so, swapping a gearbox electronic speedo sender for a mecanical one (mk2 to mk1 type speedo) sender secured in gearbox with a single m6 bolt, basrtardin thing snapped when trying to loosen steel bolt in aluminium... weld a nut (m8 / 13mm hex) on to draw the stub out. weld to stub then place a not over & weld untill the nut is 'filled' ( red hot!) then 'tap' with a hammer to shock. leave cool slightly then unwind gottebastardout
Snapped bolts in near-impossible-to-remove-from holes are my nightmare!
I fear snapping one of my inlet manifold bolts so it is sort of half done up right now - it feels like snappage is imminent so I'm just hoping the other bolts (that are all the way in) will be creating the required seal...
Am jealous of your tools / skills / confidence, lol.
Snapped bolts in near-impossible-to-remove-from holes are my nightmare!
I fear snapping one of my inlet manifold bolts so it is sort of half done up right now - it feels like snappage is imminent so I'm just hoping the other bolts (that are all the way in) will be creating the required seal...
Am jealous of your tools / skills / confidence, lol.
I'm confident in my abilities, not many beat me probably been doing this for ~30 years & had to 'show' many more qualified weldists than me how to do such in various works (I am trained & qualified so I've no excuse )
anyway, I'll stop being bigheadded now
more gearbox fiddlin....
6 speed alteration to a 5 speed! as I'm after the ratios from a 6 speed BUT not first gear as it's too low, I wanted to disable the gearstick from entering the 1st gear position (when I build a gearbox I'll weld a blocker on the selector-shaft but this is a tester...)
sneaky m6 bolt & nut at rear of shifter housing... nutral position. blocking the selector from entering 1st position rearwards (inverted compared to the gearknob) second becomes the new 'first', also the gearchange becones a 'dogleg-first' pattern third becomes the new 'second'. neutral gearstick position.
Just to ask... any risk of that bolt snapping off if it is inadvertently hit from the side? (Is there a gate for the lever to stop it being waggled around? lol)
Just to ask... any risk of that bolt snapping off if it is inadvertently hit from the side? (Is there a gate for the lever to stop it being waggled around? lol)
I've looked at this possibility, thought (even the Chin-holding type) and measured even deliberately tried to make it happen but the selector has to angle to the right then travel foreward / rearwards to engage a gear & the bolt (as a stop) is only in contact in the rearward motion (hopefully ) I do have an alteration up my sleeve if I'm happy with this setup - basically another bolt fitted @ 90* and tack-welded to the first as a buttress to stop ant side movement (will probably drill & tap the housing ready incase I decide its needed then it can be done at a later date in the car )
started on the gearstick, I have a suitable rosejoint (aka 'spherical bearing') and some 13mm diameter rod (300mm long) and machined an aluminium sleeve to fit the rj into the gearboxes shifter tower. trial fit seems good but it's far from ready (is a test build not the finished item) some more spacers are needed and I need to decide on the type of lower-pivot, do I machine 'ball' on the end of the stick and use a nylon seat like origonal or do I fit another spherical-bearing?
decisions overnight & dependant on how excited I am on this stick...
had a few hours fiddlin... altered the breather,tapped 3/8"bspt and fitted a 3/8" to 1/4" nipple & dowty washer, the 90* fitting is temporary. going to run to a 'pot' under the bonnet (less mess in the tunnel), on the 6speed its easy to remove the rear casing so had a looksee at sixth gear ghetto bodge re-use of the origonal retainer plate (it works so....) assembled relief machined into the turret, in case its needed? spacer in its orientation (old stock (rusty but new) spherical bearing) spacer inverted, can see the added hight. part assmbled top view underside was wondering how to combat the lower pivot, Mazda used a plastic 'cup' on a machined 'ball' on the bottom of the gearstick but I needed to make something... in my workshop I've 'stuff' some of my 'stuff' includes a few rod-ends or 'rosejoints' and curiosity meant having a looksee. an 'odd' 12mm rod-end was measured and had the correct outside diameter (cant remember) so.... .5mm step down for the spherical, the rod is 13mm diameter & the bearing's internal diameter is 12mm. drilled & tapped m6 for a retaining bolt (will use locktite on final assembly). shows the lower bearing and one of the main/pivot bearing spacers (main pivot removed)
^^ vid (chasing box around the workbench) 5 gears selected (still needs some fiddlin but nearly done, might alter the ratio to be slightly quicker & maybe a little shorter as its ~4" longer than standard )
spent the weekend tidyin but tripped over a 'spare' '91 Eunos front loom (underbonnet & across bulkhead) so had a fiddle removing the 'spare' wires & connectors. by 'spare' I'm refering to aircon, rad fan & engine control as I'm looking at a 'stand-alone' ecu with new wiring to suit... the aftermath ecu spaghetti... drivers side. drivers footwell area. passanger side.
