Miata timing belt ?

Starting a water pump, timing belt job on my 95 tomorrow. I'm all tooled up and ready to go. Any last minute advice?

Thanks Brian

Take the fans out and drop the front swaybar. Good luck!

Don't use Bosch water pumps. I went through 4 of them, couldn't get a single one to seal. Finally ponied up for the OEM pump, worked first try.

Just pull the rad. Degrease, dry fully, loctite, and torque wrench for the crank nose. Seriously. Dont shortcut there.

Having an adjustable wrench that is big enough to go on the cam flats helps when reassembling in order to get the belt on correctly. after belt is on, turn motor over a few times by hand and double check that the marks still line up. (been there, done that... off a tooth runs, just very poorly)

Also, if your rad endtanks are brown, now is a good time to replace it as it will fail soon.

Apexcarver wrote: Having an adjustable wrench that is big enough to go on the cam flats helps when reassembling in order to get the belt on correctly. after belt is on, turn motor over a few times by hand and double check that the marks still line up. (been there, done that... off a tooth runs, just very poorly)

The cams will never line up perfectly until they're tensioned.

The belt is installed at TDC. The correct tensioning procedure is to then turn the crank 1 5/6 turns, release the tensioner pulley and let the spring take up the slack. Tighten the bolt down to lock the pulley in place. Turn the crank the remaining 1/6 turn to TDC and everything should be in perfect alignment. Not "close", not "I think that's it", but perfect. If it's going to be off, it'll be off by an entire tooth so it's easy to tell. No counting teeth on the belt, no marked-up-half-cut belts or any of that foolishness. The Internets make it sound as if it's hard to align the belt, but just follow the above procedure and it's cake.

Mazda Miata Performance Projects has a pretty good writeup, if I do say so myself

Cut the old belt in half lengthways (razor). Slide new belt halfway on. Cut old belt completely off. Car stays in time, no tools needed. Done.

I followed Keith's procedure and found it to be a pretty easy job.

Dietcoke wrote: Cut the old belt in half lengthways (razor). Slide new belt halfway on. Cut old belt completely off. Car stays in time, no tools needed. Done.

Wow. Never thought of doing that.

Dietcoke wrote: Cut the old belt in half lengthways (razor). Slide new belt halfway on. Cut old belt completely off. Car stays in time, no tools needed. Done.

The problem with that method is you can't replace the water pump since it is behind the timing belt.

asoduk wrote: I followed Keith's procedure and found it to be a pretty easy job.

Just came here to post this. Buy his book, it's well worth it. Hell, I sold my Miata and kept his book - it's that good.

The FM Cam Gear Ninja tool is awesome.

tomtomgt356 wrote:

Dietcoke wrote: Cut the old belt in half lengthways (razor). Slide new belt halfway on. Cut old belt completely off. Car stays in time, no tools needed. Done.

The problem with that method is you can't replace the water pump since it is behind the timing belt.

Or the front crank seal, which will definitely start leaking before the next timing belt change. Or the cam seals, which are less likely to leak. Or the tensioner or idler pulley. Really, the belt is nothing to be scared of.

The Ninja Tool is one of our top sellers. It's a goofy little thing, but people love it.

I got the ninja tool, it looks pretty simple, just take off a lot of small stuff then put it all back on. It's suppose to be 40 degrees that's gonna suck.

My 91 was my first timing belt and water pump job, and I got it done in an afternoon. Plenty of tutorials out there to help if you get stuck. I still won't mess with a similar job on a Honda.