The answer to my motorcycle problem

Hey guys, long time reader but hardly ever post anything. I decided to make my first thread because I am so excited about my latest purchase.

I've been thinking about selling my motorcycle for a year or so but didn't know what to replace it with. After much research and internal debate I finally decided that a miata is the obvious choice. I've always liked miatas but have owned mostly hondas and other fwd vehicles to date. I've been watching the market for a couple months and finally found what seemed to be a very good deal. After talking to the seller and getting more pictures I enlisted the help of my friend and made the trip from Milwaukee to St Louis to get it. The car handled the 300+ mile trip back home wonderfully and was surprisingly comfortable as well!

Here is the basic info that I currently know about the car. I am very new to miatas so I would appreciate any pointers from the experienced GRM crowd!

• 95,000 mile 1990 NA with stock 1.6 SNC
• Raceland Coilovers (Will be raised significantly)
• Torsen LSD
• CX Racing headers with an isr exhaust (Needs to go asap! Absolutely killed my ears on the drive home)
• Flying Miata Happy Meal clutch kit
• Unkown short throw shifter/bushing upgrade kit

I am in love with it even after the long drive home that was 99% highway cruising. It is one of the most fun cars I've driven. The plan is to leave it as is except for making it a little more livable by quieting the exhaust and raising the suspension. It's currently on the oem wheels off of my 86 MR2 project car because I didn't want to pay an extra $500 for the wheels the seller had on it. I so far have only found one spot of rust on the passenger rear  rocker corner and some slight surface rust around the battery. 

Bonus picture of the underglow that came with it. I'm still debating leaving it just for the occasional laugh

How do you split lanes with that thing?

The MR2 wheels look good. Inexplicably. 

How come I've never seen one on mr2 wheels before? That looks pretty good!

I know I should hate underglow because I'm old and it's useless and tacky but the fact of the matter is that I kind of like it.

In reply to ShawnG :

Carefully! I live in Wisconsin though and never lane split. The reason I wanted to get rid of my bike was because it's really only nice enough for me to ride 4 maybe 5 months of the year, plus now I need to carry tools for work and can't ride to work. A miata first much better in my life

In reply to APEowner :

I'm definitely not old, but I share the same thoughts. I would never install it myself, but I don't hate it when it came on the car.

Took the miata out for a drive today to get some more seat time in it. I'm enjoying the car more and more everytime I drive it, but this exhaust really needs to go. Does anyone have any  recommendations for an exhaust that has a nice noise but closer to stock sound levels? I think I may end up just putting replacing the "muffler" from the isr exhaust with a more restrictive muffler I have laying around just to get me by until I can afford a new exhaust.

I also found out the hard way why people recommend unzipping the rear window before putting the top down. I unfortunately got a ~3" long crack in the rear plastic window. It is at the very bottom and not super noticable, but it is cracked all the way through. I used some clear shoe goo to hopefully seal up the crack. It's all I had on hand and the car is unfortunately parked outside. The garage is taken up by my MR2 project car and my friends fiero gt that had its manifold fully crack through.

Appleseed said:

The MR2 wheels look good. Inexplicably. 

Yeah, I can't believe how good that looks. 

Ditto on the wheels. That looks sharp.

I put a Cobalt exhaust on my '95 Miata. Part #900-566. It has a nice growl and no droning. Cheap and easy install.

Put some more miles on the miata today driving it to work. It was cold out (35F), but sunny enough that I decided to put the top down on my way home. I was working outside all day so I was dressed warm enough to not freeze. The heater also does a surprisingly well job of keeping my hands and feet warm even with the top down going 80 on the highway!

Stopped by my friend at work to show him the new toy. The angle of the picture makes the miata look bigger than his FRS.

Stubby antenna! I hardly ever listen to the radio so I doubt I will notice the decreased range. Looks much nicer than the whip antenna to me. Please excuse the terrible pictures.

I also spent some time working on fixing the install of the NRG hub and steering wheel. The PO did not have the turn signal cancel ring turned properly on install and never bothered to wire the horn up. The turn signals would only cancel while doing a U-turn, not while driving normally. I had to make a custom clockspring for the horn. I also will need to order a resistor to get rid of the flashing airbag light.

DIY clockspring:

I managed to smash myself in the face with the wheel while trying to remove the hub. Note to self: Next time use a steering wheel remover instead of a rubber mallet. Or just sit in the passenger seat instead.

In reply to Shadeux (Forum Supporter) :

I ordered a thrush hush muffler and a flange to use as a replacement for the muffler on the isr. If that doesn't work I think I will get a Cobalt exhaust. Does that exhaust bolt right up to an NA? I see it listed only for a NB on moss miata.

NB and NA have different exhaust hanger locations, and the connection to the front exhaust section is different, but it should physically fit.

Looks like a pretty clean NA... nice buy!

Has it had a Torsen LSD swapped in?  The original 1.6 LSD was a viscous unit...  

In reply to Rodan :

Yeah, it has a torsen from a 97 Miata. At least that's what the PO says he put in. I've read through some Miata diff spotters guides and I believe it matches with what he claims.

Thanks, it seems very nice to me as well. Especially for $3500!

