In reply to EvanB :
That makes sense, since then you could consolidate your wheels instead of collecting wheels and tires in a new, exciting bolt pattern. Or collecting just the wheels and investing in a tire machine.
I understand the Group A 323GTXs used RX-7 FC five-lug rear hubs at all four corners, if you wanted to go the other way in the name of historical precision.
Knurled. said:In reply to irish44j :
Huh? The ZX2 and Protege-based Escort were US only.
IIRC, the rear disk Escort rear hub is also the Miata front hub and the Escort front hub is the Miata rear hub. I also have a vague memory that the 323/Protege never has 4x100 as wwell, but could be wrong.
well, whatever Escort was in Europe those years has a 64mm hub bore or something like that. I didn't mean it was the "same car," just the "Euro" escort.
In reply to irish44j :
If it was a 62mm wheel pilot, then it sounds like Ford Standard for 4x4.25", not 4x100. While researching for a suspension/hub swap on that blue four door thing behind that white extra-light Miata photographed above, I found that, of the "Euro" Fords sold in the US at least, going from the '83 Escort, to the Contour, to the last of the 1st-gen Focuses, aside from all being 4x4.25, they ALL had a 63mm brake rotor pilot and 62mm wheel pilot. So you could, say, put Escort front brake rotors on Cougar rear hubs, if you wanted to be able to fit 13" wheels on something that had a 35mm bearing snout. For instance.
Step one:
A number of years ago we had a 2-day challenge event in Ohio. It was long enough ago that we were still running at National Trails and cghstang was still rallycrossing. The Miata died on the first day and we narrowed it down to the main relay. It was "fixed" by inserting a fuse into the proper slots of the connector to bypass the relay and it stayed that way. Occasionally the Miata wouldn't start and I would have to wiggle the fuse or clean off the corrosion. Usually I forgot what the issue was and tried many other things to get it to start before remembering. I had saved a spare relay off another Miata that I parted out not long after the event but never got around to putting it in. Today I figured that was a good place to start.
With the relay installed I unbolted the dead relay from the bracket and bolted the replacement where it belongs (not pictured).
With so much work done in one day I decided that was a good place to stop. But the weather was nice and there were still a few hours of daylight left. Why not find the hood latch assembly and put the original hood back on? Time to remove those terrible hood pins for good.
Much better.
Tomorrow the weather should be nice so I am going to take the afternoon off work. There is one junkyard in town showing a Miata in inventory. I plan to go there and be disappointed when I see that all the body panels I need are damaged.
In reply to EvanB :
Let me know what's left of the one in the junkyard. I need a hood, rear finish panel, and tail lights.
In reply to grafmiata :
Any preference on color?
In reply to EvanB :
Black or white preferred, but really not too picky.
In reply to grafmiata :
I will let you know what I find. Based on my previous experiences at the local pick-n-pulls I don't have high hopes.
I searched back through the archives to see when the fuse was installed instead of the main relay...August 2014.
In reply to EvanB :
I think you got it from Josh, actually.
A giant NOOOOOOOOO at the removal of the hood. Now it looks like every other red Miata with a black top. (Or is that your ulterior motive? Make someone else collect all the cones)
In reply to Knurled. :
Well it isn't necessarily going to stay red.
If the junkyard Miata has a decent drivers seat, please let me know.
The right fender on the junkyard Miata was smashed as expected. The bumper wasn't terrible but also wasn't good enough to pull. I did get both headlight mechanisms since I am trying to find out why the fuse for the headlight motors in mine keeps blowing and the bushings on are shot.
I didn't swap in the new headlights yet but I did put a circuit breaker in to replace the fuse. I unplugged both headlight motors and the dash switch and it still blows instantly. When I first installed the circuit breaker the headlight motors worked fine about 20 times then it sat for a couple hours and the circuit breaker was tripped. More investigation to follow.
The interior in the junkyard Miata was trashed.
Hey Evan, where is this yard located?
Sorry, didn't see this earlier. It is the U-Part-It on the east side of Columbus. 2338 Refugee Rd, Columbus, OH 43207. They quoted $42 or so for the hood.
I narrowed down the short in the headlight motors to the wiring under the dash near the steering column. The dash has to come out anyway so I will sort it then. I also found some other wires under the hood with abrasion/chewing damage that will have to be wrapped. When I reinstalled the wiring harness last time I should have been more careful with the routing and securing.
The first event of the season was yesterday (points event 2). We were on a new site which is the one that we are using for the upcoming national event. I was driving sloppy but apparently not sloppy enough to catch a lot of cones so I ended up first in MR out of 3 cars.
Thanks to Eastside Tim for the pictures.
Was this with the new shocks or the Bilsteins? i forgot to ask.
Still the Bilsteins for now.
MR was a close one! .211 seconds :-)
any vids?
In reply to irish44j :
No, i don't mess around with gopros any more. Pete might have some helmet cam videos. 
In reply to EvanB :
Video incoming. No helmet cam, the mount broke when I was running to Ed's car for the parade lap.
Running after you in the second heat was interesting. When you would upshift, Kyle and I could feel a concussive wind. By interesting I mean cool.
So this was the first event at this venue, correct?
Curious to hear impressions, for reasons...
Knurled. said:In reply to EvanB :
No helmet cam
Thank God!
In reply to irish44j :
But you can't watch the gauges to see what the car is doing! That's no fun.
Two videos uploaded, not going to post them here because of course I won't.
you can do that with a fixed mount ;)
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