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Ghostly Goings On - over the moon


Ghosty

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On 10/5/2020 at 3:35 PM, paulplom said:

The strut brace does exactly that. It braces against the strut towers, keeps them apart and helps to stop them flexing and stiffens the front end up.

and is completely pointless on a car that doesn't have McPherson strut suspension.  If you get strut flex on a McPherson strut car, the geometry of the suspension changes, so a strut-brace fixes (reduces) it.  On an MX5 with wishbones, the flex doesn't change the geometry, so the only thing a strut-brace might possibly do on an MX5 is reduce the likelihood of stress cracks in the towers.

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8 minutes ago, Talbot said:

and is completely pointless on a car that doesn't have McPherson strut suspension.  If you get strut flex on a McPherson strut car, the geometry of the suspension changes, so a strut-brace fixes (reduces) it.  On an MX5 with wishbones, the flex doesn't change the geometry, so the only thing a strut-brace might possibly do on an MX5 is reduce the likelihood of stress cracks in the towers.

Hold on, when you are a fashion conscious as me then my strut brace look pretty!

mixy5.jpg

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I don't know enough about it, but speculation:

Could the strut brace assist with body rigidity, e.g. reduce scuttle shake by reducing the amount of twist that can take place between the bulkhead and the subframe mounts?

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On 10/5/2020 at 3:22 PM, Asimo said:

Why?, it doesn't have strut suspension - MX5 front suspension is classical wishbones with a spring / damper unit. 

1007638538_Screenshot2020-10-05at15_13_03.thumb.png.b00f8f34aa16f6fec7412ff67346fad4.png

Top mount of the coilover plays no part in the suspension geometry, it just takes the spring and damper forces into the bodyshell.

 

And the strut brace transfers those loads into the opposite tower, helping minimise roll in cornering by pushing the outside wheel down/chassis up. 

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Ignoring this guy's haircut and accent, the information he has in the video is fairly good.

 

9 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

And the strut brace transfers those loads into the opposite tower, helping minimise roll in cornering by pushing the outside wheel down/chassis up. 

The strut brace cannot transfer vertical loads, it only transfers horizontal loads, of which there are practically zero on a vehicle with double wishbones.  A strut brace will also not make any difference in body roll, it only serves to maintain the correct suspension geometry (IE reduce body flexing)

The only real benefit on a dual-wishbone car is if you hit a bump with both wheels at the same time.  In that case the towers are both forced towards the centre of the vehicle at the same time.  By bracing them together, they can't flex anywhere near as much.

Edit:  @yes oui siI think you're thinking of an anti-roll bar.  That does indeed push the outside wheel down and chassis up.  The strut bar, not so much.

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5 minutes ago, 2MB said:

This made me chuckle. Unsure of the purpose of it apart from reminding you that you have a Sony head unit

Iirc its to remind you that you haven't taken the face plate off yet. Wish it was possible to disable...

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On 11/10/2020 at 05:22, Ghosty said:

When I got the Civic, one of the first things I noticed was general wear to the steering wheel - the foam rubber type stuff has come loose at the ten-and-two positions and you can twist it around on the wheel, in places the textured surface has worn through to the air bubble-filled foam below,

I have a leather steering wheel in the post for my 45 because mine has also worn though to the foamy stuff and it's quite unpleasant to touch. Almost impressive in less than 50,000 miles.

 

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On 10/13/2020 at 2:37 PM, SiC said:

Iirc its to remind you that you haven't taken the face plate off yet. Wish it was possible to disable...

This.

Needs the wired remote for extra swag.
That gen Sony HU would work without the face plate. If you had some blutac or the like.

Several times I left mine in the house and would bodge the catch to stay down.

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On 10/13/2020 at 2:37 PM, SiC said:

Iirc its to remind you that you haven't taken the face plate off yet. Wish it was possible to disable...

I always thought so, but the one in my bus doesn’t have a removable face plate 

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Strut braces on MX5's do offer enhancements, but not for the car. They provide something to lean on meaning you can spend more time deciding whether the oil spots on your drive are coming from the rocker gasket or the CAS o-ring. You can also balance small cups of tea on them during OC meets at Barnard Castle allowing free hands to detach your picnic hamper from your obligatory chrome boot rack.