I replaced the muffler with a 2.5" Thrush Hush muffler. The sound quality isn't the greatest but at least it is significantly quieter now. It will get me through until I can save up and buy a quality catback for the car.

Nice job on the DIY clockspring.

I raised the suspension some more and did an oil change Friday morning. Went for a top down cruise with my friend in his turbo FB RX-7 afterwards around Holy Hill. I could smell some oil burning during the drive and noticed a slight tick from the engine bay when we got back. I will have to keep an eye on that for sure. Still waiting on the CAS o-ring and valve cover gasket to get here. I'm hoping those will take care of the noticable oil leaks.

Bonus picture of his Del Sol VTEC that doesn't want to live. Everytime we get it running something else breaks on it. The latest was a snapped timing belt that resulted in every single valve getting bent.

Nice purchase.  I always tell anyone who contemplates a motorcycle to try a miata!  We bought a  miata for my son to learn auto cross.  He bowed out of auto cross, now I daily a supercharged nb.  He picked up a subaru wrx and wants to autocross it.  I digress.

We have had three miatas and really miss our NA.  Your find looks really nice, and yes, I would keep the underglow.  I get your issues with the exhaust, I  have yet to find an aftermarket exhaust I can stand on the highway for more than an hour.

My wife recently got into photography and wanted to do a little photoshoot with the miata today. Perks of having an artist for a wife! She has also made custom designed artwork and stickers for our other cars before.

Been daily driving the miata for the past month and have been loving it. My wife and I decided to try autocrossing for the first time ever and took it to Road America for winter autox on saturday. We had a ton of fun and surprisingly didn't end up in last place for the day! We are planning on going to a few more events this year, both winter autox and hopefully some dry weather events later in the year. Video of my best run of the day (Bonus clip of a Civic Type-R spinning out at the begging of the video):

On a more sad note the car started showing symptoms of the dreaded crank wobble on the SNC 1.6 . I tightened the 4 bolts on the crank pulley and the knocking went away, but it came back after ~75 miles of driving. So unfortunately the car will be parked until the parts come in to fix it. I'm taking the opportunity to replace the timing belt, water pump, front main seal, and cam seals at the same time since the car has 99,000 miles on it and the PO didn't know when they were last replaced. I ordered new OEM timing pulley, woodruff key, crank pulley, and bolts to fix the wobble. I'm crossing my fingers that the keyway on the crank is in good condition once I open everything up.

I've been to RA dozens of times and I can't figure out where you are at.   

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

This is on the go-kart track

Mrfurzzy said:

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

This is on the go-kart track

Once Hyundai advertised you could test drive the new Genesis sports car coupe at the Autobahn Country Club racetrack in Joliet, IL.  

I signed up and attended to be directed to.......the go cart track - 35mph max but I did get a free vinyl Hyundai duffle bag.

Well, turns out that the I suck at documenting my car life and that the miata was not the answer for me. I ended up getting rid of the miata just over 6 months after I bought it. I put on close to 10k miles in that time period and got to know the car fairly well. I enjoyed it but decided that it just wasn't for me. A stockish miata just doesn't have enough character for me.

So I decided to look for something else and ended up trading it for a 1 (registered) owner 1986 AW11 MR2 from Atlanta Georgia. The car was bought new and kept until the original owner passed away. It then went to his daughter who never drove it or reregistered it and eventually sold it to a young kid in Atlanta. That kid got it running (poorly) but got overwhelmed by it and never registered it himself. I offered my miata as a straight trade and he happily accepted. So my wife and I packed our bags in the miata, drove all the way from wisconsin and picked up the MR2. It made it all the way back to Wisconsin before the OG distributor failed less than 30 miles from home.

We drove the MR2 the rest of summer until the engine completely died. It got parked until winter when I had time to pull the engine out for a rebuild. At least that was the plan until I found a JDM import 4agze complete with transmission and all accessories except for the supercharger for only $450 within a few hours of my house. I switched plans and decided to swap that engine in instead and eventually run a turbo on it. That was March, and the car still isn't running as of now. I have a very bad habit of adding more and more projects to my life.

My vehicle list since the end of 2020:

• NA Miata bought ~November 2020, Traded June 2021
• AW11 MR2 got June 2021 and still have
• 2013 Nissan Xterra got October 2021 and still have
• Fiat x1/9 bought October 2021 and still have
• 2004 CRV bought October 2021 sold June 2022
• 2003 Pontiac grand Am Bought and flipped in April 2022
• 2001 Chevy S10 bought and flipped in April 2022
• 1995 GMC sierra bought in April 2022 and still have
• 2003 Ford F150 bought August 2022 (derby/race car)
• 2000 Chevy silverado bought August 2022
• 1985 Honda VF700F interceptor got for free from FIL August 2022

Picture of the fiat and the interceptor

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I think thats enough rambling of my thoughts for the moment. I really do think that putting my life into this thread will help me keep on track with my projects. Talking with other people here may also help prevent me from wanting to move on to the next shiny object

Your AW11 story sounds eerily similar to mine - bought from a kid near Atlanta who had just got the car running but not well, and hasn't transferred the title to his name. I sold mine after 6 months and bought a Miata instead lol, so the inverse of you. But the AW11 is a very cool car. If mine was in better shape I would have kept it.