not shown is the aircon section and the engine 'front' connectors (tps, icv, temp sender & pas pump sensor).
next is to realise I've removed something important
I've trimmed the wire count through the bulkhead to13 for nearside & 11 offside.
had a fiddle with the Polo rad fitment, top hose was solved by a mk2 golf or B3 passat rad hose with one end chopped off. this then mates with a 1.8 mx5 thermostat housing as this will 'turn' to point in the correct direction & makes for a neat install as to the bottom hose, I've been playing with a Mazda 323 waterpump outlet, this removes the unnessessary 'dogleg' that is on the mx5 engine (designed to 'miss' the aircon 'pump' if fitted) but this has the added bonus of moving the hose away from the exhaust manifold & radiated heat I will be re-routing the heater pipe from below the exhaust-manifold / against the cylinder-block to the innerwing as this serves several purposes... 1, away from the exhaust manifold (bonus). 2, easier plumbing of the coolant system as it will be using a pressurised 'expansion-tank' (unlike Mazda's archaic design). 3, the origonal mx5 metal heaterpipe was rusted and doesn't fit the 323's coolant manifold
also, in the last photo's you can see that the thermostat housing has had the metal 'Tee' piece removed (usually rusted & leaking) and a 1/8" bsp thread cut (similar 'core diameter, 9mm tapping drill easily enlarged the origonal 8mm hole) and a hydraulic 'nipple' and dowty washer against the aluminium casting with blanking cap fitted (to seal) giving the option of re-connecting the thermostat bypass if needed?
other projects, I'm rebuilding the gearbox for a friend's Mk2 Cortina Lotus, its the '3 rail' (so called the 2000E or 'bullet') type with cast steel casings and '2000E ratio's with a 2.9:1 first gear. so a few hours work in the sandblasting-cabinet and some lovely clean parts the car has been off the road for about 10 years for an engine rebuild (the iconic Ford / Lotus 'twin cam') but it was a 'no hurry build, so nothing has been done! anyway, I offered to give the gearbox a refresh as it was easily removed & it was a good call... the box worked fine & was probably quiet (although it's hard to hear anything ovet the twincam's webber carb soundtrack!) BUT when stripped I noticed the layshaft spindle & it's needle-roller bearings were badly worn - luckily the laygear's bearing tunnel bores were not worn and serviceable.
so the 'quick' refresh of seals & gaskets has developed into a few hunderd £'s worth of new parts...
will paint the casings tuesday then build probably thursday...
You have a sandblaster in your workshop as well? Just how big is this place?? lol
Will the cone filter being straight off the inlet manifold reduce lower end torque at all?
Will you fit some tubing to get cool air up to it / round it? I imagine it will get toasty hot behind that rad when sitting in traffic!
Ooh, and dumb question: Is the cam cover breather pipe at the front right of the engine (the one which goes to the red bottle/filter) and 'in' or an 'out' breather?
I am totally confused because I've seen some with just that small cone filter straight off the pipe and nothing else, suggesting it's breathing 'in', but the small pipe between the cam cover and the inlet manifold has a one-way valve, doesn't it? And that's a breathing 'in'??
You have a sandblaster in your workshop as well? Just how big is this place?? lol Ha. that blast cabinet was at my mates garage (who I'm building the gearbox for & also doing other work) but I did have a cabinet in my last workshop built from 3 x 8'x4' plywood sheets, worked wonderfully but I've not got the room to rebuild it at home
Will the cone filter being straight off the inlet manifold reduce lower end torque at all? just there temporarly (to stop spiders getting in!) as going itb's....
Will you fit some tubing to get cool air up to it / round it? I imagine it will get toasty hot behind that rad when sitting in traffic! some ducting for 'cold air' and to keep 'hot ' air away from the inlet, undecided on an 'airbox' or open trumpets yet, probably an airbox for noise issues & ease of ducting...
Ooh, and dumb question: Is the cam cover breather pipe at the front right of the engine (the one which goes to the red bottle/filter) and 'in' or an 'out' breather? thats an 'out' breather, I'd tried it with the origonal 'pcv' pipe blocked (as will be for itb's) and it hardly breathed anything into the can (so somethings not wotking properly??) but I'm looking at camcover mods for the breather system & possibly only using one of the factory 'ports'... I've tapped a 'spare' camcover with 1/4" bsp thread on the exhaust side & 1/2" bsp in the inlet / pcv side (had to drill the exhaust side but the inlet was ~18mmm with the tapping-drill of 19mm si I just wound the tap in ) so easily blanked or piped to. the baffles in the cover are what I'm looking into now...
I am totally confused because I've seen some with just that small cone filter straight off the pipe and nothing else, suggesting it's breathing 'in', but the small pipe between the cam cover and the inlet manifold has a one-way valve, doesn't it? And that's a breathing 'in'?? yup, the exhaust side is a 'both-way' but primaralily 'in' to the crankcase, this can also 'feed' the 'pcv' that operates under the inlet-manifold's vacuum to draw any crankcase vapours into the inlet tract to be consumed by combustion. the fitting of a 'filter' on the exhaust side stub means the engine can draw in 'un-metered' air as opposed to all intake through the airflow-meter as the intake & electronics are designed....
that help?
hope it's spelt correctly & makes sense (olso if it's correct )
a while ago I tripped ovet a 'bourden-tube' type temperature guage in the workshop and considered fitting it in the Eunos. origonal idea for fitment was to have a tube-adapter in the top radiator hosebut I've been playing with the coolant pipework & that involved re-making the heater pipes to get more clearance around the exhaust manifold (number 4 primary pipe) then I noticed the standard ecu's temp sender is in the heater take-off so a cunning plan was hatched the new guage has an adapter that fits into a housing, this has a 5/8"unf thread so the Mazda heaterpipe housing was drilled 14.5mm and the new thread tapped. as this fits at the rear of the cylinderhead, access is limited so some swearing was muttered.....
few more images of the heater pipework, I'm trying to gain clearance between the (hot) exhaust manifold and the rubber heater pipes, I'd previously fitted some silicone hoses but they followed the oem pattern & are not what I'm thinking...
diggin in the shed I found some vw (seeing a theme here?)coolant pipes & the waterpump-bypass hose from a mk3 golf era tdi engine has a nice 'pigtail' shape that turns 90* in two planes. plenty of room around now, an aluminised heatshield will be added. also, plenty of room to fit rad fan or fans if 2 are needed?
Simon: 600 quid to get through an MOT 2 weeks ago and now my crank pulley has decided it would like to be Bluetooth le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT
atlex: at least you can get new crank pulleys!! :-)
Jul 18, 2023 10:29:14 GMT
Simon: Alas! turns out the keyway in the crank is knackered!
Jul 18, 2023 15:45:49 GMT
Zed.: there are other ways to repair, how bad is it?
Jul 25, 2023 15:55:37 GMT
atlex: And a murray murray crimbo to you all :-)
Dec 24, 2023 22:20:35 GMT
Zed.: condiments of the seasoning?
Dec 26, 2023 11:10:41 GMT
queenie: Hiya fellas and fellettes. My name is Gary, I am 72, live in rural Victoria (Australia), am an unashamed Anglophile and own a gold 1998 NB. I bought her in 2016, reflecting at the time that I had wanted a car like this since age 15. Yep, took me 50 years!
Dec 31, 2023 5:58:34 GMT
Deleted: Hey guys, I’m 49 & from the UK here! Currently restoring/upgrading a Mazda MX5 Eunos Roadster. Got a lot of work to do 🤯😩🫣🤣
Jun 30, 2024 16:21:03 GMT
Simon: Nice and quiet in here, but I'm back with vengance! Car with a knackered crank is now having a full rust and engine resto at Basset Down! Will be spenny, but excited to have a 'good' car again.
Jul 2, 2024 16:29:20 GMT
)
(will probably drill & tap the housing ready incase I decide its needed then it can be done at a later date in the car 
some of my 'stuff' includes a few rod-ends or 'rosejoints' and curiosity meant having a looksee. an 'odd' 12mm rod-end was measured and had the correct outside diameter (cant remember) so....
) so easily blanked or piped to. the baffles in the cover are what I'm looking into now...
le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT
le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT