From the ashes... What did you do to your roadster today?

marcellarius · Post by **marcellarius** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:56 pm

The Blue/Black connector is for the ignition capacitor -- small 1 inch-ish black box with two wires coming out of it. Attaches to the igniter bracket.

marcellarius · Post by **marcellarius** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 3:19 pm

The White/Yellow Green/Orange(?) connector is for the catalytic converter thermal fuse.

Snapfrozen · Post by **Snapfrozen** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:01 pm

marcellarius wrote:The Blue/Black connector is for the ignition capacitor -- small 1 inch-ish black box with two wires coming out of it. Attaches to the igniter bracket.

Thanks very much for your help. I've been told that the black, blue wire is charcoal canister, is it possible I've got the 2 wires there (Same plug colour/shape) mixed up

marcellarius · Post by **marcellarius** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:12 am

I think you've got them mixed up. You can see the ignition capacitor in this picture. I wiped the gunk off the harness and it's definitely a blue/black.

White/Red, Yellow/Red: Charcoal canister purge solenoid
Blue, Black: Ignition capacitor (condenser)

Snapfrozen · Post by **Snapfrozen** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:09 pm

Thank you sir - confirmed with someone that night and swapped them. I think I've got all plugs accounted for now. Except the neutral sensors or whatever..

Jesse Pinkman · Post by **Jesse Pinkman** » Sun Sep 06, 2015 6:01 pm

Bought this little turd a month or two ago, I knew it had a blown head gasket or a cracked head so last week I changed the head gasket. The radiator wasn't pressurising after this but it was still billowing smoke out like a mo fo... So at least I fixed one thing! :/ Put a third of a bottle of that CRC Fibrelock in the radiator, and 45min of idling later she is no longer puffing out white smoke!! Going really good now, next on the to do list is get a new set of wheels and weld up a roll bar / half cage for track days!

Snapfrozen · Post by **Snapfrozen** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 7:53 pm

Well ain't this long overdue...

Decided the rusty poo bit of metal on the back of the bumper was too yuck so cleaned that up and threw some black on her. I'm long overdue to get some decent photos up of the car but that will happen soon enough.

IMAG1007 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

So where to start? I have sorted all of the plugs, some confusion arose around the earth on the back of the intake manifold and which plug this was, sorted quite quickly luckily but I was actually missing the bracket on this manifold so unsure how the loom was laid out before.

IMAG1008 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Found this but it's only the temp sensor, some heat shrink and solder solved that.

IMAG1065 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

I had reached the point I'd tested spark and leads and both were fine, had also tested fuel and also was seeing it at the hard lines so all that was left was timing, vacuum or injectors. I knew the injectors were OK as they'd been tested so assumed my wiring was out. Voltmeter told me it wasn't so went back a step.

Changed plugs for the correct temp range. Had 2x BKR5's and 2x BKR6's. Rando.

IMAG1064 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

All of the OCD has been worth it when I look at shots like this...

IMAG1015 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1014 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Now if you would be so kind as to click below with your sound on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LThLD51 ... e=youtu.be

I'd got the old bitch firing last night but had a major fuel leak thanks to these.

IMAG1070 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Replaced and away laughing. Anyone who's been talking to me recently knows how stumped I was as to why the car didn't start. Basically the bracket that holds the hard lines to the chassis had been flipped 180 when I put it back on after painting so my return and feed were backwards. I had undone this to test them and did it back up after the same way so it appeared I had fuel, but I was running it backwards through the rail.

Now simply to bleed the brakes, clutch, align the clutch pin to master cylinder, gearbox oil, alignment and WoF/Registration...

MX4000 · Post by **MX4000** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:15 pm

Drove the new V8 for the first time - just around the block. Basically transferred the running gear from my rough silver NA into a tidy V Spec NA. In theory cheaper than a paint job but a long job. Just need a wheel alignment then certifying... . Love that lack of traction!

