Pulled the shock brace off and commenced to welding. Again, not my best as I am still coming to grips with setting up the wire feed welder. But hey, grind some of the ugly down and it isn’t too bad:


Assembled everything back together, adjusted the MC brace bolt and voila:

Haven’t gone for a drive yet, but pushing on the brake pedal while sitting shows a pedal that has zero give. Can’t wait to see how this impacts my braking (I have driven other cars with a MC brace and it does great things for braking feel).

[chiefmg]

Miata: As mentioned I have been having drivability issues. Took several datalogs. I was getting surging under many modes (including steady-state throttle), gas consumption was way up and I just couldn’t trust not having problems. In looking through the logs I was trying to spot any inconsistencies (there is a lot of data to absorb so pretty difficult). One thing I noticed was fluctuation in the TPS (throttle position sensor) %, even when it was in a steady state. I also performed the calibration of the TPS within the MegaSquirt, and found differences each time in the zero setting. With the thinking that the last thing you touched probably being the cause, yesterday I swapped back to the original TPS that I had changed out last year while chasing my stumbling issue. Took her on a short drive this morning to get the tank filled, and there were zero issues. Feeling lucky I then drove to a C&C. Freeway miles along with in-town, and I am happy to report everything was still good. I feel certain I solved the problem at this time. Lesson learned for me, I will not be buying any more cheap electronic parts in the future.

[chiefmg]

Miata: After a couple of search attempts, I found the rear 949 subframe brace at my storage. Crawled underneath and installed that this morning. With the new muffler hanger in place, I have space between the brace and the exhaust which means I can leave it on. This makes me happy.

Neglected to post it, but after several drives now with the MC brace in place I am really pleased with the brake pedal feel now.

New rear bearings have arrived.

[chiefmg]

Miata: Swung by the dealer and ordered the correct larger brake dust shields for the rear.

Hoisted her up into the air to try adjusting the muffler position. Accomplished this by whacking the new muffler hanger with a hammer. I’ll see if this lets it maintain correct position side to side. If not then I will probably cut the hanger off and reweld it.

The four nuts that connect the upper and lower rear diffuser pieces are a royal PITA to get in place. I have some construction adhesive that I used to glue down the stopper for the wife’s car that seemed to work well, so I gave that a shot. Put some around the perimeter of the nuts, then put them in place with the screws and left for a while to harden up before assembly.


This worked on three out of four, the last one came loose but it was one that I was able to reach. Maybe once the adhesive hardens overnight it will be good.

[chiefmg]

Miata: A few weeks ago I took the plunge on a new set of door bushings. These are made by a friend over in Greece who has started a business producing certain Miata parts (you can find him at https://www.instagram.com/dcbe.tech/). It took a little over two weeks for me to receive them via USPS. What sets these apart from the usual Delrin type is they have a solid core with a rubberized coating. The cross-section is different as well. New type is on the left in the pictures:


He also includes stainless socket head cap screws as part of the package. Installation is like other door bushings. I did have to mess with the passenger door bushing a few times to get it just right (probably something to do with that door on my car). End result is great. Same feeling of solidity with a much easier closure of the doors with no sanding of the bushing. I can recommend these.

[chiefmg]

Miata: Finally set about repacking my new rear wheel bearings. Followed basically the same procedure as I used for the fronts with some slight differences. There are two seals on the rears and I didn’t see any way of removing them without damage so they stayed in. I did end up removing the backing spring as they kept popping out and that was easier (don’t lose them). Same for the balls and retainers, everything was tight in there. I wedged pennies between the two inner races, drove out the first one then flipped the bearing over and drove out the second one. It seemed like there was a slight difference in the curvature of the two races so I made sure not to mix them up. I wiped out as much of the old grease as I could, it was white which I have never seen in a bearing grease. Then I soaked it in hot water and the same Oil Eater cleaner I used on the fronts. Took several washes/blowing out with air in order to remove the old grease since nothing could be taken apart. Then in with the new synthetic grease, install the seal springs and put the races back in. Note with this step you have to be careful that the lip of the seal doesn’t get folded under the race. Those are both done and ready for installation.

[chiefmg]

Miata: Washed her dirty butt two days ago. Also started the installation of my air line from the compressor location to the hose reel by the garage door (finally).

Had to order a couple of fittings to finish, those came in today. This means I won’t have to run the air hose from the compressor all the time when I need it in the driveway. I am a little concerned about others using it because of the proximity of the hose reel to the Miata, but I can fix that while I’m gone.

[chiefmg]

Miata: Today I finally got around to adding an electrical receptacle by the garage door. I did this mainly to make things easier when using the Miata’s battery charger while gone. Bonus is it means I won’t have to run an extension cord when vacuuming cars outside etc. No pictures as all I had to do was drill a hole through two 2X4s, go into the attic and run the wire, figure out which circuit breaker fed the receptacle I was tying into, then hook everything up and check for voltage. Just a simple little up-and-down job.