Tuesday, October 25, 2016

1997 Mazda Miata

Hi Dear Folk,

1997 Mazda Miata is The Boy's car.  He keeps a running list of all the things that he has done on the car and this is it.  So since he bought it in May 2016, this is what he has done.  He likes the older Miata's because it's a lot easier to work on.

This is his second Miata, the first one was totaled just before he went away to Ithaca, same colour Montego Blue only the first Miata was a 1996.  The only thing he got to salvage from that was the stick shift nob which a friend had hand made for him in wood. This was his old car. Before this he went through two other cars, one hit a concrete lamp-post in a parking lot as he was trying to tune in the radio and on the Mini, he thought cleaning the engine with one of those fluid cleaners might be a good idea, but that just loosened all the gunk and seized up the engine. At the time I didn't think it was a good idea. So when it came to changing the timing belt I was somewhat apprehensive, but as my sister said on the phone, "just let him get on with it, " and that is what I did.

When he was looking for his very first car I saw a nice Miata, much newer at a dealership and said how about this Rob.  "Oh I wouldn't buy a Miata they're just for girls."  Fast forward a few years and getting to drive a friend's Miata, then he realized he likes Miata's.  So can mum say "I told you so."  Mums do know best after all.

10/9 the weekend of wind and rains from the hurricane he spent two days working on that, about 20 hours of work in his friend's driveway with a canopy over the car.  The wind blew the canopy into the car and left white marks on the door, which his dad has since compounded and buffed them out for him.  It took a long time because he was being really meticulous, especially working on the timing belt.

10/15 was a lovely day and he put in a new radio.

10/21 I came home from work Friday night and there he is working in the dark, which carried on over into 10/22 Saturday morning.  Mr B and The Boy went to get his front end aligned only to find out one of the wheels is bent.  On the computer and he finds a set for sale in Scranton, PA a two hour drive away.

10/23 Sunday a beautiful day, was a trip up to Scranton with his dad in the SUV to pick up four new wheels.

05/20/16
New Tires and Alignment

05/29/16

New used latches

06/10/16
New used steering wheel

06/30/16 79400
Oil change 0w30 mobile 1 full synthetic and Bosch filter

07/02/16 79650
New OEM taillight seals

10/9/16 - 81050
New coolant hoses from flying miata, BPE8-15-186, BPE8-13-682, B61P-15-261A, NA75-61-211, NA75-61-212, (B61P-15-185 and B61P-15-184 replaced with flying miata's silicon hose), and coolant flush done. New mix 60/40.
New PS and alternator/water pump belts
New thermostat and radiator cap
New CAS sensor O-ring
New NGK OEM spark plugs
New timing belt and idler pulleys form flying miata
New water pump
New Cam and front crank seals
New head gasket

10/14/16 - 81150
New OEM Gas cap

10/15/16 - 81250
New Pioneer MVH-X390BT Headunit. Factory wiring harness completely unchanged. All connections between adapter harness and headunit harness made with in line solder connections and then tube shrink wrapped. All unused wires tube shrink wrapped to prevent shorts.

10/16/16 - 81250
New OEM air filter

10/22/16 - 81400
Shifter rebuilt using kit from Moss Miata (all new bushings, washers, and boots)
Transmission and shifter turret Oil replaced with Motorcraft
Diff Fluid replaced with Redline MTL

10/23/16 - 81550
Got daisies to replace the steelies and had them Road Force balanced


4 comments:

  1. You'll have to take a photo for us of this magical motor!! Good roads....as they say here

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    Replies
    1. I don't know about magical, but he does refer to her as she and is always saying "she knows." I like the expression "Good Roads."

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  2. What a list! It's so good he has done all that and learnt a lot too. I grew up with my brothers n their mates continually working on motorbikes in the back garden. It was just the norm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes he's learning so much, quite often with his laptop computer open to a You Tube video of instructions, as he works alongside.

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