Miata Wintercrosser

How are you liking the DZ102 tires? I am shopping summer tires for the Subaru and am between the Dunlops for cheap or spending a bit more for the Conti DW.

In reply to EvanB:

I haven't really formed any opinion of them yet. I bought them because they were affordable summer performance tires in the size that I wanted.

I switch cars almost daily. It's not a car that I drive every day, so I can't say that they transformed it as soon as I put them on. I was hoping to try one of Lime Rock's (non-competitive) Summer Autocross days, but the scheduling hasn't worked out. Maybe in September.

Man, I bought an NB not too long ago, and reading this thread is like deja vu.

The two pins on the shifter that need to be backed out were a surprise to me, since I had only worked on NAs before. Those little suckers gave me a bit of grief. Also, it turns out you can actually install the shifter backwards on the NB. I did this unknowingly and when I put it all back together, my knuckles were almost hitting the dash when I went into 3rd or 5th. Luckily it was an easy fix.

Also, when I did my rear brakes, the adjuster key was completely missing in my driver's side rear assembly. No big deal, just use the key from the other side, right? Well, I put it in and no matter how much I turned it, the caliper wouldnt back out. I began to think that maybe the adjustment was only for one side, and foolishly tried to back the caliper out with a clamp. BAD IDEA. Anyways, it turns out that there was massive dirt buildup where the key should go, preventing the key from seating itself and being able to turn the gear inside. I sprayed it all out and cleaned it with a wire, and was finally able to get the thing backed out and adjusted.

This thread is full of stuff I'd never heard about tho. Handbrake mod seems interesting, and that seat mod really has my attention.

Currently I have a passenger window that only rolls down halfway then stops. Maybe its similar to what you mentioned earlier? Also getting a slight gas smell and a strange rattle sound, but this only happens when traveling up a hill and the engine is under load.

Anyways, awesome thread. I love how easy these things are to work on.

In reply to Desmond:

Your passenger window is getting hooked on the cable half way down.

The KYB shocks are a huge improvement over the tired originals. With that project behind me, I decided to harvest the old stock springs and assorted hardware from the original coilover setups. The shocks are shot, but I want to hang onto the springs and stuff in case I change the shocks again in the future.

Using coil spring compressors is one of my least favorite car jobs.

I set the parts out in the order that they were removed and then ran a loop of string through everything to keep it all in order. NB's have a lot more pieces than NA's and most of my stuff was in pretty good shape, so I'm glad that I went the route that I did. I would have been pretty annoyed if I ordered all new stuff, only to find that I didn't need it.

Springs, rubber stuff and hardware were boxed up and stored away and the old original shocks went into the scrap metal pile.

A short but interesting conversation transpired across the breakfast table this morning...

I had just mentioned to The Other Person Who Lives Here (who has never even taken a seat in this car) that I was really happy with how my little project was coming along, and that there were only a few more things that I still wanted to do, like maybe add a roll bar and a skid plate.

Out of the blue she said, "I've always liked those little BMW convertibles. Couldn't you do your Winter-thing in one of those?"

Hmmmm...

This caught me so far off guard that I wasn't sure how to respond, aside from saying, "Yeah, I suppose I could..."

So I'm not sure if that was a request or permission. I didn't want to dive any deeper into the conversation just yet, but I think I'm going to interpret it as a challenge. I may be writing a Craigslist ad for this car in the near future.

Best keep the Miata, she's going to claim the BMW.

-ValuePack, married long enough to see the handwriting on the wall

I cleaned it up and took some new photos today, just in case...

Out of the blue she said, "I've always liked those little BMW convertibles. Couldn't you do your Winter-thing in one of those?"

They're a bit pricey to be playing in the snow.

1958 BMW Deluxe Isetta Convertible, white/red, full nut and bolt, ground-up, frame-off restoration, excellent condition. $50,000. Call

http://worcester.craigslist.org/cto/5096538023.html

Woody wrote: That seems odd. Did you disconnect the sway bar links first?

Sure did. I pried through the lower arm and under the mount unlike your picture, though. It's entirely possible I just did things the hard and stupid way for no reason.

The only answer is for me to buy more Miatas and replicate the procedure to figure out where I went wrong.

ValuePack wrote: Best keep the Miata, she's going to claim the BMW. *-ValuePack, married long enough to see the handwriting on the wall*

She's actually content to sit in the passenger's seat of cars that don't shift themselves.

In reply to Wally:

So what you're saying is that this Miata would be an incredible bargain for someone at $4750...

Wally wrote:

Out of the blue she said, "I've always liked those little BMW convertibles. Couldn't you do your Winter-thing in one of those?"

