'99 Miata - Not My Problem

In reply to NickD :

thank you very much, if you ever find yourself in DFW or even close....drop me a line.

This is the slowest most painful engine reassembly ever. Yesterday I spent some time in the sun working over the plastic timing covers. Scraper, a dremel tool, washing them repeatedly to get a couple years of dead dinosaurs off them. I used RTV to glue the new rubber gaskets down and since everything fit mostly on the old covers I put packing tape on all of the questionable areas to hold things down while it cured overnight. 

Reassembled today with the fresh valve cover seal and RTV in the appropriate corners as suggested in the FSM. Torqued to spec and all that. Looks pretty much like a motor. 

Ran it with the belt for the alternator off, and then again with it on. It's the alaternator. 

Did  you get my message Nick? 

Talked to spacecadet and we've got a couple weeks until he can get a ride down to Houston to get it. That will give me time to replace the alternator, figure out how to reinstall the Racing Beat front roll bar and all of it's little pieces, and tidy up some wiring that's been a bit kludged over the years.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Got your message. I'll box it up tonight and ship it from my work tomorrow

In reply to NickD :

You're the best. 

Put in the rest of the bolts on the underside with the exception of the one exhaust bolt that was missing. Forgot to get a new one for that. I ended up using a regular M12x1.5 bolt and a washer for the rear subframe brace bolt that was missing. Not happy about that but the one I ordered was M12x1.25. Someone in the future needs to rob a dead Miata to make this right. I put the front swaybar back on, heated up the vacuum line with the heat gun and got that back on, screwed the airbox back down...running out of things to do. 

I did grab a bag of the better fir tree zip tie holders to replace the white ones that were aging out and that made moving things difficult. Now we can just cut the zip ties, move wires as necessary, and then put a fresh zip tie in. I think I got most of them but I'll send a handful with spacecadet for any others that he finds in the future. 

Has this exercise(experience) been reinforcement to the extent that the 'ANSWER' is not the "answer" after all?   sorry cuz'n Eddie...yur effort has been monumental .......

Got everything else assembled. Even with all the stuff I fixed (some of it because I broke it) there is so much more I'd want to do. Mostly just nuts and bolts stuff. 
Anyway, the undertray needed a couple of extra bolts so I pulled them out of my stash of Honda parts. Now it's held on with all the bolts. The battery it came with is being a jerk and acting like half the cells went bad. I bought a small AGM battery from Walmart. If I can coax the good battery back to life then I'll keep this for the Accord. 

Anyway, drove it out, checked for leaks again, I think it's still buring oil off the exhaust from the earlier leaks. I'll be driving it a bit over the next week to make sure that it's well and truly fixed and ready to drive to Dallas. For today it got two laps around the neighborhood. Driven at street speeds it feels exactly how I remember. I know I love autocrossing this car, and for that I respect the hell out of it, but I'm glad it's going back home. The combination of this car and babysitting the MSM over the winter was a good thing for me. I got to drive them and work on them without having to pull the trigger and buy one. I sort of know my way around the car now. I feel like I've given them a chance. 

My used alternator fixed your issue?

In reply to NickD :

It did. Although I'm not 100% sure I didn't just do something weird with the origional one because they feel exactly the same by hand. Cars are weird. Thanks, that was a big help. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Well, glad to hear it helped. Like I said, I had no use for it and it was just taking up available space in my garage, so I was glad to be free of it and see someone get use out of it. For a while, I had all three variants of NA/NB Miata alternators kicking around

Took it for a 27 mile drive this morning. A couple laps around the neighborhood, the one small section of two corners, out on the freeway for a couple miles. Everything works. Gauges are so steady that I wanted to flick them to see if they work. I need to re-torque the valve cover once it cools. It's not leaking, but there is the hint of wetness in one spot. The AC belt needs to be a smidge tighter. Exhaust rattles but we know that it's broken where it enters the muffler. I'm going to put 100-200 miles on it this week. Parked it under the carport because my big pine trees are dropping sap bomb needles. They're annoying to clean off the paint and windows of the regular cars, but I'm not going to subject a soft top with a plastic window to that. 

And the Miata is home. 

I did make one mistake and I'll fully fess up to it. I remember when I was putting the belts on for the last time I tightened up the bolt that applies tension to the alternator and then I tightened the bolt in the slot and I thought to myself "there's really nothing other than a bit of friction and luck holding that bolt in". Turns out I was right and it loosened and fell out while the alternator stayed tight. Someone has since told me that you need to give it a 1/2 turn after you tighten the bolt in the slot to make sure it has enough friction on the system to not do that. Another thing I've learned about Miatas. 

Now that we're at the end I can sit back and reflect. The project was bigger than I thought it was going to be. If I had known that I was going to have to pull the motor I probably would have passed. At this point a wise person will point out that the reason I had to pull the motor was because I was ham fisted and broke the oil pump. I guess the moral of that is don't make more work for yourself. I mostly enjoyed working on the car. They're simple, parts are available and cheap, and everyone who knows what a 10mm socket looks like has worked on one. 

I also know that I don't want a Miata. I still love to autocross and rallycross them, but I don't enjoy them as street cars. I had this and a MSM in the driveway since the fall and I put maybe 500 miles on the two of them. It could be argued that I didn't put enough miles on them to fall in love, but it only took 10 or so before I wanted to park the car and get out. Arrow straight roads and traffic consisting of 50-70% full size trucks were a large contributor to this I'm sure, but I never meshed with the sensations of the car. It's not a small car thing, I loved my Mazda2, it's just the Miataness of the Miata. It's not my jam. 

Sometimes I'll keep a car around simply because I like the engineering and I like poking around and seeing how it was put together. The most remarkable thing about the Miata, to me, is that there is nothing remarkable about it at all. While tearing it apart I couldn't find a single thing that was novel or interesting. I appreciate that they were dedicated to their design concept. Proper suspension, light and minimal, but nothing novel to get there. All of it is just basic economy car engineering assembled into this little car that simply works. I look at it and think "this is easy enough that literally any manufacturer should be able to do it" and yet nobody has. Maybe that's what's special? People love them. I get that. I do understand it. If this IS your jam I understand why you might own several in succession or even several at a time. Where can you go to replicate what a Miata gives you? Pretty much just a different Miata. 

I'm glad I go to do this. I was able to work on and drive a car that I was interested in without having to buy it. That's a fairly rare opportunity for me. Had I not done this I would have eventually bought one of my own just to give it a try and that would have cost me real dollars and annoyed my wife. When it's all said and done, a friend has his car back, it works, and I had an interesting automotive experience. Everyone benefited. The world is a better place. 

Cheers man, nice debrief.

Today I learned that there actually exists someone who likes small Mazdas, but not Miatas. The more you know.

It's not often that a "build project and project car" thread has such a definitive end; thanks for sharing with us!

damen

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I would agree that the lack of "special" is partially what makes the Miata so special. The lack of gimmicks make it more reliable, easier to work on and cheaper to maintain and more of a pure experience.

In reply to NickD :

That's 100% true, and should make me love it, but here I am. I do understand why the lot of you like them. You are clearly smarter than me. 

3 1/2 months without this car made me miss it terribly. 

I threw the top down on the way from Deuce's home, to my buddies apt in Downtown Houston, and remembered what i loved about it. 

Driving it around on Sunday I realized I had forgotten its quirks, and was wondering if i really wanted to keep it.  That thought faded quickly and is now gone. 

Saturday night I got a text from a friend needing some help with an event in Mineral Wells on Sunday. I had not packed for the weather forecast of 60 degrees+ lots of wind that mineral Wells had forecast. Houston was hanging in the High 70's and Humid...so i left sweatshirts at home....

so my new Itinerary for Sunday Morning had become

Houston-> Far North Dallas Suburbs -> Mineral Wells...

with needing to be in Mineral Wells by Noon. with 6-ish Hours of driving and 2 Gas Stops.....  

It is a cardinal sin in Texas to pass Buc-ee's and NOT stop

Car was unflappable.... but for my everyday driving duties i think i want to get some 14 inch steel wheels and Balloon tires to soak up some of the terrible freeways.  

For Those who don't know....Mineral Wells is HUGE over 1.5 Million square feet of pavement to play with... this is only showing about half the pavement behind the Miata

Deuce also sent me home with a couple of goodies...

Think twice...wrench once.....I'm not patient....so it's good that's on the car to remind me. 

Car has become my new Daily driver....i have a 100 Mile round Trip commute and I've ben eager to park the Focus and let the already depreciated Miata take the brunt of the Miles.

Between my roommate and I we have 5 Cars at the house now.... 

One other amusing part of the weekend was the 4 "new" used Race tires a friend gave me for the Focus.... and it's part of why i wanted to stop at home before going to Mineral Wells.

255/45R17...4 of them.....and only a Miata to get them to DFW....but I also know how to fit 4 205/50R15's in the Miata MOUNTED so i had practice....

unfortunately...no matter now i tried.... I could only get 3 to fit.... 

so my buddy will bring the 4th to a wedding we're both going to in a few weeks...... HIS WEDDING.

I have dumb friends to go on this Journey through life with and i wouldn't trade it for anything.

man, your buddy must have an understanding fiancee.  bringing tires to his own wedding!

Seth, I think you should stop by a Mazda dealership and try an ND. I'd be interested in your thoughts. So many people here say "Miata" and mean "NA/NB" and then forget that there are two generations after that. The 1999 is based on a platform designed in the 80's, the ND is based on a platform designed in the teens. I think it keeps a lot of the desirable attributes of the early cars but without a lot of the drawbacks.

I think of myself as being a huge fan of Miata's but it recently dawned on me that what a really am is a fan of Spec. Miatas.  I've never driven a Miata without a cage and I've only driven one Miata on the street and that car was a street/track toy with a cage that I was looking at with a friend with the idea of turning it into a Spec. Miata.

When I think about what I want in a car to drive on the street it's nothing like a Miata.  In fact I think I'd tire of a a daily driven Miata quite quickly.  I still think they're great cars but, like Seth, I have no desire to own one as a street car.

Keep in mind that a Spec Miata is a far cry from a well-done street NA/NB, and VERY far from an ND. If you only equate "Miata" with "cheap caged track rat", you're doing yourself a disservice. They can do that very well, but they can do a lot more.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Honestly Seth, I can understand where coming from. Despite my 96 being the 2nd longest car I owned, and the fact I’m replacing the Vette with a pair of 1.6 cars, I’ve never really felt passionate about Miatas. It was years after my first autox in one before I finally stepped up and bought the 96. 

Don't get me wrong, obviously they really excel when the going gets twisty. They also tend to be reliable and economical to own, which are 3 of the reasons I’m back in one(the other being it’s one of the cheapest ways to get a competitive autox car). 

However, a Miata isn’t a car that gets my pulse racing just by their existence or sound. Although I did like the smell of my 96, it was rather...vintage??? I’m not really a convertible fan either, though there are rare occasions it’s nice to drop the top.  

Though I've also come to realize that I don’t need to be passionate about a car to keep it in the fleet. It just needs to fill one or more roles, and perform those requested tasks reliably and economically. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Spacecadet had an early ND and I spent some time in the passenger seat, but I haven't driven one yet. I will say that they are a HUGE step forward and I think I like it. I would like to spend some time in an RF to be honest. Haven't met anyone who wants to loan me one yet. 

One of the things I don't like about Miatas on a philosophical engineering level is that for any given year there is basically just a Miata. Yes, options differ, and there was the MSM (which has it's own issues) but Mazda has just made the Miata. No bigger motor, no superlegarra track version with a hardtop and no AC. Just Miatas. What's kind of fascinating is that the aftermarket has made ALL of the interesting versions of the Miata that Mazda didn't. Turbo, V8, lifted on mud tires, caged race car. They all exist, you just have to roll your own. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

no superlegarra track version with a hardtop and no AC. Just Miatas.

Mostly true, but that one actually exists, although it doesn't really have any special parts - just fewer parts than standard. There's also the r package NA, which does have a few special bits. It's just so easy to make them better with aftermarket parts that the few special factory versions tend to get overlooked.

They actually did make a "superlegera track version with no AC and a hard top", it was the 2003 Club Sport.  I seem to recall that it sold terribly. :)