62 MG Midget MZR

Just decided to knock the driveshaft together before closing up. 13.5 inches long. Maybe  could have made it another 3/4 but this is probably fine. 
 

For the serpentine routing, look at the Ecoboost Mustang. You're almost there. 

I've read that the fore-aft offset of the belts is different between Ford and MX-5 versions of the engine, but the Mazda3, after it went to EPS, used a tensioner where the MX-5 has the P/S pump. That might bolt on and work perfectly for you. 

Thanks solar. I actually went ahead and bought the reverse rotation water pump before I figured out that the 2012+ focus also has a tension in the upper position. Oh well. At least I have options. 

Didn't get much done. I want to run the exhaust thru the tunnel and I think I found a way. Lots of good stuff coming- got the microsquirt and aero motive fuel pressure regulator. Ordered seats to make sure the trans tunnel works with all I'm trying to do. 
 

so I've been walking around in circles trying to figure out what to do next- so many inter-dependencies that it's hard to know what to do next. I'm going to re-cage the gyro and just get the suspension done while I wait for exhaust stuff and seats and then I can do the tunnel. 

Got some good work done yesterday. Not a lot of volume but a good lower arm design and both front uppers mocked up for final welding. 
 

What size tube are you using.  I'm guessing 1" OD something.  If you can use 1"x.120 wall and you give me the dimensions of your upper bent pieces I can bend you 2 pieces and throw them in the mail.    I have a JD2 setup to do 1" right now that I'm starting on the LMP360 subframe.  

Also when this is done we should get our stupid swapped Midgets together for a playdate.  It would be neat to see another radical one in person.

Front upper is 3/4 lower is 1"x.065 4130. Thanks for the offer- I hope this will work with my pie cuts- I was too cheap to get the jd2. 
 

definitely down for a meet up when this thing hits the ground under power. Good excuse for a road trip!

Small progress. Got the lower inner frame tabs tacked on. Looks like the measurements were correct and I'm setting it up for 5 degrees of caster to start and will tune from there once she's on the road. I'm trying to work out what to do for the upper frame mount and have a pretty good idea- I just hope that removing and replacing the engine doesn't become an ordeal. I mean, if the slave cylinder or starter fails, we are talking engine out.  Like a Ferrari. Haha. 

I'm also working on what shocks to use. Honestly I had pretty good luck with motorcycle shocks last build, but I'm debating that point. They certainly would be cheaper, and likely higher quality than most of the lower end coilovers like Gaz/AVO/Protech. The spring rates/motion ratios seem like they would work as well, but the install would be more complex with pushrods and such. 

Last note, I might have berkeleyed up my steering rack measurement and not cut enough out of it. Seems like I'm 1.5" too long somehow, and it might have been because I didn't include the inner tie rod balljoint in the length calculation and just made the shaft the correct length. Sigh.  I may be cutting it back apart to make it right. But I'm waiting a bit for my brain to settle out on the right answer.

Got a little done today. Lower rear a-arms tacked together. Toe link on the forward side. Hopefully I can figure out a bearing arrangement for the upper joint in the spindle. It's *very* close to 1.5" ID if I press the bushing out, which is the OD of the cup for the spherical bearing I'd need to use. 

Soooo. Next is the rear upper a arm. Which should be a huge pain in the ass.

Wow your engine is back so far.  Probably 3-4" further back then mine.  I have engine setback envy.

I like the idea of nocones bending tou tube vs the pie cut on control arms. 

Im a firm believer in the least molestation of the core material in suspension and frame being the best route. Probably paranoia on my behalf,  but still.

And yes, pushrod suspension. If for no other reason than its awesome to look ay, and gets you way better springs and shocks for relative chump change. 

Unfortunately I don't have 3/4 tube or a die.  Otherwise I would.  

The pie cuts will work.  But it's critical to make sure the welds on them are complete and good.  

Thanks fellas- I'm confident in the pie cuts, and wish I'd had the bender- but it's just another thing in the shop taking up very valuable space. I fought with myself over it, and even started a thread here about a tool lending scenario- If I'd known nocones had a bender- I'd have bought you a 3/4 die if you'd have offered to make a few bends for me.  I don't know if that's a good deal for you or not, but let me know if that's the sort of deal you might be interested in the future.

Also- I won't be making pie cuts for any rollcage structure I end up doing... I don't know why I'm very comfortable doing it for suspension pieces, and not so much for the other, but that's how the mind works I guess. I'll be very very thorough in finish welding them, and I'll do some NDI before installing. (non destructive inspection) 

So - after I said I don't have room for a tubing bender, I finally said "berkeley it" and bought one of the cheapie plasma cutters. I didn't do the lotos that seems to get pretty universally good reviews, because the power switch is on the rear of the machine. One branded "Cuwiny" on Amazon- Cut50 with pilot arc. $349. Nice and compact, has it's own regulator, and power on the front. Haven't used it yet, but it was very nicely boxed, and arrived apparently unscathed. I'll run it a bit and then comment on how it works.  Odd thing- it's a 110/220 unit and the plug it comes with is a normal 110v plug. Ok- but the adapter is an N6-50P. I'd like to change that to a N6-20R as it is how my garage is wired already. And 50A is waaaaaaay overkill. So I'm looking for a short pigtail adapter similar to what is provided, but we shall see.

