For Sale "WTF did I buy that for" Vol. 875 - Mazda 323 1.5

[oldcars]

Looks great, a good wax with UV protection should keep it from going funny again.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Believe it or not I've actually been doing some car fettling this weekend, on this Mazda.

 

First job was to put the wipers back together. I'd bought a wiper mech off a Demio ages ago and 'cut and shut' one of the linkages to give me a set-up with decent nylon bushes in the whole system:

 

 

You can just see the welded joint there. Anyway I thought I had it sorted so put the hole lot back together and tried em. They were much better than before  but there was still a loud 'CRACK' noise when they reached the end of the travel. Closer inspection revealed one of the wiper spindles had a bolt snapped off. I removed it all again, drilled out the bolt and retapped it so it could be fixed in properly.

 

 

Put it back together for a second time and BOOM!!!!! Lovely smooth wipers that swingc the full arc silently again.

 

 

Next job was the cam belt. Bought a kit off eBay ages ago but never fitted it. I read a site where someone had done the job hre:

 

http://www.jamesandtracy.co.uk/howto/cambeltchange.htm

 

Looked quite straightforward so i waded in.

 

 

Pulled all the undershields off, snapping a bolt in the process, i will have to drll and re-tap that.

 

First thing I noticed when I got it up in the air was that I didnt have the access hole to the flywheel that the lad above did for some reason, so I had the problem of how to lock the crankshaft.

 

 

Decided to press on anyway and worry about that later. Stripping it all down was generally straightforward thankfully.

 

 

Check out the odd cam drive set up. The exhaust cam is driven by a chain off the inlet cam. I thought it was a 'conventional' DOHC set-up but this meant I could not screw up the relative timing of the camshafts so that simplified the job a bit.

 

For locking the crankshaft, I learned that MX-5's (which have an engine similar to this one I believe) have a fancy tool that you can buy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crankshaft-locking-tool-Mazda-MX-5-mk1-mk2-MX5-crank-shaft-timing-pulley-lock/401108446315

 

I could do with one of those but wanted to crack on so I made one!!!! The only material I had was car body welding metal which was a bit thin and flimsy so I made it out of two layers welded together!!

 

 

 

Not exactly stacks of space to work in!

 

I spent an hour making it then tried it, half-expecting it to fold up when I turned the crank bolt:

 

 

To my surprise it worked perfectly and the carnk bolt wound out no problem.

 

Eventually everything was exposed:

 

 

Undid the engine mount and removed the old belt, tensioner and idler. Fitted the new pulleys but I couldnt for the life of me get the new belt on. Decided to compare them:

 

 

Oh FFS, the new belt is a 123-tooth item and the old one has 125 teeth. FUCKING TYPICAL!

 

So now the car has to sit for a few days while the right belt comes through the post. At least it was only £6 off the bay so not too crippling.

 

Still, I had a productive few hours in my tiny garage which was nice, rigged up my phone to a computer speaker and had a few podcasts on the go and just pottered on without any hassle off anyone. Lovely!

 

When the belt comes I will put it back together, turn it round and do the bit of welding thats needed on the back of the sill. I think thats the last repair job thats needed for a test having fixed wipers, balljoint, CV boots and whatnot.

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Also whats going on with this inlet manifold? Looks like someone went a bit overboard with their new pipe bender and tig welder.

 

 

 

Long inlet tracts = OMGTORKS at low rpm.

 

 

[RoadworkUK]

The 1.8 20v VAG engine has a similar chain-driven second cam, which really does make life easier. So much so that I've done my cambelt twice without Armageddon ensuing, despite my celebrated ineptitude.

[The Moog]

Plus eleventy likes for top notch tool design.

[dollywobbler]

Excellent. Fresh Bollox.

 

Lexus has the two camshafts linked by gears halfway along their length. Those crazy Japanese.

[phil_lihp]

Always good to see some Bo11ox fleet updates, liking the homemade cam locking tool.  I really liked my ex-Cavcraft 5dr 323, even if it appears to be a completely different car to your 3dr.  Mine had a nice smooth 1.5 with plenty of power for its size, just felt like a nicely put together package, if a bit on the small side.  

 

You still got that 45 KV6 on the go?

[mk2_craig]

Excellent. Fresh Bollox.

 

Lexus has the two camshafts linked by gears halfway along their length. Those crazy Japanese.

Sounds crazy sensible to me. The chain idea less so, though presumably not prone to stretching much over time, those dependable Japanese.

[somewhatfoolish]

Having the chain(or belt, gears etc) halfway along is sound from a design perspective; for a given strength and stiffness required the camshaft can be lighter. A bit of an arse from the assembly or service/repair perspective though.

[1duck]

anyone else who is after one, there's one being sold on facebook by a polish bloke in leeds for 160 quid : https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/145628612891564

[Alusilber]

anyone else who is after one, there's one being sold on facebook by a polish bloke in leeds for 160 quid : https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/145628612891564

 

Ah, that'll be the 5-door 323, not the lesser-spotted 3-door 323P, although the 5-door is getting pretty thin on the ground these days too...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

been doing a bit on this today. The new belt turned up during the week and practically fitted itself:

 

 

spend a couple of hours fitting everything back together, my DIY locking tool suffered a bit (obv its got better tensile than compressive strength) but it all went smoothly enough.

 

 

Fitted a new driveshaft nut as I had butchered the old one, and some new split pins in the various suspension bolts that need one.

 

This car had an advisory for 'underside in poor condition' a few years back. Its actually pretty sound but there is a lot of surface rust to be fair, especially on the front subframe/crossmember. I cant be arsed doing a proper job on it with vactan, new paint and so on but I did rub a load of copper grease into various crispy bits while I was scrabbling about underneath, can't do any harm can it.

 

 

With that done I dropped it off the jack and backed it out the garage for a sweep-up

 

 

I need to weld up the N/S rear sill next, so I had to chance driving it out onto the road and reversing it back up the drive:

 

 

Not exactly loads of space to work in... I will have to get used to it though!!!!

 

 

Just the welding and a good clean-up left to do and hopefully this thing will be ready for another test after almost a year of sitting about! I will try and get home from work in good time one night and do a midweek sesh on it.

 

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

YO YOKKA

 

I am just about there with this old crate now. So last job was to get the grot sorted out on the passenger side sill:

 

 

 

Hmm. Drag out the welder:

 

 

Chop out the shizzle

 

 

I accidentally sliced through some bit of the inner sill, had to weld that up again. I wanted to paint it all with the old weld-through primer but couldnt find it, guessed I had left it up at the unit.... annoying

 

 

The only steel I could find was 18 gauge so I had a right war cutting this with my poxy tinsips, good job I didnt have to do owt complex with it!

 

 

got it zapped on, at which point i found the flippin weld-through primer again, typical innit

 

This car is being employed as a shed, here is my stash of Gazoline mags!!!! Euroshite porn stash in the garage innit.

 

 

Anyone who follows my antics knows I love lashing on the red oxide then leaving it at that. So, off to 'TOOL STATION' for a new tin of gloop:

 

 

slathered it on, getting a big gloopy run surprise surprise

 

 

Cos I want to sell this car, I literally rolled out the barrel on a proper custom-mix aerosol to paint this with. I didnt roll the barrel far enough to sand down that paint run though as its on a low-down discreet bit and I thought I would get away with that!!!

 

 

As you can see I did an OK job, 6.5/10 perhaps. I splattered a load of spray grease and copper grease about underneath to protect it as I couldnt find any underseal either!!

 

Next i found a new air filter lying about. i have no recollection pf buying that and can only assume my old garage marra gave me it out of his stash. I thought I might as well chuck it in just to get the bastard out the way. This turned into a right palaver, I ended up shaving the placca moulding down a bit with a stanley knife to get it in, cheap ill-fitting nonsense eh. Anyway it did need a new filter, so whatevz.

 

 

Next job was to bust out the polishing mop and try to shine this thing up again as it had gone to pog level 9:

 

 

Spent a morning on this, I havent really got the patience for it but it did brighten up loads

 

 

 

 

SIll looks alright too:

 

 

The gas struts on the hatchback were beyond knackered, offering no help whatsoever to lift the hatch. I found some for a previous-model 323 on the bay so bought a pair of new ones for £11, theyve got the right ends on but are about 40mm too short which equates to 3-4 inches of tailgate 'head-crackin' height, theyre a little low but much better than it crashing down onto your skull or fingers so still an improvement.

 

 

Today I brought it in the garage and actually used my arms to wax the bodywork, I did a coat of cheapo turrtle wax then another coat of some meguiars wax of some sort, a large amount of which I splattered down my jumper thanks to a crack in the bottle. Anyway it came up pretty nice to be fair, the roof could do with more attention from the buffer but i think Its ok for what it is.

 

 

 

 

 

Last job was to fit a  new tail-light bulb which was an unusual push-in twin filament job that cost an obscene £2!!!! So in total I have done the follwoing to this car:

 

New CV boots

Repaired knackered wiper mech

New lower RH balljoint

New cambelt kit

Welding repairs to the sill

paintwork shine-up

new gas struts

treated various rust blebs under the floor

 

Think thats more or less it. Just need to clean out the interior and hopefully get it in for a test on Wednesday - fingers crossed!!!!

 

If we get a pass this is going up for sale, and the PONY X2 is next for the chop:

 

 

YO!

[bub2006]

The Mazda looks tidy. Me and ex wife had a saloon many moons back on an R plate. One of many variations in the 90s. I bust tail light by reversing it into my Honda c90! We sold it cheap to a friend of hers when it needed a lot of welding,arches sill etc and the 1.5 lump developed a thirst for oil. He tidied it up and It soldiered on though for another 2 years doing Scotland runs and clinging on to an MOT by it teeth.

[Sir Snipes]

Mazda should have sooped-up that model instead of the model they actually put the 4x4 turbo gear into: it’s a really great looking thing, in a 1990s Japanese kinda way.

[oldcars]

Great work. 

[Split_Pin]

Good to see this being resurrected - looks like plenty of life has been injected back into it now.

 

"cambelt done" in the title and some tyre black to set off your buffing is gonna see this fly out the door, imo.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I am not a big ‘tyre black’ gargler, it just says ‘Arfur Daly’ to me, however I realised yesterday that due to its engine size this thing gets cheap tax (£145/year) which is a good selling point eh.

[Jim Bell]

Red is also a lucky colour in the Orient. Worth putting in the listing.

[Split_Pin]

That is indeed a good selling point, quite a surprise in fact. Plenty cc for your money there. Only one of my fleet has the dearer tax rate, something like £250 a year. I prefer not to think about that.

[Supernaut]

SWOP 4 E36 320i M9?

[sierraman]

That's a nice bit of welding that is. Tidy job like that should see years out.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Took this down the MOT shop tonight, on the A-frame. Its down a bumpy lane so i had a little blezz up and down the lane in the Maz. To my annoyance there is a TERRIBLE clunking and clanking from the front end, fook knows what thats all about. Obv I've had it all to pieces to replace the CV boots, so maybe I have just forgotten to nip something up, or maybe theres some other problem. I scrabbled about looking for loose bits but couldnt find owt obvious. I guess we'll find out on the ramps tomorrow. Annoying though as it makes me look to the garage like a total amateur (I am one admittedly)

[dollywobbler]

Let's hope it isn't wheel nuts or they'll laugh you out of town.

[KruJoe]

Red is also a lucky colour in the Orient.

It's just in time for Chinese New Year, an'all.

 

 

clunking

I don't specifically know about the set-up on these, but I'd be having a close look at the ARB drop links. In my limited experience, they seem to be almost service items on some Jap stuff.

[stephen01]

Always like reading up on your work - welding-  painting -  mechanics coved it all again. 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Its only flippin passed!!!! The guy acknowledged the terrible clonking but said he couldn't see where it was coming from.

[Split_Pin]

Good news, hopefully you will find out what the noise is from and its something simple.

[mk2_craig]

Back of the net!! Now to sell it for a moderate loss.

[Jim Bell]

Told you it was lucky.