Dashboard and Gauge facia Install

Okay, so I had a bit of birthday money, and I thought I'd do something a bit fun.  After paying for the stripper, I decided to buy some bits for the car!
Just kidding about the stripper.
I was trawling through the AutolinkUK website (the place I got my front wheel bearings from), I came across some custom gauge faces.  I thought they looked cool, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I got two kits; one for the gauges (speedo, revs, oil, fuel, temp), and one for the HVAC.
I sat in the car, last Sunday, a damp and chilly afternoon.  It wasn't too bad, though, as I quickly worked up a sweat tearing the car apart.

Okay, a bit of history:  I've ripped the dashboard apart a few times now.  Don't ask me how many.  I'm getting good at it, but I'm also getting equally proficient at losing the screws down in between the seats.  I took off the center console, pulled out the dash vents, and unscrewed the radio / HVAC panel, revealing the lovely wiring inside!

 I removed the four screws holding down the cover plate for the heating controls, which loosened it up.
Next I tried to pull the little knobs off the slider controls.  I wrapped up my pliers in a cloth to prevent scratching the plastic.

They weren't going anywhere.  I pulled and I pulled and then I pulled some more.  In a moment of frustration, I pulled off all the old facias, ignoring the possibility that I may not get the new ones on - to hell with it, it's going to work!

Okay, lets try putting the dial bit on.  I pulled the cover back a bit, and after removing the back of the double sided tape from the new facia, I gently put it into place.

I pressed it down, and voila - it's in.

Okay, these facias seem quite robust.  I figured maybe I could put the new facia around the sliders, without having to remove the knobs.
That worked!
That looks better!

Okay, on to the gauges.
This kit came complete with instructions, which was brilliant.  I read them over, and promptly discarded them.  Honestly, how hard can it be to put the faces on?  The instructions said something along the lines of letting the car run for twenty minutes or so to 'warm up the gauges'.  What?  That doesn't make any sense!  What a load of bullocks.
I pulled the cover off the gauges, the large plastic hood thingy.  Now because this car is an import, it originally had a km only speedometer facia, so I knew at some point someone had already taken the bits apart.  So, I give it a good yank (after pulling out the two screws from the bottom and also removing the cover from the steering column) and it fell apart in my hands.  The plastic was brittle to begin with, and half of it was left behind, still in the clips.  I noted that there was a fair amount of glue in there - whomever was in there before had broken the cowling and did a quick fix.  It didn't last.  Okay, I'll try glueing it again...  I tried taking a picture, for all you viewers (both of you), but the batteries conked out on my camera.  Sorry guys.
Okay, so out comes the gauge pod.  I had read that some people had difficulty getting the speedo cable off, but mine came off very easily.  There is a little tab you press, and off it comes!
I brought the gauge pod indoors, as I didn't want to lose any little screws, and it was a bit cold.  Okay, I also wanted a drink.
I pried the cover off the gauges, leaving the facias exposed.

I started by removing the needles from all the gauges, and put them all in a row, so they would be placed back on the correct gauge.  The needles are a bit difficult, so the instructions actually came in a bit handy at this stage.  I got a couple of tea spoons, wedged them under both sides of the needle, and very gently pried them off.  The speedo one came off fairly easily - remember it had come off before.

After unscrewing the facias, I pulled them off and placed the new facia in.  I took each needle and gently scraped the white paint off the back of each needle, then coloured them in with a red permanent marker.  This is because a white needle on a white facia isn't going to show up very well.  Plus it was fun colouring in!
So back the needles go on, very gently, not all the way, as I knew I would have to do some adjusting later on.
I stand back and admire how awesome my gauges are, and how awesome I am for doing this work!  Go me!

So back to the car.  It's full dark now, so I know there is no point in trying to put everything back together.  I was able to push the connectors in and pushed in the speedo cable, and lit it up.  Cool.  It looks cool.  To me, anyway.

So i start the car, and no my amazement, the car now idles at 3000 rpm.  Oh, wait, the needle needs adjusting...
Pull it off, make it point at 1,000 rpm - that's better!

