Did you know that Flyin' Miata has a tool selection? No, not a bunch of cheap Chinese wrenches. But made-in-the-USA specialty tools to make it easier to work on Miatas. You can see them all here
But I felt the GRM forum would like this one, as it's dual-purpose. The intake cam on a Miata is under a bit of spring pressure and wants to pop over, leading to a mistimed cam if you're not careful. There are a bunch of homebrew ways of dealing with this, but the new tool will make you quick like ninja at timing belt swaps.
The idea is simple. The tool just slips between the two cam gears and locks them in place. Then you slide the old belt off and put the new one on, happy and secure in the knowledge that everything is perfectly aligned.
But what if you want to change the cam seals? Well, now the gears are locked together so it's easy to remove the bolt at the center of each gear. And if you want to, you can use the four holes in the tool for zipties so the gears come off as an assembly. Then it'll all go back together, still aligned. Here's a prototype in place.
But then we started having a bit of fun. Development and humor got mixed up, and we made a little change to one end. So now it's a dual purpose tool, and we know you won't lose it. No matter if the problem facing you is a timing belt change or a refreshing beverage without a twist top, the ninja tool has your back.
The cam gear part fits all 1990-05 Miatas as well as other cars with the DOHC B6/BP engine like Escort GTs and Kia Sephias. The bottle opener end fits all traditional bottlecaps.
