Shifter Maintenance

turret fluid was low so i sucked as much of it as i could out with a syringe (it was a very dark grey/green color) and put in some Amsoil Manual Transmission & Transaxle Gear Lube 75W-90 which i also plan to use in the trans itself.

and changed the small shift boot as well since mine was torn off basically. learned that there are 2 small boots, the newer one is part no. M513-17-480(A) and the older one is part no. M514-17-480(A). For some reason, it looks like my car came with the older version o_O however, i triple checked the part no. on mazda motorsports since the part i got looked different from what i had, and after a little more digging i found that the newer version can be used on the older NA6 cars all the way up, but you can't use the older part on the newer cars (94+) wonder why mine had the older part...

you can also see some of the short shifter that my car came with. don't know what kind it is. my large boot was torn apart as well but i opted not to change it. as i understand it, the large boot is just to basically keep noise and fumes out of the car

some good reading to get the jobs done:
Miata Maintenance - http://www.miata.net/garage/trans/everything.html
Replacing Miata Shift Boots - http://www.camsmx5.com/Resources/techshift/techshift.html [dead link]
Short Shifter Installation - http://www.miata.net/garage/shortshifter/index.html
Changing Gearlever Seals - http://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/forums/t/201.aspx [dead link]

Main Fuse

noticed this the other night, wtf is that?

oh, it's just the main fuse. wait.. wut?

that definitely doesn't look right...

2 nuts holding the box to the chassis on the fender side, 1 bolt on each side of the fuse, one accessible from inside the box and the other on the opposite side of the box there's a plastic flap you need to get behind

Clutch Stopper

after a race a few months back i noticed some light blue plastic bits on my carpet. on the way home i noticed that the clutch pedal was making a clicking noise when released all the way and it would come up a little higher. after some searching i found a thread at mnet (http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=284379)

turns out this clutch stopper is a common failure (part no. B001-43-029, "RUBBER STOPPER"). the new part is black. a white "button" pushes up against this when the clutch is released. i believe i read that it deactivates cruise control, which i don't even have, but the sound and feel of the clutch pedal just didn't feel right without it. really easy install, it just pops right in

A Growing To-Do List

order from mazda motorsports came in today!

Flyin' Miata Little Big Brake Kit

On November 10th, Flyin' Miata held a surprise birthday sale celebrating their 29th year in business by offering up to $25 off shipping, so i finally pulled the trigger on their "Little Big Brake Kit" for 10" rotors which arrived in the mail today!

A Flyin' Miata exclusive! 

We know that Miata owners are always looking for ways to shed weight. Autocrossers in particular. After seeing a custom minimum weight brake system on a National level CSP car, we figured we could come up with something for everyone. So we knocked 4 lbs of unsprung weight off each front wheel by replacing the stock cast iron calipers with aluminum Wilwood parts. Along with the weight loss, we also ended up with a four-piston caliper for nice even pad pressure. And yes, we said 4 pounds of weight per corner. 

The aluminum radial mount Powerlite caliper is a fairly new design from Wilwood that's an excellent match to a quick Miata. It's compact enough to fit around the small Miata discs, but is nice and stiff and gives even pressure across the 5 square inch pad. Since the pistons are properly sized, the stock pedal feel will not change. Porterfield, Hawk, Carbotech, Performance Friction and Wilwood all offer a full range of pads to choose from. We ship them with a set of BP10 Wilwood pads, which are a good street/autocross choice. Brake balance will not be dramatically affected unless you install a different pad type than your previous setup. If you'd like to order the kit without pads so you can source something different, the price is $399. Please note that you will have to use a pad for a Wilwood Powerlite caliper, standard Miata pads will not fit. 

Includes calipers, pads, brackets and stainless steel lines. You will keep your existing rotor. If you're changing rotor size, you'll need to pick up a set of the appropriate rotors as well. This is a two-wheel kit, nothing is changed at the rear. We do offer rear brake lines if you need some.

Teflon Window Guides

picked up some teflon window guides a while back from Miata_B_racing over at mnet. here's a link to his latest kit which is the same as what i got but now he's also including some shin etsu grease, some cable clips, and what appears to be updated instructions which look to be much better than before:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=481662

i actually only installed them on the passenger side of my car so far just because i'm lazy. it's a pretty simple install though. i found this guide to be helpful:
http://www.miata.net/garage/window_guide_replacement_NB.pdf

as well as a couple posts from Scrat's build [dead link] by black roadster:
http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/1116809-post857.html [dead link]
http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/1118546-post865.html [dead link]

need to open up my door one more time to try and realign some things since i now have a small gap between the window and the door

here's a shot of the original guide next to the new teflon one. when i opened my door up, the guide wasn't even attached to the window anymore, it was just kind of hanging out in the guide rail..

949 Racing Xida-S In Action

a friend slapped his cam on my car for a run. i was surprised to see the tender spring actually working, and even more surprised to see how much the tire deflects

video credit: jon and erin

Hot Brakes?

photo credit: jon and erin

photo credit: jon and erin