I bet that fella would cost a fistful of dollars to ship
I bet that fella would cost a fistful of dollars to ship
This morning I swapped back to the NB2 seats. Easy enough to do, just had to move the seat belt receivers and the driver's lumbar bladder over. After that I installed the new extended lower ball joints up front. Took me about an hour for both sides, the hardest part is getting the ball joint separated from the upright. Here's a comparison picture of the old and new ball joints (new one on the left):
While the difference isn't great, it makes a huge change in the camber.
I went from about -1.8 degrees to what looks like maybe -3.0 degrees. I'm getting her realigned tomorrow so I'll find out then what it changed to. Just moving her around in and out of the garage, I can't understand how people who have their cars set like this are able to drive on the street.
'00 SE, intercooled BRP MP62, Reverant MS2, Ohlins DFV, Konig Flatout (now X 2)
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This ain't no build thread!
Agent☣Orange (08-08-2017),Greasemonkey2000 (08-12-2017),HarryB (08-08-2017),JamieH (08-08-2017),NCGreasemonkey (08-09-2017),tsingson (08-14-2017)
OMG, I thought that was your car I kept seeing at MATG w/ the MazdaSpeed spoiler. Crap, now I feel like a goon for not talking to you. I will not make that mistake again if we're both there next year.
NCGreasemonkey (08-09-2017)
It's not a big deal. I'm not that familiar with everyone's car, I saw yours a lot too but didn't realize you were on here. My schedule probably won't allow me to attend again until 2019, but we'll see. And don't mind Rick.
Got the alignment done this morning. I was way off on my estimate of the front camber, it was -3.8/-3.6 left/right. Toe had changed as well, to the point I was very glad I only had a mile or two to drive. She was making all kinds of odd noises and darting around. Just be aware if you install these ball joints you will be looking at weirdness while driving to your favorite shop. I ended up with the -2.5 degrees in the front I wanted, however he had to set caster higher than I specified to get that number which means steering is heavier (it isn't horrible). Driving results? Turn the wheel and she dives into the corner. Stability is great. I'm looking forward to doing an autocross with this alignment.
NCGreasemonkey (08-09-2017),tsingson (08-14-2017)
Woke up early this morning and checked my e-mail. Found a message from Rev9 telling me my order has shipped. I'm so excited!
Paul B (08-11-2017)
you will soon have jdm candies in your hands!
The mail lady knocked on the door. I had several packages from overseas that I had to sign for. Here are the big ones:
One of the boxes had some dings, I documented same just in case:
The parts were well packed so I felt a little better about things (note, Japanese cardboard is pretty flimsy compared to ours):
Liberated from the boxes, but not yet fully unpacked:
JDM yo. Any translators in the house?
If you want to know if you have an actual real-deal product, look for the manufacturer's mark:
Here's the top of the lower piece, can you tell what it is?
The bottom:
And for the grand finale...
That shot has the piece upside-down, just stand on your head to see how it will look. I'll wait while the blood rushes to your head and you pass out.
Greasemonkey2000 (08-12-2017),MiataQuest (08-12-2017),NCGreasemonkey (08-14-2017),tsingson (08-14-2017)
Wow! Super excited to see the diffuser installed, congrats, Mike!
'01 NB2 aka MisF1re: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....218#post207218
'97 M aka Warbird, gone but not forgotten: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....B&goto=newpost
Instagram: @greasemonkey2000
chiefmg (08-12-2017)
So my inner ricer was screaming to be let out. The upper diffuser piece is going to require quite a bit of cutting, but I figure I could get the lower one on without too much work. I was partly right.
Since I have a double-exit muffler I had to cut an opening on the driver's side of the vertical rib on the diffuser. Here's the opening on the passenger side, and the layout for the other one:
I made a template from the passenger side opening and transferred that over, the tape was used to prevent chipping of the fiberglass as I was cutting it. As I did with the cuts to my radiator fan shroud, I drilled two holes in the lower corners of the cut to provide for stress relief. I tried a couple of different methods of cutting the fiberglass, ended up using my Dremel with a cut-off disc. Here is the result:
A little smoothing with a sanding disc and here's the end result:
Note that after I took this picture I had to do some more removal of material along the bottom of the opening to provide for clearance for the muffler tip pipe.
Installation is pretty easy, there are two holes at the front that use the rearmost bolts holding the subframe bracing on and two holes at the rear that use bolts going through the tow hooks. I put the included fender washer underneath the diffuser at the front holes instead of on top, I figured that would work better with my Beatrush PPF brace (and it did). With the bolts at the rear, you put the nuts on the reverse of what you normally would. This allows the hex to fit inside the tow hook and act as a captive nut. I was very happy to see that my 949 subframe brace cleared the diffuser. A little wiggling and moving things around, torquing of the PPF bolts and this is the final result:
One thing to note, I will have to remove this any time I get an alignment as it renders a couple of the adjustment bolts inaccessible.
Last edited by chiefmg; 08-12-2017 at 08:04 PM.
Greasemonkey2000 (08-12-2017),HarryB (08-14-2017),JamieH (08-12-2017),MiataQuest (08-12-2017),NCGreasemonkey (08-14-2017),Paul B (08-12-2017),RustRat (08-12-2017),tsingson (08-14-2017)
Wow! Love the look of the rear.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
chiefmg (08-12-2017)
It looks so right!
'01 NB2 aka MisF1re: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....218#post207218
'97 M aka Warbird, gone but not forgotten: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....B&goto=newpost
Instagram: @greasemonkey2000
chiefmg (08-12-2017)
Job's only half done, wait until you see the whole thing installed.
Return of the Manticore build: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....-4-engine-swap
chiefmg (08-13-2017)
Everything is from Jet Stream. They do have a rear diffuser for NAs, http://rev9autosport.com/jet-stream-rear-diffuser.html. I don't think they make the upper piece for anything but NBs though. It's fiberglass so if you are handy you might be able to make it work.
MiataQuest (08-13-2017)