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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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Short trackday vid from yesterday... Had a wicked time with Stan, Ben Lee (anyone remember him?), John the Mong (also still rides trials a bit) and our mate Dan.

Stan drove my car and tank slappered it onto the grass, haha - didn't have the camera rolling though :(

New twin master setup is awesome, brakes had so much more feel and the bias adjuster was really useful too. Running a 0.75" up front and a 0.625" (sorry for the units!) at the rear with the bias bar set a little rearwards, which shows how underbraked the rear of the car was previously! My legs are bloody stiff today though, lol, pedal force required is somewhere around the 50kg region so I did a lot of 'reps' yesterday!

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Engine is finally out, currently giving it a freshen up with new seals, a clean and a lick of paint (can't decide between black or red?)

Next jobs are to remove the gearbox from the back, drop the rear subframe and remove the torque tube (prop shaft) from the car as mines a bit buggered. It's lucky I have 2 weeks off really isn't it? Hoping to get it done over the course of the next few days, hopefully it'll be worth it with all the spangly new parts and the freshen up.

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Anyone local-ish to RG45 got any axle stands I can borrow? My exhaust should be turning up tomorrow or tues and I want to fit it weds on my day off :)

Probably worth buying some isn't it? They're pretty much essential if you want to do your own servicing/maintenance.

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Ah, fair enough then.

I've spent most of this afternoon scrubbing away with de-greaser to get the MX-5's engine looking a bit smarter and make it much nicer to work on without a coating of grime everywhere. The old things done a fair few miles and it looks like there's been a slight oil weep from the front of the engine for a good number of those so it had a thick coating over loads of it. Sadly I forgot to get any before pictures, but it was really caked, you could barely tell what shape the steering rack was and most of the front of the engine was in a similar state.
I'll replace the seals/gaskets that are the most likely culprits before it goes on the road, and now it's nice and clean it should be fairly obvious where it's coming from if it's still leaking. In fact I'm probably going to pull both manifolds off and give the block a damn good clean and a lick of paint sometime before it goes for a test.
This is how it was looking when I locked up, a massive improvement in my eyes, much more inviting to take the spanners to:
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This is the bumper I'm thinking of fitting, I'm not 100% about the look but at least it's relatively subtle/plain looking. The main thinking's that it eradicates most of the overhang which will help reduce front end lift and should cut down drag a bit too. It'll make fitting a proper splitter easier too. If I don't mind the look of it once fitted then the spotlight holes will probably eventually get used as vents for ducting to the brakes and air intake (split horizontally). As I said, it needs a little repair work!
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It feels lighter than the original bumper too, and loosing weight's one of my main aims with this car, there's quite a bit of weight to be lost from it once I've removed the previous botched repair work from the back too, so it should give a decent weight saving in an important place once repaired properly.
Edited by RobinJI
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Operation fix my car started yesterday.
Firstly I was welcomed to the mess I left the workshop in...
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I then whipped the car in and put it onto ramps, within an hour I was ready to drop the front subframe and have the engine out! Easy peasy... then George turned up to help with removing the engine and unfortunately my luck didn't last long...
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No matter how much we wedged the thing apart with bars, it would not budge! The spigot bearing has got stuck on the torque tube so the only way to get it off was to undo the clutch cover after using bolts to press the bell housing off the engine a bit.
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One very broken clutch....
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A worn shaft where the spigot sits
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One very knackered spigot bearing
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so with the engine out I cracked on with stripping it down, giving it a clean, replacing seals and painting up parts ready for when it returns back into the engine bay.
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It's getting there, still a ton of jobs to do before it is ready to refit. EEEEEK
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Good work Paul :)

Adam - I am so eternally jealous of the Westy, it jus tlooks incredible.

Robin - bumper looks good. I like it a lot. Will definitely help with the splitter :)

Taken mine out loads this weekend, going really well.

Annoyingly, I've just got back from a 20 mile drive of loveliness, opened it up in second exiting a little village on the way home and spun the wheels up, and the ABS light popped on again. Think I've still got a dodgy connection somewhere. makes no odds to driving the car, but the light is enough to make me have a breakdown. can't cope with wrong lights!

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I spent last night assembling a bit more on the engine, tested the TT fit and rebuilt the starter and alternator.
TT had a lick of paint to protect it
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Test fitting TT to engine, fitted perfectly so that means my clutch tool worked haha
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I had a lazy starter...this explains why! Absolutely full of gunk, it was really thick, the amp draw on this must have been huge!
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Cleaned
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Painted up
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The oil has got in everywhere! The alternator had been working fine but wasn't looking too pretty inside
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Annoyingly one of the brushes fell off the voltage reg, so I need to solder that back together today, then that can go back together
Today I'm collecting some more paint, another pair of axle stands and then I'll crack on with getting the back end apart ready for the TT replacement. Fun times... I haven't a clue how much I'll manage, I hope I can finish by tomorrow evening.
Edited by CurtisRider
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Nice progress Paul. Should be much nicer with everything cleaned up and painted. Not to mention working properly!

Ben's (the guy I co-drive for) just uploaded this video of his Dad competing in the Astra we use. This is his dads first time on stage in over 20 years:

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Cheers Robin :)

Got the engine in now, just got to refit everything to go with it! Then its time to jack up the back end and remove everything else to replace this sodding torque tube. I'm hoping that it'll be stripped down tonight, then reassembled by tomorrow evening. Knowing my luck it wont start :P

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