Miata Clutch Replacement - Day Three

At the end of day two, I called David M. and asked (begged) him to come give me a hand for a few hours. His free time was from 7:30 - 9:30 AM today and I was already under the car when he arrived. Together we managed to remove the 3 remaining exhaust bolts (all him), drop the complete exhaust system, and removing the remaining bell housing bolts.

It was at this point we attempted to drop the transmission on our heads. We missed, but we did get the transmission out of the car.

By this time, two hours had passed and David had to exit. We got a lot done in two hours. I could probably have spent the entire day working on it and not gotten as much done. It really helped having another pair of arms to loosen the bolts when my arms had turned to jello. Also, not having to crawl out from under the car every time another tool was needed saved a whole bucket of time.

At this point I would say my original estimate of 30% was an over estimate. My current estimate is 40%. I will be half way once the pressure plate and clutch are removed.

No new tools required today.

Time today: 2 hours x 2 guys = 4 man hours.

Total Time so far is roughly 10 hours.

I should probably comment on my emotional state also. At the end of day one when there were several bolts I could not see or reach, the whole project seemed like a bad idea. The state of day two was basically neutral - basically I was cutting up 2x10s and spraying WD-40. Nothing frustrating or gratifying about that. This morning when I rolled under the car on the creeper and could actually reach the still unseeable bolts, things started to look up. After two good hours with an extra pair of hands I am beginning to feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't think I could have finished the project without additional clearance under the car. The 2x10's turned out to be a very economical solution.


Miata Clutch Replacement - Day Two

Day involved only about an hour of work, two if you count the time I spent making a trip to Home Depot for supplies.

Home Depot for supplies when replacing a clutch? Yeah. I bought 2 eight foot 2"x10"s. I cut them into sixteen 1' sections and stacked them underneath the jack stands. The extra height made it easier to access the bolts on the bell housing. It also made it possible to get under the car while on a creeper.

Two hours: Trip to HD, sawing the boards into pieces and then lowering and re-raising the Miata. Also spraying the exhaust bolts with WD-40.

Miata Clutch Replacement - Day One

My original estiate of 3 or 4 days to complete this task still feels about right. I read online it could be done in 9 or 10 hours with help. So far I have been working alone so 10 hours seems out of the question.

Today I drained the transmission, dropped the drive shaft and loosened 7 of the 14(?) bell housing bolts. The remaining seven at this point seem like they are unaccessible. I am sure this is not true. Three of the bolts have nuts behind them. I haven't figured out to reach the bolt and the nut at the same time. I think my arms would require multiple elbows.

I think I am about 30% done and I have put about 5.5 hours into it so far.

New tools acquired: 3/8" and 1/2" drive universal joints. 18 mm six-point socket.

I already had two sets of metric sockets. One set is 12-point and the other is an impact set. Neither had a 18 mm socket. Why?

Weekend Update

We had a busy weekend. For starters we had a most special guest. OK, it was just Terry. The kids were thrilled to see her.

Friday we saw the Narnia movie.

Saturday morning I hit a car show in Decatur at the annual balloon festival. Many nice cars, too hot for me though. After the show, I went to my mothers house were we had a birthday party. The part was to celebrate her, Terry's, and Jordan's birthdays. Speaking of which, today is Jordan's birthday. Terry bought him an MP3 player for his birthday. He has been plugged in ever since.

Sunday. Hmm. Can't recall a clue about Sunday.

Monday we saw the Indiana Jones movie. And I ordered a clutch kit for the Miata. Little Beth and David came over for dinner. And Brian is working on rebuilding the carburetor on his 1966 Mustang. Once it is complete, he is going to finally give in and sell it to G.

This morning I put another coat of paint on the trailing arms of the GMC truck. I haven't touched them in months. Once the Miata clutch is complete, I will probably finally get around to rebuilding the GMC's differential.

Time for school.

Hypermiling

I recently read two articles on hypermiling. One of the articles described how some guys were able to get more than 100 MPG out of a stock Prius. Hypermilers use driving techniques to exceed the estimated fuel efficiency of their vehicles. It sounded interested so I thought I would give it a try.

I decided to adopt a single technique for one tank of gas. One the next fill up I checked my mileage and started the experiment. Crunching the numbers 305.0 miles / 10.9 gallons resulted in approximately 28.0 MPG during normal driving. Not bad when you consider I tend to have a lot of fun while driving the Miata. Maybe, maybe too much fun.

The driving technique I applied is called pulse and glide. Essentially you accelerate up to some speed and then shift into neutral and coast for a while. Some folks kill the engine while coasting. I did not. After using this technique for a while, you begin to realize how often being in gear is actually holding the car back. You seem to get a little bit of free speed every time you shift out of gear. You can also use the hills for a little free energy whenever possible.

After two weeks and 324 .4 miles I filled the car up with 9.86 gallons of gas. This time the tank averaged 32.9 MPG, an increase of 4.9 MPG or 17.5%. Not bad.