Oh, my oil pressure is right off the map - let's turn that down a bit.  The problem is, I don't remember where it sat when it was just idling.  I just took a stab at it, and put it at just under halfway.  Rev the engine, needle goes up.  Perfect.  The temperature is wrong - the car hasn't run all day but it's almost overheating?  At this point, I'm starting to clue in - I betcha the needle needs adjusting!

Fuel gauge?  No idea.  Hope it's close...
Okay, a quick spin around the block to see if the speedo is anywhere near right.  I turned on my GPS and drove at a steady 30mph according to the gauge, and the GPS was reporting a speed of 29mph.  That's acceptable to me, I'd rather it was reading a bit fast - safer around the speed cameras!
That's it for the night; it was too dark to do any more, so I'll finish off the install in the morning.
Back inside, I tried using super glue to rebuild the cowling - it didn't hold, and the vapours coated the black plastic, making it look white.  Ugh, that's horrible, I've got to think of a way around this.  Replacement cowls are about £20, so I could do that, but to be honest, I've never liked the way the plastic reflects off the windscreen - perhaps a bit of suede or something could cover it all up?  With visions of an all new alcantara interior, Off to bed...
~~~~~~Wavy lines indicating the passage of time~~~~~~~
The next morning I get to see what the facias look like in daylight.  I really like the way they look.  Very smart, I think.  So I'm sitting there, admiring my work, fiddling with the steering wheel, and I discover the horn pad comes off.
Oh! Hello!  Why the hell would they cover that up!  That looks so much better.

Anyway, I put it all together, and go for another drive.  The missus and I want a pint, and we decided to do some antique shopping.  Along the way, I discover the speedo is way out.  When I drive 30mph, it's pretty close.  When the speedo says 40mph, I'm actually doing 44mph.  When the speedo says 55mph, the GPS claims I'm doing 60.
When I come to a complete stop, I can see the speedo is claiming a speed of about 8mph.
You know what?  I think there was some truth to that 'warming up the gauges' malarky.  Now I have to tear it all apart again and get it right - after the car has warmed up!
All in all, it was worth the £30 or so to do the job - it wasn't that difficult, but to be honest,  you MUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS - they are there for a reason!

Bearing Swap vs Man Cold

So here I am, finally after many weeks of not spending time with the car.  I have been an extra busy bee, and my time has been prioritised for me, with Hugo's repairs taking the forsaken end of the list.
That's not to say that I've not been having fun.  We went to a wonderful wedding, and danced the night away surrounded by fun and music and lovely people.  The ride home at  midnight through the streets of London on a chilly October night was, well, chilly.  And very wobbly with the bearings moaning about not getting any time off.  I can however confirm the heater works.
Saturday came, and my plans to work on the car went out with the large piles of tissues beside the bed - I've been bedridden with the most serious of Man Colds ever to strike a man.  Constantly dripping nostrils do not contribute well to sticking your head under the bonnet.  Figuratively.  It actually contributes quite a bit more than desired.
So, Sunday it is.  I washed down a bunch of Sudafed feel good pills, waited for my head to stop pounding, and trudged off to the car.
First things first.  I got the car up in the air, and decided to do the passenger side bearing first.  I had purchased a pair of bearings from Autolink UK, and I must take a moment to give these guys their due.
I get a fair bit of my stuff from eBay, but if it's important to the running if the car, I'll go to a real shop.  Autolink UK advertises in the MX-5 Owners Club magazine, Softtop/Hardtop, so I thought I'd give them a go.  I rang them up, and I was quickly informed that they had plenty of bearings in stock.  I ordered online (to get my club discount), and ordered the bits.  A few days later I thought I'd check on the progress of the parcel, and the tracking number they thoughtfully provided me with told me that they had tried to deliver but I wasn't home - but I'm sure I asked it to be delivered to my office.... Hmmmm.
Gave them a quick email, and long story short, I gave them the wrong address.  so what do you think they did?  They contacted the courier, and amended the delivery for me!  Way above the call of duty, chaps!  So my sincere thanks to Anthony at Autolink UK - I got my bearings the next day!
Anyway, back to the reason you all flock here...
So, off with the wheel.

I read some instructions on the internet about how to change the bearings, and it suggested removing the brakes and all that, but I figured if I could leave the pads and the disc in one piece, I could save myself some work.  So, I removed the two 14mm bolts holding the calipers on, and gave the whole assembly a tug.  Perfect!  With a bit of wire, the disc and caliper as one piece are off to the side - taking care not to bind the brake hose.

 Here is the offending hub.  I worried a lot about how to get the thing off; the torque rating was 130-160 ft lbs, which isn't easy to do with a standard ratchet.  I purchased a 29mm socket for my 1/2 drive ratchet, so I figured I was ready for that, but what if I couldn't turn it?  I searched high and low for a hollow bar I could use to get that nut off.  Only when I got the jack out of the boot did I discover a perfectly serviceable bar included in the Mazda toolkit!  Yay for smart car designers!

 Looking a little closer, I am confident that this bearing is knackered.  Don't know if you can see it, but there's some big shiny metal flakes hanging around there...

 So here is my big nut.  I put the ratchet on, put the bar on the end, and Heave-ho!  It was a helluva tug, but it came off!  I took the socket off, and looked at it  - oops, I forgot to punch the dent out of the nut.
Well, no real damage there actually, so away we go!

 Ideally, the dent in the nut will hold the nut in place, preventing the nut from walking off the spindle.  That's why they put that spline in...
Anyway off with the hub!  Ewww...  That looks suspiciously like cooked grease...

 Below, you can see where the remains of a rubber seal has stuck to the spindle.  The seal had just parished after 20 years of service.

 Here's the new hub, ready for installation.  I gave it a good clean - the sharper-eyed viewers will notice these are not strictly new hubs.  I'm sure  they'll do the trick, anyway.  In the background you can see the old nut and the new (old) nut.  Note that whomever removed this bearing was cleaver enough to remove the dent from the nut before undoing it...

 A bit of grease on the spindle...

 I crammed as much grease as I could into the new bearings, to give them the best chance.  My curiosity got the best of me though - I wonder what the bearings look like inside the hub?  A quick tap with a hammer, and the old one fell apart.
There are two sets of bearings in the hub, an inner and and outer.  Both showed lots of wear, and the steel balls were'n't strictly smooth anymore.  Some debris had found its way in for sure.

So after a bit of grease, on with the new hub!
I put it on, spun the nut, and went to tighten it.  I could only hope that I got the torque correct - too tight and you can wear out the bearings very quickly, too loose, and you'll know it right away.  So I gave it a good tug, and had a look.
Okay, so I re-used the old nut.  But you know what?  It showed me exactly where the nut was before in relation to the spindle!  So with a bit more grunting and the occasional blast of snot into my very dirty Kleenex tissues, I got the nut where it should be!  Not very scientific, but at this stage I could take it to a garage, and borrow a torque wrench that goes up to 150 ft lbs (mine only goes to 75).
So, on with the dust cap, on with the wheel, and over to the other side!
Wait, do I need to do the other side?
If I wanted to, I could have just bought one hub.  People will sell you only one.  You don't have to replace in pairs.  Go on, you're sick as a dog, get back inside, wash your hands, and wait for your wife to get you some chicken soup.
My brain is trying to wreck the car.
Or it's trying to save me work.
One way to settle - a test drive.
I drove about 100 feet and realised I needed to change the other one as well - there was a definite rumble coming from the front, specifically when turning left, and it went away when turning right.  Sorry, brain, back to work.
Replacing the bearing on the passenger side took about 45 minutes, including 20 minutes examining the old bearings and pauses for emergency snort drainage.  So the other side should be quicker, right?
Well, it would have been if the damned disc would have come off...
If you look through my previous blog entries, you will know about the trick of inserting a screw into the disc to push it off the hub.  Well, I was sitting down, on the floor, tired, sneezy, and grumpy, and without a bolt within arm's reach.  I decided not to get up and find one and save my self a pile of grief.  Instead I wielded the hammer with a loose grip and a sorry determination to get this over with.  Finally, after draining all my energy and nearly all my will to live, it popped off.  Fifteen minutes later, and that hub was changed as well.  And yes, there were metal filings hanging around it as well.
So, pack it all up, drag myself up to the flat, and request mahlaydeez's company on a test drive.  We go a spin, with the top up of course, it's a chilly day.
And how does the car feel after replacing both front hubs?  It's like driving a new car.  Well, a twenty year old new car.
I guess there is truth to the saying that you will never finish a rolling restoration.  I noticed my upper ball joints were looking a bit tired...

Tyres, Bearings, etc

We went to Lincoln last weekend, and had a great time working on the house.  The only thing was this vibration in the car...
I went to a local tyre place, and asked them to help me out.  I got the front tyres re-balanced - they were quite far out, even though they were done when I had them installed about two months ago.  I wanted the rear tyres replaced as well, but the chap said I only needed one, so a bit of savings there.
Took it for a boot around the country lanes.  The vibration is still there, but not as bad, so some of it was the balancing of the tyres.
So, back to the drawing board, as it were.
I did some research, and found that if the front bearings are nearing the end of their lives, they can give the symptoms the car has - a little vibration going straight ahead, steadily worse the further left I turn the steering wheel, at it's worst between 30 and 45 mph.  The vibration magically disappears when turning right, but hard right turns (like around a fast roundabout) I get a clunking, grinding sound.  Now, I need to get the front of the car up in the air and spin the wheels.  A grinding noise whilst spinning the hub (with the wheels still on to keep the load on the bearings) would indicate bad bearings.  Now the bad thing is, because the car has been lowered, every time I jacked it up using the factory scissor jack, it was putting lots of strain on the jack.  Now it's almost impossible to turn the jack when it's at it's lowest setting.  So, I need a new jack.  I can't really go to Halfords and get a nice trolley jack, because they don't fit - I know this from the tyre shop, they had to lift the car by the wing in order to get the clearance to insert the jack.  I will need to get a standard scissor jack.  Not a bad thing, it just makes me wonder how many jacks I'm going to go through....
So this weekend we're off to Canterbury to visit a friend.  I won't really have much time to work on Hugo, but I can always hope.  In the mean time, I have to source some new bearings.  I want to do both the front bearings; if one is gone, the other can't be far behind.  I also have to wonder if the bearing failure has anything to do with the severe camber the car had when I first dropped the car two and a half inches, and the bad alignment.  It's not so bad now, but I think it may have contributed to its demise.
Hopefully my next update will show the new bearings installed!

MX-5 Owners Club National Rally and other Bits

So a few weekends ago, we did a bit of a polish on the old guy.  We took all the lights off, polished them, and got out the T-Cut - the paint had faded to pink again.  The T-Cut did a crazy good job at making it red again!  The polymer finish stuff I had used before didn't really stand the test of time, so this time, it got good old fashioned wax.

Lights removed, ready for some polishing

That's better!

This is all in preparation for the next weekend.  And what a weekend!  The MX-5 Owners Club held their annual National Rally, at Northampton.  Spread over three days, it was full of stuff to do; all of which I wanted to do, but very little I actually got to do.

Ready to go...

Oh well, next year!
The missus and I went to the events on Saturday, which were held at Silverstone race track.  We got there around lunch time, and we watched the cars go round!  The club has secured track usage on the Stowe circuit for us, and lots of people took out their daily drivers for a spin.
This was a very tempting prospect for us; I've always wanted to take the car out on the track, but I had some things I had to do first.
Just before I got the MOT done, the car developed a tiny vibration in the steering wheel and the floorboards.  I ignored it; thinking it was would go away.  Shows you how much I know about owning 20 year old cars!
The vibration got steadily worse.  On the way up to Silverstone, the vibration was getting rather distracting.  It started creating rattles in the dash, which are my worst enemy!  Anyway, the vibration was enough of a worry for me that I didn't take Hugo on the track.  The next rally I hope to do this, as it  looks like the most fun you can have in a car (one without a backseat, anyway).

In the open pits.  The Kit car in the front started life as an MX-5.

