I replaced the shocks on my 147k NA miata today with stock NB units. It took me about 8 hours. A third of that time was spent wrestling with rusty nuts and making rookie mistakes
. As Keith said, penetrating oil is your friend. I prepped all the ones that i thought might give me problems--and they gave me none. I was not expecting the nuts in the trunk to be so problematic--especially the one hiding under the filler hoses. Why/how does a car have rusty nuts in the trunk???!!! Could it be the battery? Anyway, ended up having to take out the fuel filler neck so i could get to that last nut that i had rounded in my frustration.
Anyway, the point of this post is not to complain, but to share two things i found interesting.
The lug nut wrench works well if you need something to hold the front upper A-arm(?) nut--the one at the end of the long bolt.
The jack can be used to push down the rear upper a-arm(?) in order to re-install the shock assembly. I found this out after I could not find a rod or bar long enough to give me the proper leverage. After staring at the jack for a while i had this idea to give it a try. It sits rather precariously on the upper arm, but the slot in it fits the "sheet metal" next to the shock mount(?) rather well. I used it for leverage and then installed the shock top first. I used the two 14mm nuts to hold it loosely in place. After lowering the jack the lower a-arm comes back up to meet the lower shock mount. A title bit of wiggling and i got the lower bolt in. It save me a lot of frustration and i thought i should share. This may already be common knowledge, but i just realized that today. If it is not common knowledge, anyone care to give it a try to see if it works well enough and is safe enough to recommend?
Anyway, I think that it is interesting that things meant to change a tire helped me with changing my suspension. Do you think those who engineered the car planned for that?:)
Apart from the fact that the car now looks like its AWD, i like this set up. The feel of the front didn't change much, but the rear is much better. It could be the newness or design, but I do not have to cringe driving over dips anymore. By the way, Keith's book was very helpful. I read that chapter 3-4 times before starting this project. The best tip was penetrating oil and taking off that long bolt. It made it so much easier.
Good night y'all. It is late and i am rambling.