Pulse and glide is easy on the open road with a manual gear box. I don't think I would try this with an automatic transmission though. Will I drive this way all the time? No. Occasionally? Certainly.

Press Button, Get Bacon

I went camping again this weekend. Also to the Sipsey Wilderness. We started at a different trail head and camped at a different site. I don't know where we were relative to the last trip but I plan to check the map later.

We had a small group this time: myself, Brian B., Chad E., David M., and Billy T.

There were a lot of folks (including two Boy Scout Troops) out camping this week. More than I have seen on any other trip. I am not sure if it was the weather or just a more popular area.

The hike in and out included 15 yards through a cave called fat man's squeeze. The packs had to come off to make it through the cave.

We had a nice flat campsite between two ridges with easy access to water. We setup in the fork where a major and minor creek met. It was fairly obviously from looking at the ground that the area was frequented by wild pigs though we did not see any. We did think we heard one the second night.

The evening meals this trip consisted of Jambalaya the first evening and red beans with rice the second evening. Dish duty was easy with the water access only 50 feet away.

Overall it was a great trip.

The Summer of Rick

A friend of mine who we shall call David has termed this The Summer of Rick.

While some would say this event started on Friday, I believe it more accurate to say that it started on Monday. Friday was mostly a normal day - I went to work. And Saturday and Sunday were as usual a weekend.

We had a busy weekend. Friday evening we attended a social. Saturday AM I was planning on taking the Turnip Truck to the a car show. It was rained out. Saturday evening, another social of sorts. Sunday included testing a propane burner I had built in the driveway. The burner sounded like a jet engine. It was really cool. And folks came from miles around to watch. OK, there were only four of us, except when Guy dropped by the strawberries.

The Summer of Rick actually started on Monday. What is this summer?

Monday morning instead of going to work, I went to school. I am now officially a full time college student again. I will be going to school full time summer and fall and then doing an internship as a student teacher in the spring. This puts me on track to graduate (again) in the May of 2009 and begin teaching in the Fall.

The summer is just one season in the Year of Rick.

I am currently 2 days into a 15 day mini-semester. It involves 3 hours in class every morning followed by me attempting to accomplished somewhere, anywhere, near the amount of studying I need to be doing to keep up with the class. The class meets the same number of hours a regular class meets, it is just all being crammed into a 3 week period.

After the first three weeks are over, the normal summer semester starts. Hopefully summer semester will be less painful. I will let you know later.

I went camping this weekend in the Sipsey wilderness. Our camp site had a 100'+ rock wall one side, and a stream on the other. The scenery was spectacular. Lots of rock formations and flowing water. The temperature was perfect all weekend and we only had a couple of minor rain showers. Everyone managed to stay dry.

I saw one rattlesnake too many. And two ticks.

And tonight I will be very happy to be sleeping in a real bed again.

The End.

Can you believe I didn't think I would be able to write a post about camping this weekend without mentioning how many times our trail guide took us down the wrong path? Even so, it was an excellent trip.

Today we had a funeral for Mr. Lizard.

Mr. Lizard left behind many friends. He was laid to rest under a flowering dogwood tree.

Rest in peace Mr. Lizard.

Stairway to Heaven

My neighbor asked me to make some stairs for his trailer, a goose-neck used to haul motor cycles. The stairs are used to ease access to the section above the hitch.



I spent a couple hours in the shop this evening making these. The assembly measures 30"x30". The treads are 10"x30" and the rise is 7".

Yep, MDF again!

Propane

Disclaimer: We are not trained professionals. Playing with fire is dangerous. If you attempt anything stupid like you have seen here, you do so at your own risk. We advise you to ignore what you have seen here and go back to playing Wii.




And now back to the regularly scheduled program.


This weekend we tested the propane pre-warmer. Success.




The ease of propane has made of question whether we should be using propane as the main heat source rather just a pre-warmer. Hmmm. To be continued.


The water tank has now been chopped in half to make the foundry. We originally intended to slice the tank up with Mr. Mustang's new plasma cutter but ended up using a jig saw with a metal cutting blade. Keep it simple, eh? Here is the tank after chopping the top.

Guess who got a sunburn this weekend?

This weekend was the first car show of the season. Mr. Mustang and I took our vehicles to a nearby car show/fund raiser for a volunteer fire department.

This was the second year for the show. The show consisted of about 80 to 100 cars, up from last years count of 18.

It was a bit chilly out so we did not set up our tent, instead opting to sit in the sun to keep warm. We both ended up sun burned. The worst part is that we had a tent and sun block with us. We just didn't use it.

Below you see a 1924 Studebaker. This was the oldest car at the show.



And this old Lincoln won best of show. As you can see, it was parked next to the Turnip truck.

TGTIF

John Hancock

Here is my sig. It is located on the edge of the hood, passenger side. I looked for Mr. Miata's but was unable to locate it. I thought it was in the center of the hood. That made me wonder if they clean the names off from time to time to make room for more.

BMW Ultimate Drive Event

This morning I drove a few Beamers in the BMW Ultimate Drive Event. First I drove an M3. This car was a rocket! While driving the M3 on the interstate I passed about a dozen Dodge Vipers. Obviously a Viper club on the go. Before exiting the car, I checked under the seat for a "Barn Door Fan Club" bumper sticker. Someone else must have gotten to it first. I took this picture right after getting out of the M3. The next driver was already in place.



Next was a convertible 650i. This car had a heads-up speed-o-meter. If you want a big convertible, this is the car for you. That is me in the car sitting still.



And this is me driving the car driving on the interstate. I am also the photographer.



And then a Z4 Coupe. Just like last year, I was disappointed with this car. The interior is crampted and it needs more power. It is not nearly as fun to drive as a Miata or a Charger. This is me in the Z4.



My final ride was a 760. I selected this car because it had a V12. This car was sweet. The old-guy in me loved this car. The young guy in me opened the sun roof even though the sky was overcast. See how this car makes me look older than the Z4 did.



Just like last year, this event was a lot of fun. I ran into four people I knew who were also there for a drive. I am also happy to report that after driving all those cars, when I drove out of the parking lot, I was pleased that I preferred my Charger to any of the cars I had just driven. When I was driving the 650i convertible I couldn't help but noticing how disconnected I felt from the rode. At times that could be a good thing, but when I am in the Miata, I enjoy feeling the road. I think the thing that bugged me about these BMWs is that the controls in the cars are all so complicated. Also, no two cars I drove seemed to have the same buttons and when they did, they were located in a different position. It took me forever to find the seat adjustment controls in the 760. (They were located to the drivers right on the left vertical side of the center console.) Even the gear shifts were awkwardly different. I suppose if you drove one all the time, you would get use to the controls and probably prefer them, but for a short trip around town, they were simply awkward.

Foundry Fuel Injector (Take I)

Here is my first attempt at a foundry fuel injector. It is designed to burn WVO. It also has a propane hookup for pre-heating, and an air hookup.



This is the hookup for air. It connects to the air compressor. I will be using an air compressor initially because I have one, therefore it was convenient. Most folks use a blower.



This second hookup is for the propane. The propane is to pre-warm the foundry. Once the WVO is burning, the propane may be turned off. The connector is not exactly straight. I had trouble getting the tap started on the pipe. Perhaps I drilled the hole crooked.



This is the oil hookup. I put a valve inline to shut off the oil. Below the cutoff value is a quick connect.



This is the bottom of a five gallon bucket. The bucket will be used as an oil tank. Initially the oil will be gravity feed. Eventually I will probably pressurize the oil tank. Here the bucket is hanging up. I was checking for leaks. None so far.



I read that the oil tube inner diameter needs to be greater than 1/4". I used 3/8" tubing. I used air fittings with an ID of 3/8" also. Perhaps tomorrow I will test out this contraption.

Differential Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the differential after sand blasting. The diff has now been painted, but as usual I haven't taken the pictures yet.

What's the Diff

This weekend I finally got around to the differential housing.

Step one: Remove anything that doesn't look like a differential housing.

Step two: Sandblast the giant hunk of metal resembling a differential housing.

Step three: Paint giant hunk of metal that resembles a differential housing.

Weekend Update

F1: The first F1 race of the season was this weekend. Hamilton finished first, no surprise there. Of the 22 cars, only 6 finished. Kimi was 9th, Masa DNF. Still pulling for Ferrari. G is dedicated to McLaren. Rubens(Honda) will probably be black-flagged for leaving the pits under a red light putting Kimi back into the points.

Diet: Lost another lb and a half this week. Having achieved my initial goal, I have not yet determined where I am heading now.

GMC: Disassembled the rear diff preparing for some sandblasting.

Melting: No progress.

Other: Attended auction.

'72 GMC Update

Today I finally disassembled the differential I brought home from the junk yard on the 4th of July. The plan is to begin blasting it next weekend. I didn't take a pre-disassembly shot but here are a few post shots including another diff chunk in a bucket. The gear ratio on this one is 3.73. The other was a 3.07 if my memory serves me correctly. Both are in good shape. I will probably use the 3.07 as it will provide better gas mileage.

Kruse Auction In Huntsville

I attended a classic car auction this weekend. I had never been to one before and it was quite enjoyable. The I only lasted about 5 hours. I suspect the entire event was 10 or more hours. During my time there, the lowest price was $2100 and the highest price was $110,000. Quite a few muscles cars sold in the 60 to 70 k price range.

This '57 convertible went for $110k.




At one point one of the bidders assistants was messing with me. I had accidentally made eye contact with him and he offered to place a $57,000 bid on a '62 convertible Corvette for me. *** Shakes head side to side and looks at this feet. *** The car eventually sold for $67k. I did not buy it.

If possible, I will try to attend this again next year.