We toured the infield and looked at all the awesome cars.  There were some seriously sweet rides there.  There was a black Mk1 with what looked like 13 inch wheels, lower than anything, and he was really fast and smooth on the track.  So fast, my camera couldn't focus, so I missed that picture.
There was a Mk1 painted like the Japanese flag, which grabbed my attention.  A supercharger!  Ooooh, I know what I want for Christmas!
They had some track only cars as well; the drivers would take you out for a few laps in a quick fashion,  we saw one lady come back in from her laps and she looked like she was in shock - she was very pleased with her laps!
After grabbing a quick (overpriced) bite of food, we headed to the club tent and got our map instructions for a fun drive around the Northampton countryside.  Off we went!

The weather held out for us while we hung out at the track - a bit cold, but no rain.  You can see it looked rather imminent in the photos.  About five minutes into our drive, the hood went up in a hurry - torrential rain!  It lasted about 10 minutes, and we weren't bothered for the rest of our drive but we did get a bit cold.

Awesome single lane roads - the SatNav proclaimed 'Driving on - Road'.

Some ducks in the road, having a kip.

The planned course for the drive was unbelievable.  I had no idea that Northampton was so beautiful.  The quaint villages, the thatch-roofed cottages, sprawling fields under massive skies, and of course the wicked, twisty one lane roads!  The drive couldn't avoid A Main roads completely, but they were kept to a minimum.
We stopped at a free range farm shop and grabbed some potatoes and some eggs - we were waved off on our way out by the chickens!

Chickens gather to watch us cart off their unhatched children.

We ended our drive at a pub, the Ward Arms.  Not our first choice for pubs, but it was mostly empty, and served lovely bitter shandies and a nice plum ale.  And the lady behind the bar was lovely!

We didn't actually complete the entire drive, as the car was vibrating like mad - getting worse and worse...  The drive was mostly 30-40mph cruising, and that's when it was at its worst.  So we got on the motorway and headed home.

We hit rain, and saw a rainbow.  The quality of the light was extraordinary - very bright and high contrast but dark at the same time - photos couldn't do it justice.

So, Sunday....
Where is this vibration coming from?  I got the car up in the air, started it, and put it in gear.  The back tires spinning freely, I watched them carefully.  sure enough, they weren't anywhere near round.  There is some pretty profound egg shaped tyres going on here!  The back tires passed the MOT, but looking at the sidewall, they are perished.  So new tires are up next.
As the dash felt like it had rattled itself to bits, I took the bottom cover off the steering column trim and fished out the LED light I had installed ages ago and had fallen inside.  I carved a new (smaller) hole in the plastic, and put the LED in there - now it shines on the key lock, so in the dark I can find the keyhole! Yay!
Since doing the rear brakes, the hand brake hasn't been quite right, so I adjusted it (again).  It's still not where I want it to be, so I'll have another look when I can.
I also fished around with the wiring for the fog lamp and the rear defrost.  One wire had worked itself loose so the light wasn't coming on when the defrost was switched on.  All better now!
The factory supplied jack has been getting a real workout from lifting Hugo in it's lowered stance, and it's pretty much given up.  I will need to get another one to replace it.  It just never ends....

So we're off to Lincoln again this week for a four-day visit to work on the house.  Hopefully the car will give us a fun ride up north!

Brakes!

It's been a while, that's for sure.  I don't get to give poor Hugo the attention he deserves so much as I'd like. This is the price you pay when you're refurbishing a house and moving and working non-stop...
So we had our MOT test done last weekend.  Went to a great garage called Ferndale Autos.  Never been before, but I was quite confident that all would be okay.  My only concern was the rear brakes, as I didn't get a chance to do them before the test.
The chap at Ferndale was really nice, and let me participate in the MOT process - I got to pump the brakes, turn the wheel, etc.  I know, not very exciting, but it was my second MOT test in the UK, and I didn't get to watch the first one (it was on my other car, a Golf).  He was impressed with the shape the car was in, particularly underneath.  I was lucky enough also to go underneath, and I got a good look at the gubbins down there.  The exhaust is good - a bit scraped at it's lowest part due to the very low suspension I had at one point.  There were similar scrapes on the frame just behind the front wheels from the same thing.  The plastic splash guard that protects the bottom on the engine was a bit loose, but I now know how to fix it when I get underneath.  I noticed the gearbox was a bit oily - it was a bit wet, nothing serious, and it looked like engine oil, but he said it's likely old ATF fluid (remember, this is an automatic!).  It didn't raise a warning for him, so I will replace the gasket at my leisure.
