'99 Miata - Not My Problem

I was never that immature. But my wiring is a lot better than it once was.

Keith Tanner said:

I was never that immature. But my wiring is a lot better than it once was.

I bought a car from unnamed grmer’s parents and was called the next week to make sure no weed was  left behind the horn button.  

Stupid question, why does the engine come out for oil pump?  Pan need removed?  Never worked on a miata before but that ghettocet in the classifieds has me rethinking my strict no miata policy

In reply to Patrick :

Were they calling to make sure you didn't get caught with the weed or to get it back?

Patrick said:

 

Stupid question, why does the engine come out for oil pump?  Pan need removed?  Never worked on a miata before but that ghettocet in the classifieds has me rethinking my strict no miata policy

You can do it without pulling the engine, but it's more work. Like you figured, you need to pull the pan which means pulling the subframe. It's a lot easier to seal the pan when the engine isn't drooling oil on you, too.

Keith Tanner said:

Patrick said:

 

Stupid question, why does the engine come out for oil pump?  Pan need removed?  Never worked on a miata before but that ghettocet in the classifieds has me rethinking my strict no miata policy

You can do it without pulling the engine, but it's more work. Like you figured, you need to pull the pan which means pulling the subframe. It's a lot easier to seal the pan when the engine isn't drooling oil on you, too.

And this is the ANSWER........really !?!?!?? hey where's the remote? oh found it .....

Mezzanine said:

Stampie said:

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

When I point out previous bad workmanship on cars it's usually my own workmanship. 

Yeah. I've owned my cars long enough now to replace the same parts more than once, and finding my own work is sometimes humbling. I suppose it counts as "growth" that I view bodge by younger me as crap now.

I have owned my '84 RX-7 for ten years.  I installed Megasquirt in it nine years ago.  I converted it to FC front suspension and 3 link rear suspension six or seven years ago.

I've forgotten so much about the changes I have made to the car, when I work on it, it's like I'm trying to figure out what some other moron did.  When I was diag'ing why it stopped running correctly last fall, I had to trace out the wiring harness and i discovered that I had the injectors wired completely different than the way I had assumed they were set up.  (No wonder I could never get PWM to work right)

759NRNG said:

Keith Tanner said:

Patrick said:

 

Stupid question, why does the engine come out for oil pump?  Pan need removed?  Never worked on a miata before but that ghettocet in the classifieds has me rethinking my strict no miata policy

You can do it without pulling the engine, but it's more work. Like you figured, you need to pull the pan which means pulling the subframe. It's a lot easier to seal the pan when the engine isn't drooling oil on you, too.

And this is the ANSWER........really !?!?!?? hey where's the remote? oh found it .....

Meanwhile, on the LS engine thar GRM seems to love, to replace the timing chain requires removing the pan, because the oil pump is in the way, and you can't remove the oil pump with the pan in place.

Most people who do in-chassis cam swaps just reuse the old chain and gears for this reason.

'Course, if you're replacing the lifters with the cam, you need to remove the cylinder heads too...

you lost me at LS swap.........'carry on my frozen northern brothers'.....hey isn't that a song title from....????? oh nevermind stay warm all my YANKEE bro's !!!

Back to work with a bunch of questions. 
First, for the bolts at the top of the transmission, any advice other than it's time to buy a proper long extension? It kind of looks like long extension and a universal joint is the only way to go. Does the ground up there need to come off too? Anything other than the exhaust and the transmission on the bottom/back side?
What's the best tool/approach to getting this fitting off? I've poked at it gently and the white tabs won't move. Trying not to break it. 

Labeling things. On a car that I haven't worked on before I sometimes know what something actually is, and sometimes I just try to be descriptive. 

This is back by the tailshaft. It's leaking, but I think it's actually leaking above the seal and not the seal itself. What's likely to be leaking up there. 

The differential is dry. On this car that almost worries me. I should check before it drives again. 

