Track

well, you were careful with that big water pump gasket you should be good to go. The upper gasket is mostly to make sure any oil leaking (from my understanding atleast) from the VC gasket or cam seals doesn't make into the coolant (thats important too, but you shouldn't have any leaks up there anyway).

The most likely location for a leak on a new water pump is coolant-in port. If it leaks, I would just seal them with some red RTV.

Good going on getting it running, look forward to seeing some pictures (even if its not much different).

FRT_Fun

Well the whole reason this whole build started was because after I originally did the water pump and timing belt, the water pump was leaking. The paper POS gasket got destroyed on the install. It's so flimsy.

I used RTV this time, I'm just hoping it holds up.

RedTurboMiata

so you started a almost complete restoration because of a leaky water pump? need to have you do all of my insurance work

FRT_Fun

Well, I didn't really feel like tearing into thing again unless I added a bunch of other ----. So I did

So nice to hear it run again though.

flying_solo

iTrader: (1)

FRT, I had no intention other than to inspect my water pump a couple weeks ago either. But, my peers got to me and I ended up ripping tons of brackets off to clean them up and powder coat them. Now she is just waiting to be be buttoned up and run again. All these sunny warm days are making me sad.

I don't blame you, once you start wrenching, you get addicted and all of a sudden your AC is out, your power steering is off, your airbags jump out and a momo throws itself on.

FRT_Fun

Ugh.

Well the FM hubs that were "out for delivery" don't seem to have come.

The ABS sensors I got are wrong. But it looks like I can still get them to work. The cable routing mounts and different.

I may have gotten 1 wrong inner tie rod. I also definitely got the wrong washers for the inner tie rod.

Nothing was accomplished today.

Sad.

FRT_Fun

More Ugh.

Sway bar mount had a broken bolt in it I forgot about.

When to extract and the extractor broke in it. Went to remove the whole mount from the car to work on it off the car, and the first two bolts I tried broke. So I stopped. Successfully drilled out the bolts, and will tap tomorrow. But the other two bolts to remove the mount are in a place where I can't drill them out if they break, so I'm leaving it on. Gonna work on the sway mount tomorrow some more.

Also the upper ball joint threads are a bit beat up so I couldn't put on the castle nut. Getting a die to chase the threads tomorrow. HOPEFULLY it's on the road tomorrow. I might see if I can get an alignment tomorrow as well.

Seriously though, all this work is putting a bad taste in my mouth. The MR-S is looking like the better option everyday

RedTurboMiata

The great white north is not so kind to metal.

flying_solo

iTrader: (1)

Hahaha, same thing happened to me two weeks ago. I'm saying screw and upgrading to the Mazda comp mounts. I will run RCOMP later this summer and would rip them off eventually. I broke two bolt extractor bits in two bolts.

FRT_Fun

I drilled a new hole for the sway bar, and used a bolt and nut. I mean the mounts shouldn't be under a TON of stress I'm assuming. Either way the bolt should be close to equal strength.

Got the upper control arm bolted down to. Was a total pain because the ball joint kept wanting to spin, I had to use a fairly large sized clamp.

Anyways I drove it about 100ft today. Yay. I started freaking out because I looked under it and saw a huge puddle of something. Looked in the engine bay and I couldn't see where it was leaking from. Then I saw I didn't plug back in the washer fluid hose to the hood and was pouring out of there. DOH. But at least it wasn't anything bad.

The alignment is soooo bad it was scary. Even at 5mph. Driving to the alignment shop which is like 1 mile away is going to be so scary lol.

Been working on the ride height. I was thinking 12" front 12.5" rear. I'll probably use FM's alignment numbers as well.