apsilon's MX5

[apsilon]

I wanted mine to look stock and I doubt anyone would pick anything has been done to them other than the fact they're so clean and rust free for 21 year old parts. It was the surface rust that I mostly wanted to address. As I mentioned one of the arms had a patch that if left unattended would've eventually become an issue. Given they were all off the car anyway it made sense. We'll see if removing the FUCA ball joints was worth it. May end up having to replace those arms if the replacements aren't a good fit.

I should mention half the cost was the sand blasting and cleaning. Would've been a bit cheaper but the place that was doing them, their sand blaster died a few days before I dropped them off and the replacement wasn't loaded onto the truck correctly and fell off. I could've waited for their new set up but had them outsourced instead as it's been sitting for long enough.

[apsilon]

Ended up having a lot of running around to do today so didn't get as much done as I'd hope. I do now have new tyres on the new wheels and I swapped both engine mounts out. Neither were in bad condition but at least now I know they're good.

Drivers side was compressed and deformed a bit. New Mazda Comp mount on the right.


Passenger side got a new NitroDann mount.


Drivers side was not fun to swap, would be even more of a PITA with the suspension in but the steering column and starter made the job a lot harder than it could've been. In comparison the passenger side took maybe 5 min. No suspension or exhaust in the way made it a very easy swap.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get started in the control arms.

[apsilon]

First stuff up of this little project. Pressed one of the new ball joints into the FUCA, seems like a good fit. Did the second one and...



Not sure if I didn't have it lined up or if it slipped while trying to juggle everything one handed and operating the press with the other but end result, caught the lip on the receiving cup and broke a piece off. It'd still work but I'm sure it'd end up tearing the boot. I file it down to protect the boot it may not then retain the boot so I think I'll replace it.

On to the bushings. As mentioned, a full set of IL Motorsport ones going in.



Can anyone tell me which way this bushing goes on the FLCA? Thick flange that way or the on the other side?



Fairly certain I won't get the car back on it's wheels this wekend as I'd hoped. Aside from the little issue above my tennis elbow is playing up, i thought I could feel it flaring up the past week but it came out last night. Hasn't been a problem for several years so not sure why it's come back now. I do know lifting and using tools is fairly uncomfortable . It's not as bad as the last time I had it and I don't want to irritate it further so I'm going to have to take it easy and work on healing this.

[StanTheMan]

I got the Nitro DAN Engine mount. Also got a mania short shift kit. Feels very different.
Although i havent dríven much. Just around the front yard. LOL.
Mine was reasonably easy install. Went in with a replacement engine.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[apsilon]

Yes, engine out would be the easiest way of all, perhaps not the quickest though.

Anyone have any experience with new nuts for the camber bolts? I ordered the updated version (NB were updated and supersede the NA part) of the camber bolts, washer and nuts to go back in rather than re use the old stuff. Only thing is all of the nuts have the top couple of threads distorted and so stop at this point.



All 8 are like this and they're from 2 different non adjacent production lots. Some listings also refer to them as self locking. Is this distorted thread some kind of locking mechanism? I thought it was just a bad nut until I found they're all identical and as mentioned 2 production lots which makes me think it's intentional. Haven't tried torquing them with a tool yet, just finger tightening so I'm not sure if torque would reform the thread.

[RS2000]

Yes, those nuts are self locking nuts. Often seen on exhaust manifolds etc too.
As for the control arm bushes, I'd put the large rubber flange towards the rear. With oem rubber bushes & heavy braking on the track, my arms moved rearward until there was metal on metal.

[apsilon]

Cheers, good to know they are lock nuts.

I found the photos I took when dismantling everything (been having trouble with my phone and thought I'd lost them) and the thick flange goes to the rear as you suggested (so the opposite of what's in my photo above), at least that's how they were originally on mine.

Didn't do much today, spent a few hours this morning swapping to a new phone I purchased last week and then a few more hours going over all the new fasteners and other parts I've purchased grouping them ready to install and checking if I'd missed anything.

[apsilon]

Another weekend means chipping away at the work that still needs to be done. Pressed in the replacement ball joint, all good this time so now they're both fitted. Ran into a new problem though.

Fitted the remaining few bushes to the control arms and have this:



Removed it, marked it, rotated it, pressed it in again and same thing. Tried it a few times and the bulge follows the bush as it's rotated so it's not the arm etc. Even tried over inserting it then backing it out and the same thing happens once you back it out to where it should be. Faulty bushing?

[hks_kansei]

One thing to note, are you greasing them before putting them in? or just pushing in dry?

Whenever i've done bushes, or GF has (she's done heaps more than me since she used to be a mechanic) you'd always grease the living hell out of them to avoid binding etc.

I wouldnt be that concerned though, once it's all bolted together etc that will probably wiggle itself into a comfy position anyway.

[apsilon]

Yeah I've been lubing them. This is the only one out of the 22 that's given me trouble. Goes in just as smooth as the others, just that one section bulges. Hard to see in the photo but the body under the lip is bulged up, that's what's causing the lip to stand up like that.

I considered just putting it in as is but I'm sure it'd wear prematurely. There's definitely something wrong with it. I suspect it's got something in the rubber that's caused that one section to be harder than the rest or something. I've emailed the pic to IL Motorsport so I'm waiting to see what they say but interested in other opinions as well.

[ManiacLachy]

I don't think it'll be a problem. Rubber bushes don't rotate in the bore, they just bind and twist. Once bolted up it'll be fine I think, but wait to see what I.L have to say.

[bruce]

Swap it with another fitted bush. Then u will know if it's the bush or the metal is not right.

[apsilon]

Not a bad idea though the bushing bore looks fine and if it were the metal I'd expect the issue to be in the same spot each time and not move around with the bushing so I'm fairly confident it's the bushing itself. IL have been in contact and asked for more photos which I sent them last night so we'll see what they say.

[apsilon]

It's been a while since the last update as I took a break to try and get my arm right. It's better but not 100% but with rego rapidly coming up for renewal I need to get the car back on the road so a few things have been postponed and I'll get back to it over Xmas. I've had some stuff going on with my parents both having falls within a few days of each other (all will be OK fortunately) and dad having now given up his licence and as I'm working over Xmas I decided to take the week just gone off to take care of a few things some of that being the car.

I got the faulty bushing sorted but IL Motorsport wasn't a great deal of help though I do get their side of it. They agree it's likely a faulty bushing but wanted me to return it so they could investigate and then send me a replacement. With the time it would take to send over, wait for them to work out the issue then a replacement be sent back I was worried I wouldn't get the car done in time to get the pink slip for rego etc so I asked if I could just buy that one bushing as a replacement but didn't receive a response to that query so sort of disappointed with their support. Ended up buying a new FLCA set of bushes and the replacement installed fine.

So I've got all the new suspension in but the brake upgrades and wheel bearings are going to have to wait.



I do have one issue with the replacement FUCA ball joint though. When torqued down, the castle nut is past the hole so the pin won't sit between the castellations. I''m going to solve that by using a washer or two to space it. I've also used some poly boots from Energy as I saw a few comments that the IL Motorsport boots don't last so thought I'd see how these poly ones go.



I also had to get the exhaust done as I'd pulled the stock one out previously. Started by replacing the studs with new ARP ones as the old ones looked rather crusty against the new header. You can also see Dann's engine mount in this pic.



Header is basically in except for this ^%$~!@^%$ nut. I don't have anything that can get on to it as the runner is too close along with all the water lines etc so I'm having to p=ut it on about 1/16th of a turn at a time



It does look nice though and hopefully has the sound to match.



The exhaust has an extra hanger. I'm not sure if the JDM cars have an extra one there or if I'm missing one. Those holes on the trans tunnel towards the upper right, should there be a hanger bolted on there or is that the seatbelt mounting point?



The only thing that wasn't original on this car was the catback. It'd been replaced at one point (by a Mazda dealer but using an aftermarket can) and they did all the pipework up to the cat so I'm not sure if a hanger has been removed.

[Magpie]

How much bump/rebound travel do you have?

Is there any bind in the new bushes?