Everything else under there looked lovely - in good shape and not rusty at all for a twenty year old car!
Then came the brake test.  It did excellent on the rolling road bit, and he got out and said that I need to replace the rear pads, but it was still gripping really well.  That was the only warning on my MOT.  (It needed a bulb, but I replaced it before he wrote it up).  I told him I had the parts at home and I would do it straight away.  He saw that I had done lots of other stuff, and he asked if I did the work.  I said yes, and he said he would trust me to do the brakes real soon.  Top lad!
So, new brakes...
I was anxious to do them, and started bright and early.  I got the wheels off the back, the car set on jackstands, and chocked the front wheels.

Dirty old worn out discs!

I'm glad I read a bit about how to do the rear brakes before I started, because it wouldn't be immediately obvious how to push the piston back without knowing - there is a hidden screw inside the caliper that you unwind to retract the piston.

Here is the caliper off the axle, with an allen key in the piston retractor.

Here you can see the piston has been retracted - because you can't see the piston anymore!  It's gone behind the rubber seal

Once that was done, it was dead easy to remove the old discs (a quick tap with a hammer), and fit hte new pads:

Here you can see the difference between the new and the old.  the old ones were just starting to make a scraping sound.

Installed!

After getting stuff bolted back into place, I turned the allen key to seat the pads against the disc.  I turned them until there was resistance.  At that point, I couldn't easily turn the disc by hand, so I backed off the piston one full turn.  Then I threw the wheel back on, and went to the other side.

Not very visible, but that's okay - I know I've got some good brakes back there.

It took me about 45 minutes to re and re the passenger side brakes.  The driver's side took about half an hour, just because I knew what to do.  A few things I figured out in the process:

• The first time, I took the caliper right off the axle and then tried to remove the screw that hides the retractor screw.  I couldn't get the leverage, so I had to stick it back on.  So for the other side, I made sure to remove the screw before I removed the caliper.
• When I tried to fit the caliper with the new pads around the new disc, I had to wrangle it on - there wasn't much room.  So on the other side, I took the small metal guides off the caliper, brushed off the loose dust, resat them, and installed - much smoother going on.
• When getting the pads around the new disc, I quickly found I didn't have enough hands to hold the disc in the correct position, hold the pads apart, and guide the caliper into place.  I put one lug nut back on the lug and got it finger tight - this was enough to hold the disc steady.

So an hour and a half later, I had new brakes - yay!  I knew I would have to adjust the handbrake, so I got the car down on the ground and tested it.  The handle went up all the way with no resistance, so with the hand brake released, I took the cover off, and turned the adjusting screw clockwise about 15 revolutions.  Now the handle will only go up about 4 clicks - it used to go about 8 clicks before I did any work.  So I tested to see how well they held.  I started the car, put it in drive, engaged the hand brake, and released the foot brake.... I drove forward.
The hand brake is not engaging at all....
I tried adjusting the handle a bit, but no real difference.  Not sure what to do, I did some testing to bed the brakes down (long, slow, light pressure stops), and had a quick look online.  I found my fatal error quite quickly.  I had backed the piston off a full turn after they grabbed.  Apparently I only need to go back about a third of a turn.
So I set out to re-adjust.  And you know what happened?  It starte to rain.
So now I have a car with great brakes - the pedal travel is solid, and it feels good - but no hand brake.  I guess that will have to wait a few more days.  The car's parked until the weekend anyway, so I'll have a go at the adjustments then.
Anyway, it was great getting back under the car and getting grease under my nails - I missed working on it!
So next weekend, brake adjust and a polish of the paint - the paint has faded again, so it's looking rather pink - a bit embarrassing, so best to sort out as soon as...