My car is now in many pieces. I’d forgotten just how much of a pain removing the timing belt in order to replace the water pump is. The bearing is definitely bad in the old one. I’ve gotten the old water pump removed, but that’s it. The o-ring that came with my new water pump for the thermostat housing is the wrong one. So I’m going to hope that I can get one at the Mazda dealership without waiting for them to order it. I want my car back as soon as possible. But if they don’t have it, it…
After celebrating the new year with a new alternator, I picked up a friend and set out from Texas for the Outerbanks of North Carolina. Having never been there before, and not being a fan of places with lots of people, January seemed a fun time to go. As you all know, the weather in North Carolina was… well, cold at best. By the time I started across NC all of the snow had been plowed and it didn’t seem likely more would fall. There were plenty of patches of ice, however, so it was slow going whenever I thought…
miss miata’s all back together and running quite nicely. Still in need of a wheel allignment, so I haven’t gone for an extensive drive yet, but all seems well. I got it all together at about 1pm yesterday. Smiled, sighed, and turned the key. It turned over and over. No fire. Damn. Then I saw that I’d failed to plug the wiring harness back up to the crank angle sensor, so the computer never got the signal to fire the plugs… Riiiight. Pluged it in, turned the key and it started right up. And ran like shit. With an awful…
More progress on the miata today… I would have finished tonight, but it’s a real pain to work in that garage once the sun goes down. The lighting is less than helpful. I can see the car. I can’t see much else. I’ve gotten to the point where I have a small handfull of bolts and quite a few more parts waiting to be installed than I have bolts to install them with. I’m not sure why this happened, as I usually have bolts left over. I tried buying some replacement bolts at home depot, but was less than successful.…
Miata’s differential has been installed! It wasn’t easy, but it was easier than I thought it would be. Manuevering 80lbs of bulky metal to a position 2 feet above the ground while on one’s back under one’s car is difficult. Even when using a cheap hydraulic jack. In the meantime it seems I’ve got something in my eye, which is driving me nuts. In addition to reinstalling the differential, I’ve resintalled everything I had to take apart to initially remove it. I was qutie impressed that I spent a minimal amount of time crawling around the garage floor looking parts.…