Miata Wintercrosser Part Deux: The M-Edition

And now, actual work begins...

I've been putting off some messy, smelly, cold laying-on-the-garage-floor projects, but I decided that today would be the day to get some of that behind me.

After a quick trip around town to get things warmed up, I put the car up on ramps and jackstands.

Yes, I do have a MaxJax, but one of the great advantages of the MaxJax is also one of its great weaknesses: You can take it down when you're not using it. This Miata project came along quite suddenly and the MaxJax was already packed away for the winter, and there was a car tucked into the corner of the garage bay that's set up for the lift, so I had to get down on the floor and work the old fashioned way. To add insult to injury, the concrete floor is too slippery for the light, RWD Miata to go up the Rhino Ramps without them shooting out in front of the car, so I had to jack up both ends of the car and shove the ramps under the front tires.

I'd been wanting to rebuild the shifter, but wouldn't have felt right about it if I didn't go ahead and change the transmission oil first.

Always make sure that the fill plug will come out before draining the old fluid.

The new oil (Redline MTL) had been out in the cold garage for about a week, so I put the bottles in a bucket of hot water for about half an hour to make it flow easier.

There's not a lot of room to pump the oil up into the transmission when you're working off of jackstands. I was really missing the lift at this point. The transmission capacity is about two quarts, but since the pump can't get every drop out of the bottle, you really need to buy three quarts of Very Expensive Oil to get it filled properly. Then it mocks you by overflowing after about two pumps from the third bottle.

It's natural to follow up that job by changing the rear differential fluid. One quart of Redline 75-90 will take care of the task back there.

Nice! Explain to me why you don't keep the MaxJax available year round?

Can I call dibs on this miata when you're done with it?

In reply to docwyte:

In the winter, I put four cars in my three car garage.

You can call dibs, but I'm kinda liking this one.

With fresh fluid in the transmission, I moved on to the shifter rebuild. Miatas have the sweetest shifters in the world, but not this one. In fact, it didn't shift like a bad Miata, it shifter like a bad normal car. I started with some nice matching packing paper to protect my nice clean interior (courtesy of Rock Auto). It's hard to see here, but the old upper boot was torn. With that out of the way, I found that the lower boot was also torn. I expected this. The old oil looked pretty nasty down there. I used an Ambu suction unit to pull out the old fluid. This works really well and as a bonus, it also shows you exactly how much it removed. Old parts. When I was removing the old bushings, I discovered that the lower spring was broken. I didn't realize at first, but the spring was broken into three pieces and not two. I had to fish around in there with a magnet to get it out and I missed it the first few tries. I almost started reassembly with the small piece floating around in the bottom of the turret. This would have been a bad thing. It also goes a long way toward explaining why the car was shifting so poorly. New parts. I added about 3.5 ounces of new fluid. I usually use Redline MTL but I had an open bottle of MT-90. MTL is 75W80 and MT-90 is 75W90. I don't really think that my shifter can tell the difference. Everything got a good coat of grease. The first part into the hole is the spacer, then the lower bushing with the spring (spring down). The small bottom bushing snaps onto the bottom of the shifter. The upper bushing slides over the top of the shifter with the spring up, then the small boot and then the top boot. Pretty simple. All buttoned up and now it shifts like new.

A great big thank you goes out to my good friend and all around GRM Good Guy Fornetti14, who supplied me with an original Mazda battery hold down assembly, the lack of which was causing me more angst than you could possibly imagine. In exchange, I sent him a Miata shaped car cover that I would never have used. Well worth it in my book...

...especially when you consider that this is the same guy who, a few years back, supplied me with enough wisdom and a $10 part to save me from the purchase and installation of an entire Subaru transmission.

Thanks again Tony!

It was surprisingly difficult to track down a suitable air filter for this car. I tried three auto parts places, plus (gasp!) Walmart before ordering it from Rock Auto for 2/3 MSRP including shipping.

