The Bean

Oh, I like that A LOT!!!  Of course I'm a fan of the RPF1 design on just about anything so I may be a bit biased.

Those wheels are HOT.

Need a little more spacer to fill the wheelwells i think.

I appreciate the encouragement. I agree, it'll probably need more spacer. In the mean time, one more bite of the elephant. The steering arms needed to be reamed to fit the larger pinto outer tie rod taper (so I can use my bump steer adjusters).

A couple more bites... I machined up some spacers for the upper ball joint nuts, and got all the parts together to grease the wheel bearings. I saw a bearing greaser online, and figured it was something worth trying.

First turn down a bar of aluminum:

Then add some O-rings:

Find out your O-rings are hard enough to displace the inner race instead of seating, then find some softer O-rings:

Voila, a greased bearing:

As expected, the new grease displaced much of the old grease in the front of the bearing. Unfortunately, the grease wasn't pushed past the seal on the back side of the bearing. I could add a seal on the front side to enable some pressure to build and push past the seal... but this is good enough for now. 

For future me: Hopefully the old and new grease are compatible. I used red n tacky. I have always used this grease for tapered bearings, so I stuck with it for this project. The miata forums recommend higher grade grease, but these are old worn in bearings that may not last long anyway. Perfect for a bit of trial and error.

A bearing greaser, what a great idea!   You might be able to find replacement seals, I know road racers take the seals out to replace the grease with high temperature grease. 

Relevant wheel bearing grease experience, and damn I wish I had that greaser during that experience. Our C Sports racer had a very expensive replaceable double row ball bearing of similar construction. By design slightly overloaded. With the original as provided by ZF grease they would fail in about 4 service hours, less than 2 race weekends. Dis-assemble and replace the grease in a new bearing with fresh Mobil 1 and the life went past 50 hours before the car passed into other ownership.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Wow, that is quite a difference. The only change was the grease? I have a feeling I will be looking into methods to extend the life of these bearings. The Pinto is slightly heavier than the miata, and I'll have quite a bit of spacer and a 225 tire on them. Thats a "cross that bridge when we get there" issue for now.

Keep on chewing... new 20 degree tie rod adjusters (7075 T651 this time). This spindle/brake/wheel swap project is toeing the line on "just because you can doesn't mean you should". I'll be happy when its done and sorted out.

Also got the upper ball joints installed for the final time. The boots for a k772 fit nicely.

Spent some time getting everything installed properly, and grinding the lower control arms for brake disc clearance. Unfortunately some of the brake hose fittings were incorrectly boxed, so we are still waiting on the correct parts to arrive. The front brake calipers have been sitting for quite a while. I tried to push the pistons out with the motive bleeder to flush any corrosion out, but without the correct fittings I could only build ~12psi. I'll have to wait for the fittings and flush/test the calipers in position on the car. Pictures to make the post worth reading:

Subaru recommends a regulated compressed air method to pop the pistons out of the caliper.  Dial pressure down to your preferred value, place a chunk of 2x4 in the caliper where the rotor normally lives, use a rubber tipped nozzle and placing it in the brake line hole.  Blast away using the block o  stopping to stop the piston before it departs Earths atmosphere after going thru you or your garage wall or roof.  

In reply to wawazat :

I've not had very good luck with this method when dealing with really old and crusty (New England) parts. My new method of last (first?) resort has been to pump calipers full of grease with a grease gun. Less messy on the front end, but then you have to clean out all the grease...

My hope is that I can get away with extending/compressing the pistons a few times on the car, flush any dirty fluid out, and avoid rebuilding the calipers... we will see.

Hmmm.  I had pretty good success here in MI on the crusty calipers where I used this method.  

In reply to wawazat :

Any idea what pressure you used? Like I said, I used about 12psi and the pistons did not fully extend.

Nukem said:

Keep in mind with whatever you do, you are inevitably going to swap in some proper front suspension.

Look at all that room for a front strut tower

"Dad's Toy Garage" on UTube is working on a '72(?) Celica that was a parts car. He used a 2014 or so Mustang GT IRS(!) and the 2.3L Ecoboost that came with it. Then he added a Miata front subframe and suspension. Personally I would have used a Miata IRS, but I guess he wanted to go widebody. His project is very Grassroots-style!

I have a 1978 Mustang II (or 2) that are crying out for an IRS. Originally the coupe was 2.3L/4 speed and the hatch was 302/auto. Both need a lighter engine and at least a 5 speed with OD. And the IRS!