Joking aside, this looks like a nice one. Mariner Blue is by far and away the best colour for a MK1 IMO- Very jealous 

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Busy weekend has been had. 

So yesterday I started off earlyish, as it was off to Doodlay to pick up some wheels I'd won on eBay. The tyres on the MX5 were naff Chinese ones, as the rather odd sized 195/60/14s they were shod in were £60 a corner for Uniroyals, £70 for Bridgestones, or else I've got to mess about trying to work out what the right size tyre actually was.  Mm, nah. 

Browsing ebay I found these wheels by searching 'mx5 wheels', tidy, refurbished in the past and three of the four have rather good tyres on them. Plus, the tyres are 195/50/15 which are cheap as chips and there's masses of choice. 
I won them for £98, a relative steal. They're Lorber wheels, I'm not sure where they're from (I suspect Japan), 15x7 with two excellent condition Yokohama BluEarths, a virtually new RainExpert, and a fucked Toyo.
20201017_130058.jpg?width=381&height=677

It's good having an estate - more on that later. While paying for the wheels, the seller asks me, do you need a spring? 
I asked if it was a rear and he said yes, goes off and comes back with a brand new spring. He only wanted a fiver for it, and someone has replaced one of the two rear springs at some point (??) on my MX5 so that's a pretty useful thing to stumble into. 

Back up north, and it's over to Huddersfield to where my friend keeps his K10 Micra which is being slowly MOT prepped.

20201017_182516.jpg?width=1204&height=677

He'd arrranged to have some tyres fitted to some 13" Starmags he's bought to replace the steels, they were a slightly odd size as they're fairly wide wheels for 13"s (165s iirc), so this warranted a trip to a tyre place in Bradford that had offered him a set of four Nankangs for £50 fitted - either there was a miscommunication somewhere or they really wanted rid of the strange size as the fitters were surprised how little matey had been quoted, credit to them they stuck to the quote. While unloading the Starmags from the Civic, which also still had my new wheels in the back, the fitter noticed I had a worn out tyre. He asked if I wanted a tyre for that, checks the size, and says 20 quid? 

I thought bugger it, it'll be better than the tyre I've got, so imagine my surprise when he comes back with a flippin Continental! Score. Load them all back up, and off we go back to Hudds, and mount the wheels on the K10:

20201017_185747.jpg?width=1204&height=677

then off to the pub, then home.

So, home, snooze, and now it's Sunday and it's tinker time. 

First off, MX5. Unlocked it, and despite the recent weather being absolutely vile, the car was bone dry inside. Fantastic! 

Wheels on - that's easy. 

The old front numberplate was directly screwed to the bumper, with those horrible cheap screws that always rust away and round out their heads. No plate surround either, so there's all sorts of moss and junk behind it to clean off. 

20201018_125830.jpg?width=1204&height=677

The new one is a little smaller, because it can be - and it'll help with mounting. 

20201018_134839.jpg?width=381&height=677

Before that though, in with some radiatior flush and drain the 'coolant':

20201018_143358.jpg?width=381&height=677

flush with hosepipe several times...

20201018_143937.jpg?width=381&height=677

clean out the expansion bottle and refill both with actual antifreeze. 

And that's everything on the MX5 for today, as radio #2 hasn't arrived yet. 

20201018_170450.jpg?width=1204&height=677

It looks tons better now, don't you think?

On to a couple of small jobs on the Civic.

20201018_154107.jpg?width=381&height=677

As explained above, the steering wheel is past its best. 


20201018_154116.jpg?width=381&height=677

After removing a plastic cover on each side of the rear of the wheel, two T30 bolts are revealed that hold in the airbag. With these out the airbag just lifts out of the wheel, unplug the horn and a simple multiplug, and it's out. The steering wheel then removes with a 19mm nut. In with the new one from a Rover 600: 

20201018_155651.jpg?width=381&height=677

and it's loads better, especially as I've cleaned off that dull patch on the right side of it now - that's congealed giffer. 

