This ain't no build thread!

[chiefmg]

Some might call it being anal retentive.

[—Bryan—]

Well, I appreciate it

[HarryB]

Neat! I use a zip tie on mine. Fit the boot on the lever, put the knob on, lift the boot up so it turns inside out, put a zip tie and tighten on the shaft, lower boot so it turns the correct way in. Dead easy, but I prefer your solution

[chiefmg]

Harry, I've seen the zip-tie fix before. I couldn't use it with my shift boot due to how it is made.

Been seeing some jerking on light-throttle tip-in, when that happens (usually in the cold months) it means the supercharger bypass actuator needs adjusting. Easy enough to do, loosen two Allen-head screws (bottom one is located out of sight in the picture) and move the actuator around until the flapper sits on the stop screw completely in the closed position.



Before anyone asks, the screws are always nice and tight so the actuator isn’t walking due to vibration. Not too sure what’s going on, I pretty much had to do it every winter with the M45 but have only done it a couple of times with the MP62. Test drive afterwards showed smooth throttle operation.

[—Bryan—]

Could it be components contracting due to the cold?

[chiefmg]

That thought has crossed my mind. However if it were the case then it would stand to reason the opposite would occur when the weather warmed up. It doesn't.

[—Bryan—]

That thought has crossed my mind. However if it were the case then it would stand to reason the opposite would occur when the weather warmed up. It doesn't.

That's a head scratcher for sure. Wish I had a guess.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Cold air is much denser so maybe it's a momentary fuel thing.

[chiefmg]

Cold air is much denser so maybe it's a momentary fuel thing.

Understand that, but my MS adjust things nicely to allow for that, and my wideband isn't showing an enriched condition. Plus, once I adjust the bypass actuator it clears up. I'm thinking it might have something to do with movement of the diaphragm in the actuator from the weather. In any case I know how to correct the condition.

Recently there was a thread on the turbo Miata site about issues with the NB alternator with its internal voltage regulator and how it has caused problems with aftermarket ECUs. Since I have a Megasquirt and would prefer not to fry an $800 part I figured it would be a good preventive measure to ground things. Initially I was looking on Amazon for some ground straps but then remembered I had a grounding wire kit on my Mazdaspeed6 that I removed before selling. Went and picked that up yesterday, then after some measuring determined which two wires I could best use. I connected the alternator at its mounting bolt closest to the block (two birds with one stone kind of thing) and ran that to a chassis ground. For the head, I ran the wire from the rear lifting point to a chassis ground. I did have to hog out the holes on the connectors I attached to the engine/head side bolts as they were a bit too small. Dremel tool to the rescue! Here are pictures of what I’m talking about, the ground wires have black insulation with thin white stripes:









While I was determining where to run the ground wires from/to, I noticed that the bolt (which is normally used to attach the front engine lifting point to the engine) that is supposed to be hard up against the supercharger mounting bracket had set itself into the head. Haven’t seen it do that before which is why I wasn’t looking for it.



Pulled out my thin wrenches and unscrewed it until it was hard against the bracket:



I’ll take a measurement, if there is enough room to get a thin nut in there I’ll put one in to positively lock it next time I remove the supercharger.

Today the weather was a bit warmer so I set about checking into a rattle I heard in the passenger door. Thought maybe the window was loose in some bracket but everything checked out. While I had the door apart I did some measuring of the clearance between the window and the top weatherstrip bracket to see if I could adjust something to get rid of the remaining slight wind noise I had from the rear of the window. The factory workshop manual has a lot of measurements to check, I only did the ones for the front-to-rear clearances. Ended up moving the window back some, you do this by loosening the upper bolts for the regulator and window guide. Those are the three gold nuts in this picture:



Ended up with the window pretty far back. It may be just a little further than recommended (the way they show the measurements in the manual are a little confusing) but I’m going to see how it sounds next time I go out with the top up.

[—Bryan—]

Is your garage heated? I'd love to do some work, but an unheated, uninsulated garage is no bueno in our part of the country.

[chiefmg]

Is your garage heated? I'd love to do some work, but an unheated, uninsulated garage is no bueno in our part of the country.

You need to man up and grow a pair!

My garage is only insulated where the walls are shared with the house. I need to replace the main door weatherstrip as I have some gaps. It isn't too horrible but there is a limit to what I am prepared to deal with. I tried a ceramic heater but it was too puny. Thought about getting a propane heater and venting it, or running a 240v line for an electric but honestly I don't need to work out there often enough to justify the price. Now if I start a garage to flip cars or something once I finally retire I will revisit the whole heater question.

New purchase incoming, will post about it as soon as it arrives (hoping for next week but it's coming from the UK).

[chiefmg]

My latest purchase hasn’t shown up as yet, the Royal Mail is slower than USPS (and their tracking sucks too).

I decided to check my shock rebound adjustment position. I thought I had made a note of this when I adjusted them initially but it wasn’t in my notebook. So, after checking to see the proper adjustment procedure (first turn the knobs fully clockwise to the full hard or 0 position) I went to see what I had. Started at the front (easiest), I found there was one click difference between the two sides. Recommended start is 10 clicks so that is where I set them (basically what I had before). Going back to the rear, I found the left rear was 17 clicks while the right was 23. No idea how that happened. I set both sides to 5 clicks to see how that felt for normal driving. Note that I only pulled back the trunk lining for access. Not a big deal on the passenger side, but the driver’s side has that nifty sheet metal piece to protect the gas filler pipe. Not a huge deal except I had to feel around for the adjustment knob. Sheet metal is sharp.



BTW Bryan, I redid the garage door bottom weatherstrip today. While I was looking into who had this available online I found a kit at Menard's that included a 3/4" piece of foam filler. Of course when I got to the store they had none. Just both the filler separately. Got done with that job and the bottom is sealing better, of course now it's going to be warmer so it will be hard to tell if there is any improvement in my garage temps.

[atlex]

We call it Royal Snail and the other one Parcel Farce. ;)

[—Bryan—]

You need to man up and grow a pair!

To be fair, I'm mostly worried about interior plastics and clips snapping.

[chiefmg]

To be fair, I'm mostly worried about interior plastics and clips snapping.

Valid points. You may remember I managed to snap one of the ball mounts for my hood lifts when I was installing the Tuckin' 99 front fender braces. That was likely due to the low temperature at the time. You just have to be aware of that and arrange to do that sort of work when the temperature permits.

While I was sitting watching foreign action movies yesterday (one Korean, one Japanese) my mind was ticking over as it does sometimes. During this I realized that when I made the adjustment to the rear Ohlins I didn’t achieve what I was going for. I completely blew past the fact that the zero starting point for the adjustment was with the valve fully closed (so the hardest rebound setting). What I had done was stiffen the rear rebound from the initial setpoint. So today I cracked into the trunk and moved the right knob throughout its range so I knew where to go. I counted 33 clicks from full hard to full soft. Since I had set them (well one at least) to ten less than that previously and I was trying for something different, I went with five fewer clicks than full soft. That put me at 28 clicks on both sides. I set both rear shocks (with no more metal cuts from the left one, I can learn sometimes) to that and then drove to the store for an errand. Short run but in that time I could tell a difference in not getting tossed around as much. There are enough bumps in the pavement that I am familiar with to give me a good indication of where my ride is now. I’m happy with this. Be nice once the roads are clear of all the winter crud and I can flog her on a backroad run to see just how much better things are.