The Bean

During the pre race day nut and bolt check, I found my clutch cable loose, a steering joint loose, and a burned up speedo cable. After tightening the clutch cable and steering joint, the speedo cable looked like it might get caught in the steering joint. So, since it is no longer functional, lets remove it. After cutting the cable, we still need to stop the fluid from leaking out of the transmission, so lets make a plug. 

Perfect. 

The autocross was a blast. Our club is trying a new location that is much closer to me, and the course layout was awesome. I believe there were about 150 drivers.

I am happy to report that the efi project has accomplished its purpose. The car ran at 190-200° all day, and performance was completely homogeneous from the first to the last of 10 runs. The grip was super low, and the car was loose everywhere, which was a riot to drive. With a 225 tire I am not going to get close to ftd, which is good because I don't want to get carried away with track focused mods. That being said I could definitely improve the front end rigidity, and a front sway would be a good addition. Looking forward to the next one!

What is that Mini in front of you??

In reply to SpeedAddict502 :

That is a wild build. Tesla swapped rear engine, front mounted batteries, and sprung suuuper stiff, I saw it with 3 wheels in the air multiple times.

Haha I thought something looked a little nutty about it!

My brother was in town a few weeks ago and drove the Bean quite a bit while he was here. Unfortunately the radio started intermittently failing during this time. After opening up the "engine" as retro sound calls the head unit, I couldn't spot anything obvious to fix on the board. I decided to order another "engine" this time with bluetooth, and on scratch and dent sale. When the unit came in, it was incompatible with the screen from the old unit. After chatting with tech support about my options, they agreed to send me a compatible screen free of charge. Now that the radio is reinstalled and buttoned up, I am very pleased to have bluetooth functionality in the car!

"engine" 1B

The faceplate from the original radio had started to scratch the old screen. So I attached it more permanently, flex glue the world!

Finally reinstalled:

Hopefully this issue is solved for another few years, and the intermittent issue is fixed.

So, I've had a 1" front swaybar for a mustang ii for awhile. Time for a mockup. Let's see if it'll go on without a fight.

Here are rough dimensions for those looking at this for another application:

The mockup:

...very tight. The tires will rub on the bar, but I think I'll mount it up and see how bad it is. 

That is a lot of lock. Not enough for a drift car, but everywhere else you should be fine.

The autocross was a blast. Our club is trying a new location that is much closer to me, and the course layout was awesome. I believe there were about 150 drivers.

 

Great news about the EFI working as it should. And a thank you for this post, since it made me look for the new venue. Chula Vista is waaaaay closer than Lake Elsinore. Might actually make it to watch the next one! 

Glad to hear it Piguin! I should be ready for the event on June 2. In the mean time, I have been doing alot of measuring:

After mocking up a couple of swaybar mounting options, none of them fit well with the miata spindles. Also, I am currently running a 1.5" spacer in the front, and the wheels could still come out a bit further in the fenders. The solution will be new front control arms. However before we dive into that project, this weekend was a local autocross event. I was able to get my new alignment gear from Caliper Garage set up:

This is far easier to use than my old method (jackstands at each corner). Measuring the "before" alignment showed the following:

Front: 

Driver Camber: -1.125° Passenger Camber: -1.375°

Toe: .04" Out

Rear:

Driver Camber: -1.5° Passenger Camber:-1.5°

Toe: .26" In

Hmmm the front is passable for autocross, so I didn't adjust it. The rear was changed to :

Driver Camber: -1.125° Passenger Camber: -1.125°

Toe: .1" In (.05" per side).

Much better, and I might relieve a bit of the camber wear I am getting on the rears. My lovely partner drove the Bean at the autocross today, and a good time was had by all. 

The quest for greater visibility continues. I've tried quite a few rear view mirror options at this point. After cutting up the original mirror a couple years ago to make this monstrosity:

I have been using suction cup mirrors and generic rear views in a couple locations. I even glued another button mount on lower than the original to mimic a dash mounted mirror. However the same problem persists; if the mirror is in the right spot to see out the rear window, it is squarely in the way of seeing cars to the right at a 4 way  intersection. If mounted in the stock location, the view is pointed at the ground, and near the dash it is looking into the sky. I tried to remount the stock mirror to a new arm by cutting slits in the pressed section that captures the mirror ball. This worked great for removing the generic mirror, but when I went to press the stock mirror into the new stalk...

