Your computer has a VGA port which are/were used for monitors so no good here.
Something like this should do the trick:
Adam
Your computer has a VGA port which are/were used for monitors so no good here.
Something like this should do the trick:
Adam
How did you guys end up shipping the wheels and tires?
The SerialLink is the connection between the serial cable and the ribbon cable. Unplug the keypad - there are two little arms on the sides of the connector that lever it out - and plug in the SerialLink. Voila, now you plug into your laptop directly or via the USB-serial converter. As Adam points out, don’t confuse the video port for serial.
In reply to Cotton :
FedEx. Wasn't the cheapest but I got the wheels in 2 days. Ironically they showed up before the lug nuts, which I'm still waiting for.
So I think I'm missing the actual Serial Link. I've dug thru the stuff I got and I have a serial cable and the manual for the Serial Link but I don't have the actual Serial Link box. You don't happen to have one for sale Keith?
If not I'll be buying a wide band O2 much sooner...
docwyte said:In reply to Cotton :
FedEx. Wasn't the cheapest but I got the wheels in 2 days. Ironically they showed up before the lug nuts, which I'm still waiting for.
I totally feel burned by Fedex on that one. I’m pretty sure I’ve shipped my last tires and wheels. Unless you have a business account, it’s just not feasible. Lugnuts should arrive Saturday. That’s my fault. Never delegate something you should do. The Dallas post offices are horrible. They are so light, I’m anxious to find out if they work well.
In reply to AnthonyGS :
I'm sure they'll work out great. I've shipped a bunch of wheels/tires in the past but its been awhile. I have a very basic account from FedEx, I don't get very much of a discount as I don't do enough volume. On some things it works out, like when I sold the Euro GT3 seats from my 996, I saved a decent amount there...
The companies that ship a lot get HUGE discounts...
docwyte said:In reply to Cotton :
FedEx. Wasn't the cheapest but I got the wheels in 2 days. Ironically they showed up before the lug nuts, which I'm still waiting for.
So I think I'm missing the actual Serial Link. I've dug thru the stuff I got and I have a serial cable and the manual for the Serial Link but I don't have the actual Serial Link box. You don't happen to have one for sale Keith?
If not I'll be buying a wide band O2 much sooner...
SerialLinks haven't been imported into the US for at least a decade. You can still get them in NZ, where the Link comes from: http://www.nzefi.com/product/serial-link-g1-tuning-interface/
You could probably reverse engineer one pretty easily - it's not complex. Note the year on the PCB. I can probably get component IDs off mine if I can find it.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Found one, local even. Skip (the King of Miatas in the Front Range) has a brand new one, so I'll buy it from him. Then I can actually data log this thing and see what its doing.
On the ergonomics front, I made a score yesterday. Found it on Rennlist, a Momo Mod 8 steering wheel. Initially I was going to buy the Mod 7, but for the price I got this for, I can compromise as they're largely the same wheel.
Seller didn't include the horn button, wiring, horn ring or allen head bolts but being a pack rat pays off sometimes. I was pretty sure I had all that stuff and sure enough, when I checked in my basement I found everything.
Going to buy the Bell hub adapter and this thing will be plug n play.
God how I hate the "this is the top" yellow stripe on every new accessory steering wheel. Otherwise the perfect wheel to steer a Miata.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
Yeah, the "rally" stripe is pretty awful. I may dye it black, I'm not a fan either.
More work tonight. Decided to replace the valve cover gasket since the spark plug threads had oil on them. I'm really hoping it's the valve cover gasket and not an indication of blow by.
So, off with the valve cover!
Oily bits look appropriately oily.
Timing belt is 8 years old but only 7,000 miles of use. It looks brand new, no cracks or anything. At this point I'm going to leave it alone.
New valve cover gasket in place. The old one was a little hard but it did come out in one piece.
These were in my mail box today! Wheels going on tomorrow morning.
Oh, my spark plug socket has totally packed it in. Time to get a magnetic one instead.
Did a little miata shopping this morning. Hooked up with Skip, who had a brand new Serial Link for me. The seller of my car thinks he has one but isn't sure. Since these things are pretty hard to find and this one was local and brand new, I bought it. If the seller of my car finds his and sends it to me, I'll resell it. Now I can data log!
Off with the stock wheels and dry rotted 14 year old tires...
On with the new to me 15" Kosei's with brand new tires! Looks good and I can fit Wilwood brake kits. I'm not digging the lack of hub centric rings tho, putting these on without them is a PITA. Think I'll be calling Tire Rack and buying a set of rings.
Annoyingly I noticed a puddle underneath the motor when I was done putting the wheels on. Popped the hood and my t-stat housing is leaking. Yup, I did just replace the t-stat. Yup, I cleaned both surfaces, used silicone and a new gasket. Grr! Off to the parts store to get another gasket.
This time I cleaned everything incredibly well, used acetone to wipe up both surfaces. Put silicone on both mating surfaces and made sure the tstat was properly seated as was the gasket. Put it all back together, no more leaks. Whew! As Edd China says, result!
Skip also gave me a set of '99 cloth seats. This way I can throw the drivers seat in while mine is at the upholsterer's getting foamectomied and repaired, it has a small rip in the drivers left front butt cover. Not sure if the foamectomy will be enough tho. Right now, with the seat stock, the top of my head is level with the top of the rollbar. That means I'm at least 1-2" above the rollbar with my helmet on.
