The Miata experience: his and hers.

Continuing with brakes today, I swapped out the front (rear circuit) reservoir on the M/C.  A few years back, the original Wilwood reservoir for the front circuit failed at a seam and was causing an intermittent leak. 

I took a while to nail down a replacement...  Wilwood has a terrible online parts catalog, and their customer service was just about worthless.  Since I wasn't sure the replacement was going to work, I only ordered one.  It was a one piece molded reservoir, instead of a two piece 'welded' together with a seam.  Turns out it worked, and I had ordered another to replace the other two-piece reservoir as a preventative measure, but never got around to installing it.  Fortunately, it's an easy job.

First, I use a syringe type fluid evacuator to remove the fluid from the reservoir, and then it pops right off the M/C.  Fortunately, it leaves enough fluid that re-bleeding the M/C is not necessary.

New reservoir pops on, and fill with fluid.  While I was at it, I pulled the old fluid from the other circuit and replaced it as well in preparation for bleeding.

The old fluid wasn't terrible, but since I'm bleeding for the new lines, a flush isn't a bad idea.

The other project for today was re-installing the sway bar.

Another example of tight clearance on this swap...

I got to a couple of quick projects on the Interceptor yesterday.  1st up was the "flapper" mod, which consists of unplugging a vacuum line.  The flapper closes part of the airbox inlet at lower RPMs to reduce intake noise, and disconnecting the actuator leaves the flapper door open all the time.  Probably doesn't increase performance in any measurable way, but definitely gives it a little more intake honk.

Next was replacing a bent footpeg on the right side.  The bike had a tip over on it's right side at some point, and though no bodywork was damaged, apparently the footpeg took the brunt of things.

I located a replacement and it was an easy swap.  It wasn't bent enough to really even notice while riding, but it did bother my OCD.

Back to the Miata, made some good progress today.  Got the radiator and hoses, overflow tank and 'headlights' back in.

I needed the radiator and 'headlights' in to start working on the air inlet.  The plan is to go into the fenderwell in front of the tire, and mount the filter behind the airdam with a dedicated inlet.  As you can see, clearance is fairly tight getting past the radiator fill.

With the basic route planned, I cut the aluminum pipe to allow for a bellows connection to allow some flex for engine movement, as the filter end will be mounted to the body.  Also, the IAT sensor will go in the middle aluminum section.

Next up was making a flange for the bend that goes through the sheet metal.

Finally, a couple of rivnuts in the sheet metal for mounting and easy removal down the road, and the basic fitup is done.

Tomorrow, I need to re-teach myself TIG so I can stick it together, and add the piece in the fenderwell the filter will clamp onto.  That will require some practice as I haven't welding any aluminum in quite a while... 

Finished the intake today.  Not my best TIG work, but nothing will be coming apart.... 

Topside

Underside

IAT bung added to mid section and all together (minus clamps)

While cleaning up, I noticed the brake line out of the prop valve leaking, so I went to snug it up and this happened:

I'm pretty careful when tightening brake fittings so I don't like to think I over torqued it, but even so, I've never seen the fitting fail before the threads.  Never noticed it weeping before, and it wasn't removed from the prop valve when I re-did the lines... just removed the flare fitting and re-installed.  This is an adapter made by Flyin' Miata for the NPT to metric flare... I ordered a new one (and a spare), not sure if there's even another source for these.  Glad it didn't fail on-track! 

Final step on the intake was making a support bracket for the end of the filter.  This doesn't really take any weight, just keeps the filter from moving around due to its own flexibility.

I also re-organized the center stack, moving the CAN switch panel to the top for accessibility.  This leaves the lower spot open for the camera control box.  The dial in the center is the E-power steering assist adjustment.

Next, I spent a couple of hours figuring out the connections between the PDM, dash, GPS antenna and camera.  AIMs documentation on this is not great... they seem to show every combination except mine.  I determined I needed another part to put it all together, so I ordered that, and a bunch of 'labels' for the CAN switch panel.  I finished up the day putting the front end back together (mostly).  I had originally planned to replace the airdam and center ducting with updated versions, but in the interest of getting back on track this year, I decided to put that off until the summer break (at least).  It's starting to look like a car again.

Had to go on a scavenger hunt to find the Honda fuel rail spacers today, but luckily it only took a few minutes of searching.

Fuel rail and injectors are mounted, and I got a bunch of fittings in, hoping to get all of the fuel connections made over the next couple of days.

Next up was building a mounting bracket for the PDM and Link ECU.  Bent up a plate out of aluminum sheet, mounted on vibration isolation mounts.  I thought I took more pics of the process, but apparently I was on a roll and neglectful...

I debated the orientation of the devices, but ultimately decided accessibility trumped short wire runs.

Fiddling with several different systems, but waiting on small parts, fittings etc... that are due in over the next couple of days.  I did get the center stack panel painted and set up.  Not 100% set on the CAN panel buttons at this point, but the labels are easy to swap out.

Up front, the fuel lines, and the vacuum lines for the booster and fuel regulator are in.  Also replaced the broken brake fitting.

In the office, I got the PDM and ECU mounted.

Really  quite spectacular work  here. You're  doing the things we all think about  doing to Miatas.

Clean as heck, too.

Thanks!

Started hashing out wiring connections (on paper) today... at least until I started to get a headache.  

And then there were two...

The 2nd VFR is not mine...  Last month my sister and BIL were visiting from Wisconsin, and my BIL was drooling over my VFR.  He's the guy that got me into bikes 40 years ago, and he has a lot of cool bikes (GPzs, Kawi Triples, etc).  He's also looking to downsize from his FJR, so when they went home he started looking for a VFR .  After dealing with a dealer in Oregon that didn't seem interested in selling bikes, and talking to a guy that had a VFR on CL in New Jersey, he was getting frustrated.  There was an Anniversary VFR in Phoenix that had been my back-up plan if I didn't buy the one I bought, so I looked on FB and it was still for sale.  Long story short, he made the deal, and I made the trip to Phoenix yesterday to pick up the bike.  Not sure if he's going to have it shipped, or fly out and ride it home, but it will be waiting here until then.

More VFR interruptions...

Since I picked up my VFR, I've been looking for a set of the OEM Honda saddlebags.  They're few and far between at this point, and not cheap.  But, IMHO, they look a lot better than the aftermarket sets, and tuck in much better.  Both the bags and mounting brackets are out of production.  I managed to get my hands on what I believe to be the last set of mounting brackets in the US through a dealer in Ohio, and also found a set of new bags in the proper color.  There were seven sets of bags left in the US according to Honda's system...

The brackets arrived the other day, and in the category of "nothing can be easy", they didn't fit with my aftermarket exhaust...

Good thing I don't mind a little fabrication...

The problem was the arm that essentially becomes a rear 'spreader' bar to stabilize the bottom rear corner of the bags and prevent 'drooping' forces from bending the brackets.  It was at an angle that intersected the muffler body.  I cut these off, and basically just re-welded them together at a new angle to clear the mufflers.  I also had to modify the center bracket to which they bolt, which was just a matter of extending a slot for a bolt.  Easy-peasy...

Bags are due in tomorrow...

Back to the Miata... just a small project today, the camera mount.

The AiM Smarty Cam GP is basically a 'lipstick' camera, so I needed a mount that would work with the RAM mount I already had.  I ended up using a cheap 1" scope ring, cut off the dovetail mount and drilled/tapped 1/4-20 for a RAM ball.

Final aiming will have to wait until everything is wired up.

Finally got the OEM Honda saddlebags in for the Interceptor...

And since I forgot to weld in the bung for the idle air bypass, I took the intake apart and fired up the TIG today.

I cleaned everything extra carefully this time, and still had some contamination issues.  Went better than the IAT bung I did the other day, though.  Not worried about it leaking or coming apart.  I only do TIG stuff about once a year or less...  it's just not enough to get really good at it.

Good progress today, and getting very close to wrapping up the mechanical side of things.

Oil temps seem to be something to watch with the Honda K motors, so I wanted to install an oil temp gauge.  I expect to do an oil cooler down the road, but in the interests of time, I'm going to skip it for now, and monitor temps.  Since it's an HPDE/TT and not running extended sessions/races, I'm hoping I can get away without it.  If not, I have an idea of how I'm going to do it.  For the moment, I installed a basic sandwich adapter so I could use an aftermarket combo pressure/temp gauge.

Next up was swapping out the fuel pump.  I wasn't sure what fuel pump was in the car, since I've never changed it under my ownership... could have been the original.   I had picked up a DW200 when I was planning to turbo the car, and knew it would be capable of anything the stock K24 will need, so I swapped that in.  Turns out the old pump wasn't the original.

Old

Last for today was re-orienting the nozzles on the fire suppression system for the K24.  I ended up with one pointed at the exhaust header, one pointed at the fuel lines/regulator on the firewall, and one pointed at the intake side/ fuel rail.

And I've finally reached the point where there's few enough things left to do that I put some check-off lists on the windshield...

Had to take a break from the Miata to deal with some property maintenance... so here we go with the first episode of Rodan's Farm! 

Not really, but the weeds are starting to grow, so it was time to try to get ahead of things.  Which meant I needed to get my John Deere running.  We got it with the property, but it wasn't really running right, and I was busy so I just parked it in the shed for the winter.  Now I need it, so it was time to figure out what was going on.

Problem one was a dead battery, so while I was planning to do that, I picked up a fuel filter, air filter, spark plug and a jug of ethanol free fuel.  I eventually discovered the rough running was due to a choke linkage that wasn't disengaging.  Runs like a champ now, so I hooked up the sprayer trailer, filled it with weed killer and hosed down all our gravel areas.  Took about 2 hours and 30 gallons sprayed.

Next, I need to figure out why the mower drive belt doesn't have the proper tension, but that's a project for another day.

Then it was back to the Miata.  Not much to look at today, but I finished up the primary power wiring... battery to starter, alternator charging circuit, etc. through the cutoff switches.  Most of these were already there, I just needed to make a few adjustments since the alternator and starter on the K24 are on the driver's side instead of the passenger side like the Mazda engine.  I also had to make a couple of adjustments with the cutoff switches because of how they were wired to make things work with the Miata fuse block.  Everything is 2 or 4 ga welding cable.  I also ran the primary power wire for the PDM.

Finally finished the intake today with the addition of some heat reflective tape.  I don't know how effective this stuff really is, but figured it can't hurt much.  And it covers all the scratches I made in the tubing while I was working on it...  

Spent the rest of the day working on wiring.  I'm waiting for a few things to get started on the ECU, so for now I'm working on routing some of the AiM cables (GPS, dash, camera), and also routing some of the wires that will be connecting to the PDM.  This connector was to extend the CAN wiring for the switchpad to the PDM.

Deutsch connectors are pretty easy to work with, and I bought the proper crimp tool when I was doing the original VVT swap/MS3 conversion on the car, so everything was quick and easy.

More primary power wiring today...  got all the heavy stuff done, including the EPS which came with a harness long enough to stretch bumper to bumper.   Also made backplates for the gauge hood.  The dash has programmable warnings, but I wanted some thing brighter to get attention immediately so I added red/blue LED lights that I'll set up to flash if a warning activates.  And I guess I forgot to take pictures while I was working, so all you get is a shot with the dash in to check clearances and wiring routing.  The white wire sticking out is the EPS control box power lead which will go to the PDM and isn't tucked in yet.

The RV also got new chassis batteries today.   Old ones were 5 years old, and it seems they weren't getting charged while the rig was static and plugged into shore power.  Looking into that...

Work is progressing on the wiring...  my world at the moment:

Other than the engine controls and sensors, the front wiring for the car came down to just lights (no turn signals), horn, fan and wipers.  I wanted to make this wiring run separate from the main bulkhead connector for the engine, so it gets a DT connector behind the firewall.