They're a bit pricey to be playing in the snow. 1958 BMW Deluxe Isetta Convertible, white/red, full nut and bolt, ground-up, frame-off restoration, excellent condition. $50,000. Call http://worcester.craigslist.org/cto/5096538023.html

Woody wrote: In reply to Wally: So what you're saying is that this Miata would be an incredible bargain for someone at $4750...

Wally wrote:

Out of the blue she said, "I've always liked those little BMW convertibles. Couldn't you do your Winter-thing in one of those?"

They're a bit pricey to be playing in the snow. 1958 BMW Deluxe Isetta Convertible, white/red, full nut and bolt, ground-up, frame-off restoration, excellent condition. $50,000. Call http://worcester.craigslist.org/cto/5096538023.html

So Woody when can I pick it up? Cash, check, charge or an installment plan of $2 a day. Oh and do I get a warranty?

In reply to Stang_guy03:

How long will it take you to get here from Saginaw?

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/open-classifieds/2000-miata-4750-in-connecticut-totally-mine-completely-affiliated/103506/page1/

Woody wrote: In reply to Stang_guy03: How long will it take you to get here from Saginaw?

Hell the way you where going about it I didn't think you where serious yet! Now you're making me put some serious thought into this. So we can go with the installment plan right? And what about the warranty?

Let think about this. My garage holds 2 vehicles and has 2 Mustangs currently residing in it. So that would mean something would have to go. Interested in a Mustang Woody?

If your serious do mind if I share GRM post to some local sites. There always seem to people in Detroit area looking for Miatas. Sorry if I got your hopes to quick or your misses!

Personaly I'd keep it and forget the BMW. This is a nice fun car and way cheaper over all to enjoy!

In reply to Stang_guy03:

As long as you can pay the full amount in one installment when you pick up the car, that would be fine.

For you only, I will warranty any new part that I installed in the build thread for thirty days. Starting now.

My Mustang days are behind me.

In reply to Woody:

Never owned one that old. My oldest was an 85 GT.

Stang_guy03 wrote: In reply to Woody: Never owned one that old. My oldest was an 85 GT.

In '85, I owned this one:

In reply to Woody:

I need to visit the exwife to get some of my old pictures she still has in the family albums to share.

Time for an update.

As you probably know, I had listed this car for sale for a couple of weeks. While it is still theoretically available, I have more or less decided to hang onto it for a little while longer.

The typical Miata 65 mph shimmy was starting to get on my nerves. I had the new wheels and tires balanced at a trusted shop, but it was still doing it.

In another thread (https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/help-me-diagnose-my-miatas-vibrations/64126/page1/), Keith suggested aligning the PPF. So I gave that a shot.

I have a lift, so it wasn't terribly difficult, but I also think that it's something that you could accomplish with the car on jack stands.

Before:

Bar stool, blocks and a scissor jack:

After:

The result: There was much less vibration at 65 mph, but it was still noticeable.

I still had one more theory...

While I love the look of fifteen inch wheels on a Miata, I've always quietly believed that these cars just work better on fourteens at 26 psi.

I removed the new, fat fifteens, put the winter tires back on and took the car for a ride.

With the new shocks, newly aligned PPF and fourteen inch wheels and tires, the 65 mph shimmy was nonexistent.

So the next step was to find another set of fourteen inch wheels for summertime use. I couldn't find anything good locally, but I found a set of really nice 94-97 factory alloys (my favorite Miata wheels!) just outside of Manhattan. They're in really nice original condition and as a bonus, they came with a set of old-but-nearly-new BF Goodrich tires already mounted on them. They are 195/60-14 rather than the original 185/60-14, but they look good and a road test indicates that the car tracks straight and true without any hint of vibration at highway speeds.

I am very happy.

For those of you playing along at home, here's a comparison of the 185's vs. the 195's:

Tire Size Comparison

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference

185/60-14: 4.4in, 11.4in, 22.7in, 71.4in, 887, 0.0%

195/60-14: 4.6in, 11.6in, 23.2in, 72.9in, 869, 2.1%

I'm prepared to call that a negligible difference.

After reading about their magical powers here, https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/garage-star-magical-door-bushings-miata-content-inside/103950/page1/ , I ordered a pair of Garagestar Delrin door bushings.

http://garagestar.com/blog/?product=garage-star-delrin-door-bushings

They seemed a little pricey at sixty five bucks, but everyone seems to love them, and I had already narrowed down an annoying rattle to that exact spot on the passenger side, so I figured that I'd give them a try. Actual installation took less than five minutes, but I spent about another fifteen adjusting them. Very, very easy. I haven't road tested it yet, but I plan on taking the car to work tomorrow, and I know a really long quick twisty route with quite a few bumps that I can take. I will report back on these things tomorrow night.