After looking at the "Dads Toy" vids and this Pinto rear swap, I think that the Miata suspensions front and rear would work great in an MII. I want to stretch the wheelbase ahead if the driver also.

You have just given me ideas...... 

Ok, so thats holding a Miata spindle then and allowing for 4x100. BRILLIANT!
 

Correct banjo fittings came in, so the miata brakes went on. At one point I came to the conclusion that the piston sizes are the same between the calipers, can't remember the specifics at the moment. Comparison:

And in place on the car:

I had a hard time getting the motive bleeder to seal to the master cylinder reservoir. Also, there seems to be a restrictor in the line out of the motive bleeder that keeps the flow rate low. Not sure if that is intentional. I got both sides bled well enough to sit for a few days and get used to their new homes. After that I'll take some time to track down all the "leaks" at the master cylinder. Hopefully they are mostly caused by hasty setup of the power bleeder. After all, I haven't changed anything on the master, and it wasn't leaking before.

In reply to 78CobraII :

Its a good idea to stretch the wheelbase in front of the firewall if you want to use a miata front subframe. If the front wheels are kept in the stock location, the back of the subframe and the frame section that holds the strut rod bushings want to live in the same spot.

In reply to Thinkkker :

Glad to inspire!!

Shavarsh said:

In reply to wawazat :

Any idea what pressure you used? Like I said, I used about 12psi and the pistons did not fully extend.

Sorry away from the forum for a bit.  I don't recall but I believe it was mote like 30 to 40 PSI.  Subaru service manual are long gone so I don't have the to reference.   Sorry.

One question.

What was the driver to go with a 4 lug miata front compared to the 5 lug?  I know you grabbed wheels and had the whole suspension from the car.  Was having the parts there one?

Just going through a mental build in my head and trying to make sure I am not bypassing a big advantage that I should see.  Swapping the rear hubs with a Protege should be a simple swap and also make the rear 5 lug.  By no means am I judging, just wanting to make sure I see all sides.

Bitchin' stuff going on here. Do carry on.

wawazat said:

Shavarsh said:

In reply to wawazat :

Any idea what pressure you used? Like I said, I used about 12psi and the pistons did not fully extend.

Sorry away from the forum for a bit.  I don't recall but I believe it was mote like 30 to 40 PSI.  Subaru service manual are long gone so I don't have the to reference.   Sorry.

Consider that you're going to generate 1000 psi or more of brake fluid pressure within the calipers in a panic stop. To push caliper pistons out for caliper rebuild, I wouldn't hesitate to hit em with normal shop pressure. Be sure to have a block of wood where the rotor would normally be, to absorb some of the *pop* energy. They usually don't go far but it'll sound like a shot.

In reply to Thinkkker :

Good Question. It started with the decision to use 4 lug in the rear. I used monster miata hubs and axles rather than a custom solution to mate with the 8.8 diff. This decision was driven by reliability concerns. There are certainly other ways to skin this cat, especially if using a miata diff, or thunderbird uprights. After finishing the rear, I've driven the car for almost 1.5 years without feeling the need to change the front. After experiencing major brake fade during the track day, wanting to carry a spare tire, and wanting to use some hub centric wheels, it made sense to match the front lug pattern to the rear, and accept the small brake upgrade that would come with the spindles. There are certainly some trade offs. The miata spindle are shorter, shallower (this could be considered a good thing), and utilize a weaker wheel bearing. I don't think you are missing a big advantage. Out of the options I considered, this seemed the best, but not by a huge margin.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

Thanks wheelsmithy, the spindle swap wouldn't have happened without you offering up your 7° reamer. Many Thanks!

So nice to get out for a ride. The alignment is way off, and the brakes are super soft as the rust wears off, but so nice to have some assurance that its all going to work.

Todays episode of don't ask questions that you don't want the answer to: Don't sand where you don't want to repair rust.

First, the job. I've been moving around a box of door seals for awhile, and the other day I'd had enough, and began installing them on the car. First remove the old seals, then take a look at the mounting surface:

A bit of wire brush and sanding brought out a couple areas that look like this:

Not what I wanted to see, but not unexpected. Usually, my approach would be cut the area out and weld in a patch. But I'm going to take the easy/short term solution for now. The plan is to spray with rust converter, then skim with flex seal or bondo, and paint over. This will be an improvement over the current situation, and avoids the potential rabbit hole. 

First, clean up the doors, drill new drain holes, and spray converter: