Well this is taking far longer than I had hoped. I've bit off a bit more than I can swallow. I guess I just need to chew chew chew.
So, I've made it harder for myself in a few ways. First, I'm installing the ATI Damper with a new 36-2 trigger wheel rather than reusing the OEM damper and trigger wheel. Next, I'm swapping out the OEM sway bar braces for AWR re-enforced sway bar braces, you need the radiator out to do this, so now is a good time to do it. Finally, I need to swap my Xidas back in after their re-re-build.
Last weekend I got the front of the engine all bolted up. New by-pass hoses installed, everything plugged back in, pretty much ready for the radiator to go in and attempt a start. I just had to do the sway bar mounts first.
The FM crank tool works with the ATI damper, I wish I figured this out sooner!
Nearly done ...But the crank sensor looked a little off in regards to it's alignment with the trigger wheel. The trigger wheel is lining up with the front edge of the sensor, surely it should be more centred? This would suggest the damper isn't fully seated, but it's torqued to 120-125 ft/lbs. I think I messed up the woodruff key, it has a chamfered edge that should be on the back edge facing down, I realise I didn't pay attention to it's position. I have a 1 in 4 chance I messed it up. If I got it wrong, I expect it would prevent the crank from going in about 1mm extra. Crap.
That doesn't look right to me, should be a little further in 
If anyone else has an ATI damper installed, could you take a look and see how yours is aligned? Just for a sanity check?
Pretty Please?It
might work as is, but I think I need to pull the damper and ensure the key is in the right way. Which means disassembling the front of the engine again. And I expect the damper to put up a fight coming off. I'll definitely need to go buy a puller. And I should get a new crank bolt because this one is probably stretched a little.
Right, that'll be for another day, I can't face it right now and there's other work to do!
The stock sway bar mounts are just pressed steal. They're light and flimsy and are known to crack with sticky tires and bigger sway bars. Which I have. One solution is the Racing Beat sway bar blocks, which I have been using in the past. They work well, but they're a pain in the arse every time I need do pull the front suspension to extract the long bolt, and it's made worse because the SE cold side intercooler piping gets in the way of the bolts. I wanted to swap over to the AWR mounts, which are a re-enforced boxed in design.
The AWR mounts are much much sturdier
And they have a convenient tunnel for the long bolt to pass throughThe radiator has to come out to mount these, so while doing the timing belt with the radiator out is a good opportunity. You also need to remove the brackets holding the AC condenser. The stock mounts are held in place by 4 bolts and 2 spot welds each, need to drill out the spot welds and then pry the bracket away from the frame rail. To drill out the spot welds I bought a spot weld drill bit. Didn't really work all that well, I had to follow it up with a 7mm drill bit and finally an 8mm drill bit.
Then installing the mounts should be easy, but they're a very tight fit. I got the passenger side one on, then re-fit the AC condenser bracket, only to discover there's some interference between the two. I'm going to need to cut out a notch on the bracket.
Cut along the dotted lineOn to the driver side, removal of stock went a lot easier with my experience from the first one, but getting it on is proving more difficult. I need to remove the lower intercooler hardpipe to get clear access to press the brace into place. At this point I'd had enough yesterday. I was pretty knackered.
The only thing to go smoothly recently was the install of some new seatbelt tower caps. Mine went AWOL when Automotive Plus installed my roll bar many moons ago. While ordering a few pieces from MX-5 Mania recently for the timing belt job I also picked up a set of these to press in.
Ugly and exposed
Much nicer, and something that went in easily!Hopefully today I'll get the sway bar braces mounted for good. And with luck and perseverance I'll get the front Xidas installed.
Like I said at the start, this is taking way longer than planned, I'll get through it eventually. I miss driving my MX-5. I'm very grateful for having the Subaru for daily duties, it's been doing great, but it's not as engaging to drive as the MX-5!
But, won't be buying for some time yet. That kind of money would go far on the MX-5. 
