Yesterday I cleaned everything up, got a new belt for the ‘charger and installed it. Ran to storage to change back to the NB seats, discovered I still am only building about 50% boost so the belt wasn’t the problem. When I got home I looked at my boost pipe connections and all were tight. I then tried moving the bypass actuator using my MityVac. While it did move it wasn’t smooth. Track Dog Racing says these last about 30,000 miles (and 2-3 years), I have about that mileage on it and a lot more years so I ordered a replacement.
Got up this morning to a nice day so washed the travel grime off her. Then it was off to run some errands. Of course, despite no rain being in the forecast when I checked yesterday, shortly before getting home a downpour started. Ah well.
I have been thinking for a long time about fabricating some sort of bracket to hold the driver’s side floor mat in place. Looking at the wear on the old mat I think it moving around has contributed to that problem. I would prefer not to damage my newish mats in the same way once I get the rust stains cleaned off. I don’t like Mazda’s solution of having big plastic screws into the carpet. So, I swung by Home Depot and picked up a piece of this:
I also got a piece of 3/16” steel round stock. I ended up cutting off a 1” strip from the sheet. After some judicious bending, measuring and drilling a hole for the seat bolt (also had to Dremel file it a little bigger followed by some hand filing to dress it up) I ended up with this:
After checking the hole in the mat I think I will be better off with 1/4” round stock for the pin so will head out tomorrow to get that. I will then make another bracket for the inner hole in the mat, get the locating pins welded in place and paint it up. Pictures to follow of the finished product.