Vuelta de Tuercas

Ok so we left off with a few maintenance items done on the Miata. Here come more small stuff; we'll go over more general maintenance items, track preparation of sorts, and a little visual improvement as well. Foamectomy Like I mentioned, I had the intention of taking the little thing to the track. Now the Miata is a tiny little car. And not just on the outside. My head does not actually touch the canvas top normally but with the top down and a helmet, surely the topmost part of the helmet will protrude from the winshield edge. And track staff don't like that. Well, your head likes that even less when you flip over the car and end up taking the full weight of the car on it, and on your neck. Snap snap. Let me introduce you to the concept of the "broomstick test" The idea is to run a straight object such as a broomstick, from the top of the windshield to whatever it will rest on going towards the back. Do an image search on Google for "broomstick test"...

So by this time,  it's pretty clear that to me, part of the necessary bonding with any car I own is to do some work on it. You know, earning some mutual respect and stuff. So among the simpler tasks that were needed for the Mondial (what Mondial, you say? I'm not explaining here; let's just take the fact that a 1988 3.2 Mondial Cabriolet is in my garage as a given), there was the right hand side CV boot that was torn, letting the all important grease to come out and all sorts of dirt and debris to enter into the CV joint. Ferrari or no Ferrari, a freaking piece of rubber could not be that expensive. So for around 56 dollars I got the new boot and the two metal bands that secure it to the shaft and joint housing from Superformance UK. From what I read online, the absolute most frustrating part of the job was to get the 12 bolts that hold both ends of the driveshaft-joints assembly to the transmission and the wheel hub. I had the tools (except for the torch --you someti...

Right. As I've mentioned before, I had no service history for the Miata so I didn't know how old the belt was. So I went ahead and changed the timing belt, along with the reasonable accessories that go with it. Namely: timing belt water pump/alternator belt A/C and power steering belt tensioner and idler bearings water pump camshaft seals crankshaft seals thermostat housing o-ring water pump flange o-ring valve cover gasket I ordered most of the parts from Flyin' Miata and the water pump from Amazon. I also acquired a few tools from Flyin' Miata to make the job easier: cam locking tool (with bottle opener!) seal installers (for cam seals and long-nose crank seal) crankshaft locking tool (to be able to torque down the crankshaft bolt) All in all it was as tedious as I was expecting but ultimately I was able to do it. And that means almost anyone would be, if they're willing to. The procedure is well described in many a Miata forum so...