Technically, to pass the broomstick rule, I'll need to drop down 3+ inches. I don't see that happening with a foamectomy. Right? Looks like I need to mount a race seat directly to the floor. Problem is, I don't fit in many race seats and the ones I do fit in, from what I understand, are not a direct bolt in to the car. Seats like the Recaro SPG XL, Racetech 4009W, Cobra Suzuka GT, etc.
Suggestions?
The wheels do look good. Back in WA in my Navy days I had a really big friend that got legal removing almost all of the foam. He went 6’4” or more and was in the 250-300 range. It’s kind of amazing the range of people sizes Miatas can handle.
So I got a set of hubcentric rings from my local Discount Tire for a whopping $5. Will pull the wheels off this Friday to install them.
Need to get the car up to temp and burp the cooling system and refill as needed after I replaced the tstat. Supposed to snow tomorrow, hopefully not enough to ruin my plans of getting this thing thru smog testing Friday morning.
Assuming it passes smog, I'll pull the drivers seat to take to the upholstery shop to have them fix the rip and do a foamectomy at the same time.
Look at the spec miata seats. https://trackdogracing.com/ULS-SpecSeat.aspx The 18" should fit just about anyone. Otherwise, it's a drop floor for you. That should take it down about 2.75" with their drop rails.
In reply to bmw88rider :
Yeah, I may have to go that way. I'd rather not tho, as all the clubs I run with want equal restraint if I take a passenger, which means 2 seats, side brackets, harnesses, etc. So I'll spend $1500+ right there.
I'm going to do a foamectomy on the cloth seat Skip gave me and see where it puts me. If I can't get low enough with it, I won't bother to do it to my '94 M seat, I'll just have the rip stiched up and know I'll need to get race seats...
If you want to know if you can get low enough with a foamectomy, just try sitting in the empty seat pan without any foam.
And I keep posting this - but don't do the super-simple "cut this part off and you're done" sort of foamectomy that's known in a lot of forums. Strip the covers off the seat and reassemble. Start carving. Sit. Carve. Take material out of the back and up by your shoulders. The end result should be a custom fit seat that's very comfortable and has loads of lateral support.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
So with no foam on the seat pan that's about the same height as a race seat without sliders?
You're taking the foam out of the top of the seat bottom? If I do it that way will the leather covering look saggy?
No foam on the seat pan is as low as you can possibly get with a foamectomy. If that's too tall for you, then you're obviously not going to get where you need to be. Check out Seth's build thread.
I usually take some foam out of the bottom of the base, but then I carve to suit on top. I don't have any pictures handy at the moment. The important thing is that it's not a one and done operation. Shaping the back makes a big difference, as does fine-tuning the base.
Well it snowed again today. Getting out of my neighborhood tomorrow may be challenging, which will delay the emissions test at least a day. I'd rather not go on Saturday, they'll be much busier and the chances of the car sitting and cooling off are far higher.
Plan is to get the car up to temp today so the tstat opens and refills the block, then I'll let it cool so I can top off the cooling system.
I'll also take apart my spare stock drivers seat and see how I fit with no bottom cushion at all. If I still don't fit well I may move this car onto someone who can fit in it better than I...
Oh come on....The weather was beautiful in Centennial today. TG it started after I got to the office and quit well before it was time to come home.
If you decide to move it.....I'd be very interested.
In reply to bmw88rider :
Drive to work and home was fine in the truck. Neighborhood streets are still snow covered tho.
if I can’t get the Miata out of my driveway I can’t take it to emissions....
This morning I decided to follow Keith's advice and take apart my spare miata seat to remove the foam and see how I fit in the car with no foam/helmet on.
This thing is RUSTY!!!
Foam is in pretty good shape. There were quite a few more hog rings holding the cover on than youtube showed. Not only the ones on the outside edges, but also two vertical and two horizontal bars were hog ringed in from the top of the cover
Hog rings on the bottom were really rusty and gross
Top of the seat pan was also pretty rusty
Which left a mess on my work bench
Got the seat in the car, I threw the cover on it so I wouldn't have to sit on the rusty seat pan
And the money shot, the entire reason for doing this...
Ugh. Not so good. This is with NO seat foam at all in the stock '99 seat, I'm literally sitting on the metal floor pan. My friend is coming over tomorrow and I'll do a much better picture with a straight edge then but this is a problem.
Right now, my helmet is still ABOVE the rollbar by a decent amount, or if I think positively, just a tad above it. I refuse to permenantly alter this car, as its a low mileage (62,xxx) survivor. So I won't cut off the rear seat pedestals or install a seat drop floor pan.
So where does this leave me? It seems a foregone conclusion that I won't pass the 2" broomstick rule and even if tech looks the other way I'm still not even a little bit below the rollbar level to personally make me feel safe driving this on track.
I suppose I can keep the car and just do street driving in it but one of my main goals with this car was to be able to retire my 996 Turbo from track duty, as it's a very expensive car to potentially wad up.
Suggestions? I assume an Ultrashield seat mounted directly to the floor will be no lower and probably higher than this '99 seat with no seat bottom foam?
bmw88rider, contact me....
In reply to docwyte :
I may have missed it but how tall are you? And what rollbar is that?
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