To round it off I replaced the OK sounding but poor reception radio (which turned out to have a line in on the back!) with a new Sony unit after a bit of faffing getting the extra wiring adapter to fit behind the radio (old radio plugged directly into the ISO sockets). In the process I was messing about with the centre console and found that the fake wood trim around the gearknob has been buggered about with by the PO, presumably they yanked it off to fit the gearknob, not knowing the gear gaiter screws into it, and broke all the fittings, replacing them with some shitey black silicone stuff that doesn't even adhere to plastic properly to try and hold it in. It snapped unfortunately so reconstructive surgery will have to be performed for now, until I can find a better one. Can't win em all. 

The cleaned steering wheel radio look, sound and feel great though, a lot more at home than the silver JVC unit with a green display did, and no more Bluetooth adapter either: 

20201018_170214.jpg?width=1204&height=677

Pretty productive day, really. 


 

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On 10/13/2020 at 5:37 PM, SiC said:

Iirc its to remind you that you haven't taken the face plate off yet. Wish it was possible to disable...

It is, I did it on mine back in the day. You have to hold the select button down until it goes into a sub menu IIRC, but then you can navigate to ‘beep’ and turn it off. 

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1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

Busy weekend has been had. 

So yesterday I started off earlyish, as it was off to Doodlay to pick up some wheels I'd won on eBay. The tyres on the MX5 were naff Chinese ones, as the rather odd sized 195/60/14s they were shod in were £60 a corner for Uniroyals, £70 for Bridgestones, or else I've got to mess about trying to work out what the right size tyre actually was.  Mm, nah. 

Browsing ebay I found these wheels by searching 'mx5 wheels', tidy, refurbished in the past and three of the four have rather good tyres on them. Plus, the tyres are 195/50/15 which are cheap as chips and there's masses of choice. 
I won them for £98, a relative steal. They're Lorber wheels, I'm not sure where they're from (I suspect Japan), 15x7 with two excellent condition Yokohama BluEarths, a virtually new RainExpert, and a fucked Toyo.
20201017_130058.jpg?width=381&height=677

It's good having an estate - more on that later. While paying for the wheels, the seller asks me, do you need a spring? 
I asked if it was a rear and he said yes, goes off and comes back with a brand new spring. He only wanted a fiver for it, and someone has replaced one of the two rear springs at some point (??) on my MX5 so that's a pretty useful thing to stumble into. 

Back up north, and it's over to Huddersfield to where my friend keeps his K10 Micra which is being slowly MOT prepped.

20201017_182516.jpg?width=1204&height=677

He'd arrranged to have some tyres fitted to some 13" Starmags he's bought to replace the steels, they were a slightly odd size as they're fairly wide wheels for 13"s (165s iirc), so this warranted a trip to a tyre place in Bradford that had offered him a set of four Nankangs for £50 fitted - either there was a miscommunication somewhere or they really wanted rid of the strange size as the fitters were surprised how little matey had been quoted, credit to them they stuck to the quote. While unloading the Starmags from the Civic, which also still had my new wheels in the back, the fitter noticed I had a worn out tyre. He asked if I wanted a tyre for that, checks the size, and says 20 quid? 

I thought bugger it, it'll be better than the tyre I've got, so imagine my surprise when he comes back with a flippin Continental! Score. Load them all back up, and off we go back to Hudds, and mount the wheels on the K10:

20201017_185747.jpg?width=1204&height=677

then off to the pub, then home.

So, home, snooze, and now it's Sunday and it's tinker time. 

First off, MX5. Unlocked it, and despite the recent weather being absolutely vile, the car was bone dry inside. Fantastic! 

Wheels on - that's easy. 

The old front numberplate was directly screwed to the bumper, with those horrible cheap screws that always rust away and round out their heads. No plate surround either, so there's all sorts of moss and junk behind it to clean off. 

20201018_125830.jpg?width=1204&height=677

The new one is a little smaller, because it can be - and it'll help with mounting. 

20201018_134839.jpg?width=381&height=677

Before that though, in with some radiatior flush and drain the 'coolant':

20201018_143358.jpg?width=381&height=677

flush with hosepipe several times...

20201018_143937.jpg?width=381&height=677

clean out the expansion bottle and refill both with actual antifreeze. 

And that's everything on the MX5 for today, as radio #2 hasn't arrived yet. 

20201018_170450.jpg?width=1204&height=677

It looks tons better now, don't you think?

On to a couple of small jobs on the Civic.

20201018_154107.jpg?width=381&height=677

As explained above, the steering wheel is past its best. 


20201018_154116.jpg?width=381&height=677

After removing a plastic cover on each side of the rear of the wheel, two T30 bolts are revealed that hold in the airbag. With these out the airbag just lifts out of the wheel, unplug the horn and a simple multiplug, and it's out. The steering wheel then removes with a 19mm nut. In with the new one from a Rover 600: 

20201018_155651.jpg?width=381&height=677

and it's loads better, especially as I've cleaned off that dull patch on the right side of it now - that's congealed giffer. 

To round it off I replaced the OK sounding but poor reception radio (which turned out to have a line in on the back!) with a new Sony unit after a bit of faffing getting the extra wiring adapter to fit behind the radio (old radio plugged directly into the ISO sockets). In the process I was messing about with the centre console and found that the fake wood trim around the gearknob has been buggered about with by the PO, presumably they yanked it off to fit the gearknob, not knowing the gear gaiter screws into it, and broke all the fittings, replacing them with some shitey black silicone stuff that doesn't even adhere to plastic properly to try and hold it in. It snapped unfortunately so reconstructive surgery will have to be performed for now, until I can find a better one. Can't win em all. 

The cleaned steering wheel radio look, sound and feel great though, a lot more at home than the silver JVC unit with a green display did, and no more Bluetooth adapter either: 

20201018_170214.jpg?width=1204&height=677

Pretty productive day, really. 


 

Lovely looking mk1 MX5. When we owned our first one, I always toyed with the idea of a set of Lorbers, but never bit the bullet. In my eyes, they're just the right balance between OEM looking but with a bit of intent about them. Anything with a bit of dish suits the mk1 well too. 

I'd love to find something similar (but larger) for my MR2 Roadster. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Ghosty changed the title to Ghostly Goings On - clutch cataclysm

AA IN EFFICIENCY SHOCKER

Clutch has been slipping for a couple of weeks, ordered a clutch last week and was going to fit it tomorrow. 

so I've come off the motorway, lane 2 on the slip road. Lights change, away to go and it stalls. Start it, try again, bang, revs freely, no drive no biting point. Engine still starts and is OK, but there's a slight clattery noise on overrun sometimes. 
Friction plate's shattered, then. 

Call the AA who deem it a priority, they inform the police/traffic wombles. AA control phones again and tells me the police are in attendance, cya. No plods or traffic wombles anywhere to be seen, I did see a policeman pass directly by the car but completely disregard the situation. 
Not fucking about, a flatbed that was already extremely close by then phones me saying he's on the way, are the police there? I say they're not and wait, few minutes pass and the flatbed arrives, drag the car on quickly as possible and out of the way. The flatbed driver almost had to do this with no help thanks to the police failing to attend - luckily an AA patrol arrived to assist. Secure it down, give the man the address, hop in the back half of the cab (flatbeds have Covid screens so I get a lift this time unlike when the fuel filter went on the 205 and they sent a van), home we go and roll onto the drive.

FUKKEN SORTED M8, clutch change will now occur as planned. 

0/10 for the police though. 

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Ah. Ah, feck. 

There's a rubber bush halfway down the os driveshaft and it's been harbouring moisture. The shaft was rotten and it's snapped as a result. 

 

The ns driveshaft is seized into the hub - it's off the car so gearbag things are still happening, but it's looking like time for two new driveshafts. 

20201031_115756.jpg

20201031_151920.jpg

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1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

Ah. Ah, feck. 

There's a rubber bush halfway down the os driveshaft and it's been harbouring moisture. The shaft was rotten and it's snapped as a result. 

TADTS.

My Mk7 did this three days after it was serviced and the Honda garage was like "oh yeah, they all do that, the genuine part is £lol".

252336877_20160221_231622(Copy).thumb.jpg.f5b9962bbc10b81a6039117297723ae8.jpg

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