After last weekend’s serious case of project creep, I knew I needed to regroup and focus on the most important task at the moment: Get the car started.
As a newcomer to rebuilding cars, I need a lot of guidance; while the forums are full of great people with tons of experience and suggestions, nothing beats having a single voice to guide you, especially if that voice is there in person. My buddy “Devilman” (name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent) came down from the lovely mountains of eastern California to help me out. We started simple and checked all the fuses, relays and wiring with a voltmeter using the Haynes Manual as our guide. Once we ruled out any electrical issues, we decided the fuel pump needed replacing.
Of course, I had failed with that task last week. I pointed to the stripped screws of the fuel pump plate that I partially drilled out and tried to extract. Devilman has special powers, though, and within a matter of minutes had the screw heads sheared off and the fuel pump removed. We decided that since a new fuel pump was going in, we should drain the bad gas and replace the fuel filter so that we’re starting with a clean slate.
Here is where my true blonde nature shows through my raven locks. Let’s just say that when you are draining more than five gallons of gas into two five gallon buckets, you should swap the buckets BEFORE you start hearing the gas splash to the ground. I have showered twice and I STILL carry the vague waft of bad gasoline.
My personal hygiene aside, I am pleased to report that one new fuel pump and a few gallons of fresh gas later, the Miata started right up!
I took it for a quick test drive, just a few hundred feet. The car was sluggish to respond; the engine is definitely putting out power, but it feels like I’m driving with the brakes on. Next week, we’ll change all the fluids, especially in the tranny and diff, and try it again. If it’s still slow to respond, we’ll at least start our diagnosticating* from a good baseline.