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Thu Sep 24, 2015 10:20 pm

MX4000 wrote:Drove the new V8 for the first time - just around the block. Basically transferred the running gear from my rough silver NA into a tidy V Spec NA. In theory cheaper than a paint job but a long job. Just need a wheel alignment then certifying... . Love that lack of traction!

If you are at Ruapuna for the Endurance weekend, say hi..

Ian

Snapfrozen · Post by **Snapfrozen** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 8:41 pm

So an update is due... Since my last post I obviously got the car running but had a reasonably long list of little things left to fix. I decided with a week and a half until I visit USA for a month, it was probably a good time to do it.

Here she is as she sits now, still got to deal to the loom but it's not a priority

IMAG1074 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1073 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1071 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

I ran the car for a bit after bleeding the brakes with some of nature's finest as below and noticed a few problems.

IMAG1094 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1093 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1091 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

1. After bleeding all corners I had to pump the pedal 4 or so times to get the brakes to come up. Assumed either there was an airlock somewhere or my rear calipers were poops. Luckily the handbrake still functioned so it just confirmed that I did a poos job so after re-bleeding them, we were away.

2. While running the car, I noticed a leak. Unfortunately the sensor in the front "ex-thermostat housing" had sprung a leak. So some fresh RTV and an oring sorted that.

IMAG1092 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

My wiper blades we'rent working which is a problem in NZ weather so after the Mrs diagnosed that "They black bit at the bottom isn't fucking attached" was the problem, I set about finding the right nut for the job.

With this is mind I had a crazy idea. Why don't I go and gas her up? Then this happened.

IMAG1098 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

At this point I was on a high so *Shameless plug* I went to see Todd at Kiwi Tyres who gave me an OCD alignment exactly as I wanted. It turns out that my original eye-lignment was just plain shit.

IMAG1103 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

And here's the end result

IMAG1104 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1102 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Awesome work from a top chap. He also sold me some fancy new spline nuts to replace my shitty old rusty ones. And he has a choice lizard.

IMAG1106 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1099 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMAG1105 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

And for the first time in a long time, she's road legal...

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 5:59 am

Gave my car its annual outing around Ruapuna in the SIERDC 1 hour race on Saturday. Neil Foster from Auckland in a Audi R8 LMS Ultra won, and perhaps unsurprisingly I was beaten by a flock of Porsche GT3 Cup cars, a Ferrari 458 Challenge not to mention a couple of Corvettes! Great fun racing with exotica....

Furai · Post by **Furai** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:50 pm

Went for my first hillclimb today, was awesome fun. Had never been out this way or on this road but was great. A few close moments but came away unscathed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wolsan9NpN4

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:06 pm

Furai wrote:Went for my first hillclimb today, was awesome fun. Had never been out this way or on this road but was great. A few close moments but came away unscathed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wolsan9NpN4

Good vid Furai
Run no.3 looked very smooth and quick.

Junkwhale · Post by **Junkwhale** » Tue Oct 20, 2015 10:33 pm

Test fit of new wheels...

biff · Post by **biff** » Wed Oct 21, 2015 11:49 am

Very nice

I like those!
Biff

-----Original Message-----
From: Junkwhale
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 10:33 PM
To: mx5talk@mx5forum.co.nz
Subject: [MX5] Re: From the ashes... What did you do to your roadster today?

Test fit of new wheels...

[Image: http://i.imgur.com/1YySJ04.jpg ]

[Image: http://i.imgur.com/Hha7kIz.jpg ]

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siren676 · Post by **siren676** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 10:35 pm

From the weekend, picked up a new shell

Need to get a few things which i cant salvage from my other shell like a new rack and windscreen, but will hopefully be back on the road in a couple of months

NicF · Post by **NicF** » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:11 am

Pulled all the tophats out of my NA and 're-engineered' them for a bit of lowering without losing shock travel.

The mod drops about 25-30mm (still settling so I can't be sure, but that's what the theoretical calcs give me), while lifting the shock mount . No discernable extra NVH, in fact the ride seems better, possibly because the shocks are now operating at a less worn spot.