Blurry photo, but you don't really care...

I really don't like cleaning cars.

My Porsches might get washed once per year. I tend to drive them more when they're dirty anyway. My truck gets run through the $4 car wash when I can no longer see through the windows.

This center console was disgusting.

It was treated to a complete disassembly and scouring.

Much better.

I need to locate one of these little metal clips that holds the tombstone in place if anyone has a spare. I have one on on the right side, but the left one is missing.

Woody, that's the advantage to a 4 post lift. I can park 4 cars in my 3 car garage year round, PLUS still have the lift set up to use.

In reply to Woody:

If you don't find a clip sooner or more local, I can check to see if there's still one on our future-DP 93. It should still be there.

docwyte wrote: Woody, that's the advantage to a 4 post lift. I can park 4 cars in my 3 car garage year round, PLUS still have the lift set up to use.

I seriously considered a four post lift, but there is a door to my basement in the lift bay that I use all the time. In order to access it, I would either have to step over, duck under or go around at least one corner of the lift a dozen times per day.

In reply to petegossett:

Thanks Pete!

You go into your basement that much everyday? My garage is a side loader so I don't have that issue...

I am pretty sure I have some of those clips in a "box of Miata screws'n'clips" I bought a few years ago. Will check tonight.

docwyte wrote: You go into your basement that much everyday?

Yes. I have lots of tools and extra parts down there.

And a small shooting range.

RedGT wrote: I am pretty sure I have some of those clips in a "box of Miata screws'n'clips" I bought a few years ago. Will check tonight.

Cool! Thanks.

In reply to Woody:

If its this little guy, pm me an address and I'll drop it in the mail.

That looks like the one! Any chance you have a front license plate bracket in that pile that you'd like to sell me? Or maybe even just one of the two special bolts that mount the bracket to the bumper? I have one but not the other.

Emailed ya - need a picture of that license plate bolt and I very well may have it in the box o' fasteners but being in PA I have never owned a Miata with front plate brackets to know what it looks like.

RedGT wrote: Emailed ya - need a picture of that license plate bolt and I very well may have it in the box o' fasteners but being in PA I have never owned a Miata with front plate brackets to know what it looks like.

You get email?

RedGT wrote: You get email?

Just saw that. Replied.

I decided to take a chance on a set of used Konis from California. They came with stock springs, which is fine for now as far as I'm concerned. I was hoping to get lucky and be able to just drop them in, but it looks like they will have to come apart for some fresh bumpstops and boots.

Not much has been happening around the garage lately.

I got pretty sick at the beginning of November and it just wouldn't go away. Then my wife had rotator cuff surgery and she was stuck at home without the ability to drive, so I have been tasked with getting her to wherever she needs to go. Combine those with the holidays, as well as a fairly new puppy in the house, and I haven't found much time to get any real work done.

It's a new year, the holidays have passed, I'm getting tired of the dog and I need to get away from my wife. Time to get back into the garage.

Today was all about the prep work.

I cleaned a bunch of E36 M3 off of my work benches (including a bunch of E36 Z3 E36 M3 left over from last year's project car) so that I would have a fairly neat area to work from. I failed to to take a before photo, but here is the reasonably successful end result. It was an absolute disaster area at about noon today.

Then I put the car up on to ramps in an effort to minimize the pain to my back from leaning over the engine. The asymmetrical ramp placement was intentional, as I am going to have to remove one front wheel in order to change the clutch slave cylinder at some point.

Fortunately, I have all the leftover special service tools from previous Miata projects that I need to tackle the timing belt, crank and cam seals.

I'm hoping to get an early start in the morning. The book calls for four hours to do the timing belt, but I don't think that it includes the water pump. Plus, I'll be be changing all the hoses (nine, I think), and, of course, I work slowly and I'm crazy about cleaning everything as I go. I figure that this will take most of my free time on Monday and Wednesday.