Any idea where to get replacement glass for a pinto rear view?

Next, I decided to try an idea I've had for awhile. Buy the cheapest backup camera kit, and wire it on full time as the rear view mirror. Without further ado:

After using it for a week here are my thoughts:

Not bad for $35!

The image is too zoomed out to see much detail.

The image quality is nowhere near a mirror (as expected). 

This setup is certainly good enough to see if there are cars close to you, and is up out of the field of vision for normal driving.

Is it usable at night?

I have this (possibly unfounded) fear that the brightness of the screen combined with the headlights of traffic following would act like a big flashlight aimed at your eyes.

P.S. Never made it to the venue, since we had an unscheduled move. Good thing is that I am now just 12 miles from it, so hopefully i'll be around to watch the RallyCross in August.

In reply to Piguin :

Yes, usable at night, no problems with it so far. One observation though is that after sitting in the sun all day, the image will be a bit out of focus.

The rod ends in the steering have thoroughly worn out at this point, so they have been replaced. While in there I added some misalignment spacers and a safety washer. The droop is still limited by the heims though. When I get around to improving the front suspension I'll add some limiting straps, or add some more angle to the tie rod spacers.

I'm also considering modifying another set of NB miata spindles to reduce the upper ball joint depth, and possibly reduce the angle of the bump steer pin. 

Time for an update. 

First, the rearview camera isn't perfect. There is glare at night (contrary to my previous statement), and if there is something reflective in the trunk, it will cause glare during the day off of the inside of the glass. More on this later.

For now I have decided that the pedal ergonomics need to improve. A big part of that is to reduce the throw of each pedal, and make them the same height. Let's do the brakes first. Below we have the pinto pedal, and a miata pedal (2002).

The ratio of the pinto pedal is approximately 5.6:1 ratio, and the miata is approximately 4.4:1. So lets aim to match the miata ratio with the pinto pedal.

More to come.

woohoo Bean!

Reversing cameras (especially cheap ones like the one I've installed) seem to be extremely sensitive to even the most minuscule specs of dust. 

You can try cleaning the lens and the glass behind it to see if it helps.

Great work on the pedal!

A couple other modifications were needed to make the new pedal ratio work. First, shorten the drop on the pushrod end.

Then I decided to pull out the booster mount to seal off some openings where fumes can enter the cabin.

After a healthy coat of flex seal glue and paint it was reinstalled. I also added some soft foam to the booster to create a seal on that end.

After a short test drive the pedal is now quite stiff. I was worried at first, but I can still lock up the front left wheel, and slowing for a stop sign takes far less finesse than before. I'll need more drive time to be sure, but I think the ratio will be perfect.

You really do some nice work!

Many thanks for the kind comments. 

The next iteration on the rearview mirror involves a replacement mirror for a 60-71 Chevy truck. After a bit of modification to the base from the stock Pinto mirror, it mounted up nicely.

This is actually a nice compromise. the position is slightly less "in the way" than the other mirrors I've tried, and the resolution and "zoom" are better than the camera. The wide view of the camera is a nice feature though. It's far from perfect, but I'll run it for awhile before making any decisions.

Was hoping to see the Bean up close on the autocross over at NICU today, but the heat was brutal - can't blame you for skipping it.

I'm sorry to have missed you! I have been traveling most of the past couple months and was on the wrong coast this weekend. I want to make it to Elsinore once more this season, but plans are still fuzzy.

No worries, I am sure we'll eventually manage to be at the same autocross at the same time.

I know a thing or two about fuzzy plans, every time I try to plan ahead something upends everything at the last minute.

After the brake pedal, I decided to work on improving the gas pedal again. I wanted to add a cam to the throttlebody cable connection to allow more precise control at low throttle angles. The driveline slop and torque work together to make it difficult to smoothly modulate the clutch without resorting to >2k rpms. Before I had a chance to swap on new parts, I tried lowering the timing in the low manifold pressure areas of the map to 18 degrees. This actually made the car much easier to drive smoothly. I'll continue to experiment with this before fabricating new parts. 

Finally got some properly sized rubber on the Konigs so the wheels match again (225/50/15 Blu Trac Race) :