After cutting the old spring seat off, the whole lot was put in the fire to burn out the rubber. Then the shock seat was turned upside down and welded back in.

The bump stops do have to be carved down a bit to fit, sorry no photos of those.

Snapfrozen · Post by **Snapfrozen** » Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:04 pm

There were a few left over tidbits since I got her road legal and I've really neglected working on her for a while. The upside is the car drives perfectly fine and hasn't skipped a beat. I have been driving the last month or so with no radiator overflow. The factory one is disgustingly huge and sits in the ugliest spot so I have an aftermarket unit from summit to put in. Unfortunately this meant custom mounting it. I started off with a random piece of alloy that I bought from bunnings that looked to be about right. My intention was to bend it into a 90% L shape to mount however once I started working on it I realised that it was far too thick for the job. I haven't really done much fabrication from scratch so this was a pretty good experience working out how thick metal needed to be.

Ended up buying some generic "Make your own" bracket stuff which was perfect. Bent a few up and went to town, works perfect.

The original

IMG_7308 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

V1,2,3

IMG_7311 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Final solution

IMG_7312 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Here's where the factory unit goes

IMG_7313 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

Here's mine.

IMG_7315 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

IMG_7314 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

The horn has also stopped working so I'm going to take that opportunity to install my Hella Supertones. Also gave her a clean seeing as 2 years of sun damage had it's way with the paint.

Before:

IMG_7316 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

After:

IMG_7319 by Jarred McLachlan, on Flickr

I'm at the point now that I'm a bit unsure where I want to head with the car yet again. Considering the condition I'm thinking my next plans are to wire tuck, roll bar and go back with my original idea of track time and aero. Hard top repaint is lined up for the new year. The current plastidip job has worked perfectly for the 2 years however time for it to be done properly now.

Also realised I neglected to put in a cat photo... I bring you... Hattie the Hutt

siren676 · Post by **siren676** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 9:05 pm

Test started it after reshelling it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps1euwrJMjk

BRM · Post by **BRM** » Sun Jan 03, 2016 4:43 pm

Bought a wheel and a tyre

biff · Post by **biff** » Mon Jan 04, 2016 12:13 pm

Very nice

Happy New Year to all.
Biff

-----Original Message-----
From: BRM
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2016 4:43 PM
To: mx5talk@mx5forum.co.nz
Subject: [MX5] Re: From the ashes... What did you do to your roadster today?

[Image:
http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z39 ... 192147.jpg
]
(http://s1187.photobucket.com/user/Brett ... 7.jpg.html)
Bought a wheel and a tyre

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ross · Post by **ross** » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:04 pm

Just got my 06 RS finished.
Mazdaspeed front and rear bumpers.
Mazdaspeed boot spoiler.
BC gold adjustable suspension.
Led day running lights.
17" Manaray wheels.
We had the quad exhaust made as the single factory outlets looked a bit small in the bumper cutouts.
Resprayed the whole car and thought we would make it a bit different than all the other NC,s out there.
Mirrors and windscreen surround were painted gloss black along with the wheels,badges and bumper bases.
I like the 2 tone look.
Frt bumper inserts were modified to suit the led lights which work of the key so they cant be left on.

NicF · Post by **NicF** » Thu Jan 14, 2016 10:56 am

Wrap is a matt grey metallic with carbon stripes. More time consuming than difficult. I still have some tidying up to do, the front bumper needs to be aligned properly.

The TSIs were dead simple, cost $20 all up.

BRM · Post by **BRM** » Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:44 pm

Fitted the new things

New things from the mother land

NicF · Post by **NicF** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 10:31 am

Put some new mirrors on in the weekend. Bought these from Ebay for half the price they are on Trademe. Surprisingly little metalwork needed to fit them.

These are way better than the out-on-an-arm "racing" mirrors you can get. Rock solid, convex glass, and you don't even notice the window frame, you look right past it.