Recommendations for brake flare tools? I'm probably doing AN, so it would have to do 37 degree flares. Even better if you have one for rental. I assume NIcopp is the preferred brake line?

Love my mastercool, and they have a 37 degree die for it. Have both!

But there's gotta be something cheaper for you.

And nicopp is AWESOME. 

+1 for NiCopp, love that stuff. If you are doing 37 degree, I highly recommend the eccentric cone style flare tool like a Ridgid 377. Mine is an eBay knockoff, not the genuine Ridgid, and it's a fantastic tool. I have never made a bad flare with it.

Personally I chose to use this style of adapters to go from M10 to AN. Adds a nice solid mount at the connection. 

Interesting- I'll check those out. I'm using wilwood brakes and master cylinders so I'm not 100% sure those would work but at least something like them should. 
 

In other news, getting more parts. These merge collectors are like jewelry. I hope the rest of my manifold lives up to the quality. 

nocones said:

Wow your engine is back so far.  Probably 3-4" further back then mine.  I have engine setback envy.

Yeah dude- I'm shocked at how far back I was able to get it. I was working forward from the shift lever, but the miata shifter is so damn long, I'm going to have to make a forward relocater anyway, and I have a good idea for it that should look more like industrial art than a E36 M3ty workaround.

obsolete said:

+1 for NiCopp, love that stuff. If you are doing 37 degree, I highly recommend the eccentric cone style flare tool like a Ridgid 377. Mine is an eBay knockoff, not the genuine Ridgid, and it's a fantastic tool. I have never made a bad flare with it.

Just don't skimp on the brand.  I started with the odd named stuff....ah...I have to re-remember it every time....RIGHT!  "S.U.R&R" and fell in love with it (maybe they need to think about their branding?).  Ran short by like 3' so ebayed some generic and it was junk.  Much softer and I wasn't even comfortable using it based on how *too easy* it bent.  

Alex

Good note. I can't imagine that I'd ever know what a name brand for nicoppwould be but at least a reputable source. 

In reply to esuvee :

I've bought from these guys before and was happy with the price and quality: https://www.inlinetube.com/pages/product-list?category=tubing#?f=192051415909683232|

I also got a short piece from the local AutoZone and it was fine. They had a pretty decent selection of pre-flared copper nickel tubing on the rack.

Finally some small progress.  Again does not look like much but jigging this E36 M3 up for a 20 degree angle and fitting it all was a huge pain in the ass. I'm going to try the pushrod on the GSXR 1000 shocks- they have 2.625" travel, and with proper ratio I can get my 6" wheel travel with the rate correct to the 500lb in spring on the shock. We shall see how this works out in practice. As for now, I am actually pretty happy that I've got this "subframe" tacked on and it's pretty darn accurate. So far.   haha.  And with the triangulation it's really stiff, even just tacked. Although now engine removal is going to be brutal.

So, Pictures. 

Tried to go to the ER today, but managed anyway. Somehow my 12" disc sander/grinder sucked my work piece and my fingers into a 1/8" gap. It was fun. Otherwise, I continued to brace my front stuff. Tomorrow hopefully I can get the upper front a - arm mounts done, and put them in. Then it's the rear uppers, again.  Then maybe on the ground. Progress will slow significantly, as I go back to work (boooooooO!) wednesday. So if it's not on it's feet by then, it's going to be a little bit, as I'll be in Denver until late march.

Whew. Hectic month. Just finished my airbus training, and back to flying. It's already very busy out there, so job-wise things are really looking up, and I can feel less bad about all the cool-ass E36 M3 I've bought for this project. Also got notice that I'll re-train on the 777 next month, so, in the comedy of life, I'm having a good laugh. 

That said, this is a car thread, and not much has gotten done over the last month. The one thing I can say I made progress on was more work on the steering rack. Sticking with the MG unit- I narrowed it, twice, because of a mis-measurement, so I'm getting pretty good at that. Next problem was how to go from MG inner tie rods to Miata spindle. Easy method would have been to just use the MG inner and outer tie rods. But, the snag there, for those of you who know miata stuff, is that the spindle steering arm is angled downward toward the middle of the car several degrees, and the MG outer tie rods would have been very close to binding at ride height.  

Sooooo. I did the hard thing, and it was just as big a pain in the ass as I expected. Bought a 16.5mm drill bit and a 17x1.5mm tap. And, well, tapped that shaft. I mentioned it was a pain in the ass right? Good news is that I didn't break the tap off. Had to have my son on one end with a 4' cheater bar to hold it steady while I used two ginormous wrenches to turn that big bastard tap.  Hilarity ensued, and unfortunately no pictures of the process, but the result is an MG steering rack that will take $11 miata iner tie rods, that in turn, take the angled miata outer tie rods. I'll have to shorten the shaft about 2" but that will be comparitively easy. 

Pictures of the result: