Did a little research last night on Mazda Motorsports' site, those missing plugs are cheap. Went to the dealer this morning, cost was less than $4 each. Unfortunately there was only one in the GA location, the remaining stock is in TX and I have to wait a minimum of 5 days for delivery. Oh well, I'll get everything else buttoned up while I wait.
'81 RX-7, '00 Miata SE, '06 RX-8 (wife's), '15 CX-5 GT AWD.
Miata: horn surround for the steering wheel showed up today. I like how it looks. Here are shots of the wheel without and with the surround (that is the horn button I got from revlimiter):
Miata: the plugs for the head finally showed up today. There is some sort of locking agent on the threads. At first I thought it was Loctite Blue, but a close look shows it has a granularity to it and seems to be thicker. Still too cold to work in the garage but at least I have these in hand.
Also, while looking through eBay I found that there is in fact a part number for the foam piece that keeps the top latches quiet when the the top is open and they are shut. You may recall I made some myself but these will be much nicer. Put those on order from the dealer today. For anyone interested, the part number is NA01-R1-313B.
Miata: Warmer today, so back into the garage. Started by checking the clearance on the intake valves, all were very tight. Pulled the cam and measured all the shims. Did the same for the exhaust side. Basically everything was overly tight so I am going to have to get some shims. I figured out what all I will need, going to hit the dealer tomorrow to get them ordered.
Miata: Back at it again, got the shims on order first thing this morning. This afternoon I decided to start with the steering wheel to see if the hub was going to need any modification beyond moving the turn signal cancel mechanism bushing. Amazingly, I didn't have to do anything else to get it mounted.
I haven't rigged up the airbag resistor yet, I need some smaller StaKons than what I have on hand.
Started putting things back on the engine with the intake side first. Got the manifold and injectors back on. Put the radiator hose on my reroute at the back of the engine. Installed the extended studs for the supercharger mounting bracket and tightened the remaining nuts on the exhaust manifold, only to find out one of the nuts was stripped. I am guessing that happened when I was working on getting the stock studs out of those three locations on the new head. So that put a crimp in getting anything else done today. I'll hit Ace tomorrow to see if they have a fine thread metric nut I can use. In the meantime, she's asleep for the night:
Miata: Ace let me down so it was back to the dealer. Gave the guy the part number, he typed it into the computer and then disappeared in the back. When he came back he had the five nuts I asked for in his hand. Best part? He didn't charge me for them. That made my week. Got home and used two of the nuts, that got the exhaust manifold finished. Put the manifold blanket in place and installed the supercharger mounting bracket. That was pretty much it for under the hood, as I want to leave myself as much room as possible to get the timing belt back on once the valve lash is set.
Decided to look at what I needed to do in order to connect the horn and driver's airbag resistor. Cut the wire off the factory steering wheel, added some extra length with soldering/heat shrink and then put a disconnect on the end. That should take care of the horn.
Unfortunately the resistor wouldn't fit into the airbag connector, so I am going to pick & pull tomorrow to see if I can find an blown airbag with the connector on it to use as my bypass.
Miata: Went to the junkyard this morning. Found several donors but then also discovered I neglected to bring a 10mm socket with me (to remove the airbag). They didn't have any to lend so I shot back home, got the socket and then returned. Donor car was a 1999 Protégé, but there are several choices around that year for the same connectors (that I know of). Got home and commenced to put it all together:
That gave me a plug and play airbag resistor. I also picked up a horn connector so I could put my stock wheel back to as it was for quick swapping (wish I had thought of this before cutting the horn connector off yesterday). Everything is now connected for the wheel, the test will come once I have everything back together and have power on the car. No word on my shims though.
Miata: Couldn't really do much else today, so connected the battery (which is on the charger) to test my steering wheel controls. Horn works, turn signal cancel works in both directions and the airbag light goes out as normal. I'll have to see once I can drive her if the airbag light will stay out or not, but right now I'ma happy.
Miata: Very pissed off. Did not receive my valve shims in time to get her back together before heading back to work. I stopped by the dealer today and they had all of them except for one. Why not call me and let me get what you had? Kind of a moot point anyway as my digital caliper decided to die. So, I put some parts back into the engine bay for protection and then sadly walked away. Stay tuned in another couple of months.
Miata: Got home last week and made it in to the dealer on Saturday. Guy went right back and got the last shim. On vacation now but will be posting more next week so stay tuned...
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