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bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
12/19/18 8:50 p.m.

Took apart the crusty manual pedal assembly. Cleaned it up and painted it and swapped over to a roller pedal. Also welded a bolt into the clutch hook. So the clutch cable will ride on the shoulder instead of the hook. 

 

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
1/7/19 11:18 p.m.

Worked on it some the last few days. 

First, not happy with the fuel lines.  I'm going to yank them out and redo. I'm going to use 5/16 so I can actually bend these to shape.  The 3/8s is a bear in the right confines, at least for me.  And considering the wrx guys are pushing 500+hp on stock 5/16 lines I think I'll be ok.  

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
1/7/19 11:24 p.m.

2nd, after ordering some fittings and line I decided to work on mounting the radiator. 

But some how I ended up here. 

After cutting off more rust

 

Then got to mocking up. 

 

 

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
1/7/19 11:29 p.m.

After far to much time

 

 

 

And the sunset 

maschinenbau
maschinenbau Dork
1/8/19 7:24 a.m.

That's a lot of patching! Good luck, or just build an awesome air dam and splitter

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
1/8/19 7:46 p.m.

In reply to maschinenbau :

I like this one,  it's not over done

 

I don't like the widebody but I do like the front air dam. 

DeadSkunk
DeadSkunk PowerDork
1/9/19 8:57 a.m.

Every time I see a Karman Ghia I want to measure the roof structure on it to see if it could be adapted to a Miata. Thoughts of dropping a complete body over a Miata chassis have also crossed my mind.

NOHOME
NOHOME UltimaDork
1/9/19 10:24 a.m.

In reply to DeadSkunk :

There is one being build on this board. Seems to work quite well.

or this guy doing a bettle...kinda the same.

 

My thoughts are that if you skip the engine swap and keep the Miata pretty much driveable, at all times the chassis swap game is not a huge deal. You do want to pay attention to where you are going to end up sitting in the new bodyshell before you start cutting.

 

Pete

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
1/9/19 5:32 p.m.

Miata makes good swaps for lots of things.  Problem is I don't fit comfortably in them.  Had one before and had friends that had some.  Cockpit is to snug for me in miatas. I fit ok in the ghia, good in old bugs and good in my Anglia. 

NOHOME
NOHOME UltimaDork
1/9/19 5:54 p.m.

In reply to bigfranks84 :

You might be surprised how much difference an alternate body makes to how tight it feels in a Miata interior. I go from the Molvo to a stock Miata and cant convince myself they are the same car.

 

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
1/9/19 7:56 p.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

Maybe, but i hate the lack of room to spread my legs and I struggle fitting my feet. I'm  6' 3" 280lbs with size 13 boots, it gets snug. 

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
3/24/21 9:48 p.m.

Weird. Letting the project sit for two years causes issues. 

 

I finally broke down and bought the bosch starter and adapter. Cranks over good now the stock vw starter just wasn't cutting it.  

 

But something has changed and having running issues. 

 

The issue being it won't now.  Lol

 

Not sure what happened but I'm not getting power to the fuel pump anymore.  

I'm thinking maybe the relay went bad.  It clicks but I need to check and see if it's sending power out or not.  

 

 

mdshaw
mdshaw Reader
3/25/21 10:29 a.m.

Pump might just need a little tap it you have V to it. Got our first e30 318is cheap because it had been sitting for 2 years & "pump was bad"  which it wasn't -a couple taps & buzzzzzz.

HundredDollarCar
HundredDollarCar New Reader
3/25/21 12:28 p.m.

Happy to see this project back!

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
3/25/21 1:14 p.m.

Yeah, the pump beating thing is for real and I see my friend get a lot of cars going with a few good whacks to the fuel tank. Couse, it is also a sign that you should soon buy a new pump as the fix is not always long term

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
3/25/21 10:46 p.m.

Pump is a bosch 044. It works fine when it's hot wired. 

It isn't priming or pumping by the ecu though

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
4/5/21 11:48 p.m.

I swapped out fuel pump relay and that didn't change anything.  

 

So I'll have to start chasing the no spark. 

 

I ordered up a used spare ignitor to see if that's the issue.  

 

Don't usually just throw parts at a problem but these were cheap enough and nice to have spares anyways.  

I'll break out the fluke when I have some free time.  

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
4/16/21 7:39 p.m.

Well after chasing my tail in circles. I decided to open the ecm case

Think I found the problem 

bigfranks84
bigfranks84 Reader
4/16/21 10:50 p.m.

Well since I discovered the bad ecm and realized it's not water proof in any shape figured it was a good idea to mount the ecm back in the cargo area. 

 

Rerouted the wires and moved the ecm inside. 

 

 

 

Still have a handful of wires to deal with but I like this routing better anyways. 

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