Last but not least for today, the exhaust joint between the mid pipe and the cat was held on with a single bolt and that bolt only had about two threads engaged. I could almost stick my finger in the joint. I wonder what the rear O2 thought about that situation and whether that could explain any of the running issues. I'm going to have to source quite a few nuts/bolts to get this thing back together properly. 

For the fuel line, you need a quick disconnect tool... light blue and grey doodads on the right side of the pic:

You should be able to get them at any parts store.  On my NBs, I've been using a gray one, but don't take that as gospel.

The trans leak is likely coming from the shift turret.  The cover degrades over time and falls apart.  Look for "Miata shifter rebuild" on the various forums.

As far as the top trans bolts, a long extension should work... every time I've separated the trans, the engine was already out of the car... it's almost easier!

Yup, long extension and a universal joint. If you don't have a set of fuel line tools, they're cheap and pretty much required if you're screwing with fuel lines. If you have a selection to choose from, I'm pretty sure the Miata uses the Ford type, and they're 5/16" lines.

Gracias. Off to harbor freight! The source of and solution to all of my problems. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

well said. luckily the closest one to me isn't more than 10-15 minutes

The rear O2 sensor is pretty much only there to see if the main cat is working so that it can set a check engine light if it's not.  I don't think it has any effect on how well the car actually runs.

Not on a 99 Miata, anyhow. It does on newer cars.

I think when we did the trans R&R on Evan's, we got the top trans bolts from under the hood.

But then his engine bay is a little bit different...

Nice work so far. As for missing nuts and bolts, today on Facebook I saw an offer from a Miata dismantler - a box of random hardware, $30 shipped. Mine is missing enough that I'm considering it.

I'd buy that anyhow. I've probably got two Miatas worth of random hardware, sorted out. Really useful to have for everything because it's good quality metric stuff.

Motor_Mouth said:

In reply to Rodan :

It's a new transmission cover and the transmission rear seal was also replaced with a new Mazda part.

Let's hope that one of those didn't take, because if it's not them, then it's something more interesting, and we don't want that. 

Anyone who has wrenched long enough realizes that a certain percentage of the time, even when you do things by the book, the fix doesn't take, especially when fluids are supposed to stay on one side of a seal. Don't look at any of it as "Seth thinks you broke it" but more of "I wonder why it still leaks even though I fixed it". I wonder about that all the time on my own junk. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Oh yeah.  I've restored Austin Healey's before.  No matter what you do, they won't seal...

This is a very high mileage car.  I ended up replacing almost every wear component.  The tunnel seal is new also.

Seth have you already bought the extension??? my 25" 3/8 drive w/swivel is availble ..I'm out and about  tomorrow.....gimme a shout BEC  

In reply to 759NRNG :

The new HF in Conroe is a mile from the High School so I just popped in. It's far too convenient. You're welcome to stop by if you're over in East county though. 

Motor is out!

No real drama. The top rear vacuum hose on the intake sort of disintegrated when I took the clamp off. I wasn't sure if I had to pull the starter or not, so I did. Is it supposed to have all three bolts in or just the two outside ones that were there? 

Also, the bellhousing bolts. All of them are the same length but two.

One was on the drivers side that helps hold on the exhaust. I can't see a reason for it to be long, should it be? And one on the passenger side that doesn't thread into the block but instead has a nut on the back. Seems like an odd assembly choice if that's how it's supposed to be. Other than that it looks like it's probably leaking at the rear seal where a distributor would have been. Maybe it was just the valve cover seal? There is a likelihood that the oil in the bellhousing could have leaked from the top, but I'll take a closer look at the rear main after I pull the clutch. Still hoping to not have to pull the crank somehow. 

Some are long for unknown reasons.

Rear mains don't leak very often. Usually it's the head gasket, valve cover gasket or that plug. They all drool down into the bellhousing and drip out the bottom. But if you're looking at the clutch, the smart thing to do is change the clutch and the rear main. No need to drop the crank for that.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Is the starter supposed to have three bolts? It has three ears..........

And dropping the crank refers to the fact that I still can't figure out how to get the pulley off.