Constantly variable ignition timing - oops!
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:20 am
I spent all of yesterday fettling on my MX-5. It was a good opportunity to fix a few issues and find some new ones.
1) After first putting the car up on jack stands, I rotated the tyres since both fronts had been flat-spotted on my last track day. The vibration is less troublesome with those tyres on the rear.
2) Removed the aftermarket central locking system that had been causing me grief recently. Much simpler to just use a key to lock/unlock the doors. I also used the opportunity to re-grease the window mechanism.
3) Fitted a Sparco raceseat onto the old driver's seat rails. The seat is a permanent loan from a friend. Nice!
4) Fitted a Sabelt 4-point harness - another freebie from a friend who's moving to the US.
5) Removed both front quarter panels in order to clean out the dirt, sand and ant-nests that had accumulated at the sill near the bottom of the wheel arch. Unbelievable how much crap was in there! Thankfully there wasn't any rust, and I coated the surfaces with a bit of grease to try and give it some more protection. Must get myself some fish oil for this purpose in future.
6) Noticed that the pinch bolt on the crank angle sensor was missing
! Hence the subject of this thread ... the sensor body was free to swing wherever it wanted. It also seems to have been the source of an oil leak. Amazing that this hasn't caused me more issues considering I've done two track days with the car in this condition. I bought an M8 x 30mm bolt from Autobahn and that fixed the problem. Set the timing to 14deg BTDC using my new xenon timing light.
7) Used a couple more of those M8 x 30mm bolts to attach the air box. Prior to this, the airbox was attached with only one of the original bolts. Seems that my car has been attacked by a bolt robber!
A good day's work!
1) After first putting the car up on jack stands, I rotated the tyres since both fronts had been flat-spotted on my last track day. The vibration is less troublesome with those tyres on the rear.
2) Removed the aftermarket central locking system that had been causing me grief recently. Much simpler to just use a key to lock/unlock the doors. I also used the opportunity to re-grease the window mechanism.
3) Fitted a Sparco raceseat onto the old driver's seat rails. The seat is a permanent loan from a friend. Nice!
4) Fitted a Sabelt 4-point harness - another freebie from a friend who's moving to the US.
5) Removed both front quarter panels in order to clean out the dirt, sand and ant-nests that had accumulated at the sill near the bottom of the wheel arch. Unbelievable how much crap was in there! Thankfully there wasn't any rust, and I coated the surfaces with a bit of grease to try and give it some more protection. Must get myself some fish oil for this purpose in future.
6) Noticed that the pinch bolt on the crank angle sensor was missing
! Hence the subject of this thread ... the sensor body was free to swing wherever it wanted. It also seems to have been the source of an oil leak. Amazing that this hasn't caused me more issues considering I've done two track days with the car in this condition. I bought an M8 x 30mm bolt from Autobahn and that fixed the problem. Set the timing to 14deg BTDC using my new xenon timing light.7) Used a couple more of those M8 x 30mm bolts to attach the air box. Prior to this, the airbox was attached with only one of the original bolts. Seems that my car has been attacked by a bolt robber!
A good day's work!
