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gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - unlowering the green machine


gm

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A bit of reading up on the Exocet forum pointed me towards the power feed to the headlight motors which is live when in dip and beam use - guess which one it is ? 
 

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yep, white / black - that’s going to be a bugger to solder onto. Time to break out my handy new removal keys and pull that stump out

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these are the worst quality chinesium but have proven handy on several occasions.

new terminal and wire fitted and we are fog tastic 

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stays on with dip and beam, goes off with sidelights. Still not quite Iva compliant but certainly a step closer 

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Right, I've just about had enough of sodding wiring for a lifetime :( 

this is what we started with

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this is what we were aiming for

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and this is what we've ended up with

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it all still works so I'll be leaving it alone for a good while 

i want this thing moving SOON 

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I fitted a couple of sockets for phone charging and the tyre pump

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even did nice trimmed edges

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then made a 'bracket' to hold the afm (not quite up to binky standards :) )

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but there is a problem - the air filter is too fat to fit between the strut and the manifold - time to hit that ebay

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15 hours ago, gm said:

I fitted a couple of sockets for phone charging and the tyre pump

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even did nice trimmed edges

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then made a 'bracket' to hold the afm (not quite up to binky standards :) )

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but there is a problem - the air filter is too fat to fit between the strut and the manifold - time to hit that ebay

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Could you fit an elbow and keep the airfilter in the position you're holding it? 

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the exo has been sitting "up on blocks" for a good long time but today I need those wheels off

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which took a ridiculous amount of fannying about with jacks, but now it's hovering nicely 

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and the reason for this apparent backwards step is this little sod

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which needs to fit behind the hub (which I thankfully hadn't torqued to 170nm as per my handy reminder) 

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obviously nothing is ever straightforward and I had to re-drill the holes to get them to line up but eventually it was on

and alarmingly close to the upper wishbone :( time for a wee tickle with the grinder

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that's better :) 

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I did remember to torque the hub nut to 170nm :) 

the other side was slightly less fiddly, only holes to re-drill, wishbone clearance was better on that side

 

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the reason for fitting the mudguard brackets is so I can finally get some brakes on this thing

the discs and pads that came off the donner were pretty recent so I'll reuse them for now, everything got a good clean up and was reassembled ready to fit

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still regretting yellow but it's too late now :( 

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but they do look pretty good fitted

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I know they'll be minging by the time i even get to the test centre, obviously i'll have to bed them in  :)  

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so lets bung the wheels on and see how she looks

hmm, something not right here

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oh for cocks sake

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curse you, stupid high offset wheels - more £££ needing spent on spacers :( 

perhaps my maiden voyage is doomed to be made on Timmy wheels

(note : yellow foam padding preventing those mudguard brackets from stabbing me in the 'nads (again))

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - (finally) a non electrical update :)
6 minutes ago, gm said:

I've been planning to use bini steelies on the exo to keep costs down (and I like the look of them) 

but it would appear that I need to fit wheel spacers 

^&^*^%^&^*^ing how much ?

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might be time for a plan B :(

I think I’ve still got some spacers that came off my NA when I bought it. 
I’ll have a look tomorrow...if I’ve still got them, you’re welcome to them 🙂

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22 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

I think I’ve still got some spacers that came off my NA when I bought it. 
I’ll have a look tomorrow...if I’ve still got them, you’re welcome to them 🙂

that would be excellent - it looks like they need to be fairly thick, bini steelies have an offset of +45 and I need to get quite a bit nearer to zero. do please let me know if you still have them :) 

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time for a look at the back brakes - let's see if this is any easier ?

as with the front, the mudguard brackets need to be fitted at the same time as they share a mounting point with the calliper frame. the other side needs a hole drilling in a handy bit of casting on the the hub

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easy enough so far but bring the calliper into the equation and they are fighting for space

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time for the grinder again

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a quick dab of chassis paint and you'd never know :) 

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that'll do (none of this would be necessary if I'd upgraded to the larger 1.8 callipers but the build fund is currently low and there is nothing wrong with these 1.6 brakes)

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we're also going to need a longer bolt, my policy of not chucking anything away paid dividends here as the former power steering pump bolt is the perfect size)

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so that's one end of the bracket fixed, how about the other

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I need to drill a hole through that random lump sticking out the side - the hub is in the way to the front and the shock at the rear :( 

thankfully, I hadn't torqued these hub nuts yet

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now a hole for a nut and bolt would be adequate but I'm feeling ambitious today - let's have a go with that tap & die set I got for Christmas ten years ago and haven't used

with a good bit of wd40 in lieu of cutting oil I cut my first thread (plastic tub is to protect the bearing from swarf)

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nice and straight, very satisfying

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and after years of fighting with those stupid pad springs, I discovered an oh so simple solution - just clamp the pads in place and you no longer need four hands :) 

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just the other side to do and we've another job ticked off the list 

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They might work with the alloys off the mx5, I’ll check what the offset is and get back to you, thankyou 

 

apparently I need to have between 0 and 10 offset to clear the mudguards so if the alloys are 30 or less, they would be ideal 

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23 minutes ago, loserone said:

The daisies are about the lightest you can get, no?

there is a set of 14" enkeis that came on a few limited edition imports that are even lighter than daisies - I used to have a set on my current mx5 but sold them when I fitted the mk2 alloys :( ideally I'll stick with 15"ers as the tyre choice is a bit better, if I do go for spacers then I can swap road & track wheels between the two cars (although I can't imagine I'll be taking the mx5 on track much once the exo is finished) 

 

 

https://www.miata.net/faq/wheel_weights.html

 

(edit) it looks like 40-45 is fairly standard for a Mazda offset so unless I go for aftermarket wheels, I'll be on spacers anyway 

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Right then, time for a bit of problem solving :

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It would appear that in order to fit my wheels of choice, some sort of spacer is required. But how big ? Rough calculations guesswork suggests 40mm might be appropriate - let's have a look and see if it will work out 

I'm sure I could have just done a bit of careful measuring but where's the fun in that when you've got POWATOOLZ :) 

No need for a commentary here, enjoy ! 

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So 40mm is ideal, I might even get away with 35mm - the smaller, the better as it's  all additional unsprung weight 

 

 

should i give it a coat of silver paint and stick it up on eBay ? :) 

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - a bit of quality* engineering going on here :)
32 minutes ago, gm said:

a quick trial fit of the mudguards - how dreadfully shit do these look :( 

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they’ll be getting shoved back in the spare room until it’s absolutely necessary to fit them 

They do look nasty to be fair. 

Could you take a glass fibre mould off an old tyre? 

Or shape some alloy sheet ? 

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