Could just drill a hole somewhere else on the join between the balance and the crank, then pound in a spring pin (roll pin).
Could just drill a hole somewhere else on the join between the balance and the crank, then pound in a spring pin (roll pin).
I did the loctite 660 fix on an NB Miata and that car is still driving around fine a year later. I'm convinced that those loctite guys know what they're doing.
Count me among the people that read along to watch your work.
SkinnyG said:Could just drill a hole somewhere else on the join between the balance and the crank, then pound in a spring pin (roll pin).
I have thought the same. Honestly, I have visions of the drill bit binding up in the seam between the two parts, breaking off, and serving as a permanent pin. There could be worse things...
mazdeuce - Seth said:I did the loctite 660 fix on an NB Miata and that car is still driving around fine a year later. I'm convinced that those loctite guys know what they're doing.
Count me among the people that read along to watch your work.
It's looking like I'll be going that way. Polish the crank, speedi-sleeve it front and rear, a new set of standard bearings, Plastigage, and be done with it.
The last few years my job has been getting under my skin at times. When I get off shift, I need to defuse a bit. Retirement can't come too soon.
So, today I did my very favorite de-stress activity.
I found this little fella hidden away.
I got a few parts to be shown in future post. Nothing exotic or sexy, but necessary just the same.
I also ate junkyard tacos, which is always the highlight of any trip to the yards.
It is mid 70s temp here in North Texas, so that makes the day just that much more enjoyable.
There's a really good barbecue joint next door to my favorite junk yard. Come to think of it I have never eaten there with a clean shirt or Clean Hands. It may make the barbecue that much better that way
So after an appropriate amount of time spent in suspense, I will now show the junkyard haul. Not really. Cousin Eddie went to Friday night dinner with Mrs. Cousin Eddie.
I got a wiper transmission, wiper arms, emblems, a cowl panel rubber seal, and a neat little rubber bootie that fits on top of the ignition coil.
My current wiper transmission had a failed bushing in it. The problem is, the bushing it not serviceable, either Mazda or aftermarket, and requires an entire new transmission assembly. A little video clip...
Fortunately the truck in the yard hadn't suffered the same failure as mine had. The yard truck was a 93 model (last year for this bodystyle) versus my 86 model truck. I noticed the wiper arms were a different style.
93 style on the left, my 86 style on the right.
I don't know much about wipers, but I do know that I like the newer hook style better than the pin style. My little pins were wobbly anyway. So, I gave the wiper arms a spa day consisting of a trip to the blasting cabinet, and then hung from a backyard tree and painted with VHT Shake-n-shoot chassis paint. The junkyard wiper blades seemed serviceable, so I am going to use them for now.
And, the emblems. Yes, I am a poser. This is no better than putting VTEC emblems on a base model Honda. Well, not really. My truck was missing one of the B2000 emblems and 100% of junkyard trucks are B2200, so I grabbed a pair of emblems and gave them a little spa day with the same VHT paint as the wipers, and popped them in place.
To Cousin Eddie, having the wrong emblems is better than having holes where an emblem should be.
I know this is strictly edge of your seat with suspense kind of stuff, wiper blades and emblem painting.
Tune in tomorrow when Cousin Eddie reveals his new aftermarket bumper and orders cowl panel clips from Amazon !
Cuz E knew yu couldn't resist the urge (PU's) but, had no idea that mini's were what started it all.....watching as always.
Hey a 'yard taco' beats a lurking methead ANYDAY!!!!
Another riveting update.
The grille in the little junkyard truck had been weighing on me. It's chrome. They no longer make chrome Mazda grilles, just black. So, after searching for a chrome grille without any success, I felt it worthwhile to hit the yards again and look closer at the grille.
But first. Junkyard tacos.
The problem with the chrome junkyard grille, beyond the significantly worn chrome, is that someone had screwed the driver side headlight assembly to the grille with two self tapping screws.
But, once all of that was removed, there were just two holes left that weren't too extreme and I could live with them. So, ten dollars and it's into the Hondoo for the trip home. I freakin love the 500 dollar beater Civic.
Then clean, mask, and repaint all of the argent areas on the grille. This made a massive improvement in the looks.
Meh....
better...
Also, the truck had apparently thrown a passenger front tire some time in the past and boogered up the inner fenderwell. So I nabbed the one out of the junkyard truck.
Little details, like not having busted ass inner fender flaps mean a lot to me. This little stuff makes my whole day brighter.
Man Eddie, you're killing me. Keep up the great work!
Looking great as always! The chrome grille really looks nice.
Y'all probably think I'm stalling here and just making a lot of noise about nothing. But, my engine block is locked in machine shop jail for another couple/few weeks so I have to switch around to keep progress moving.
Advanced Auto always tries to get my business. I'm a RockAuto man through and through. But, occasionally, Advanced gets a little of my money.
Case in point. The front bumper of the truck was bent, the plastic deteoriated. Those plastic pieces are supposed to be black. Not gray or whatever they are now.
Advanced threw out a free shipping over 25 dollars and also 20 percent off deal. Under my breath I muttered "hold on boys, this is gonna hurt" as I built my shopping cart.
Four very large UPS boxes, shipped free, showed up thereafter.
Total was something like 50 dollars for everything.
Building a multipiece bumper up with all Keystone aftermarket parts can be a bit trying to the non-patient type. Fortunately, I have an abundance of patience.
Then a couple of my RockAuto orders rolled in. I felt this was serendipitous. A Mazda pickup. Then the second box, a vintage Toyota pickup.
Next, I pulled out the intake and got to work. I have not mentioned this yet, but the truck has a Weber carb conversion on it already. That sealed the deal when I bought it. The stock carburetors are likely responsible for the greatest percentage of these trucks hitting the junkyard. The Redline Weber kit fixes all of that.
Alas, I needed to address the adapter plates and gaskets.
I noticed when I tore it apart that the PCV hose was installed shady. The person who put the carb on let the adapter get the best of him.
I had to address the adapter a little to give adequate PCV hose clearance.
Then a lot of thread chasing, gasket making, and file work.
The gasket material was the highlight of my day. I went to OReilly and asked for a FelPro 3157. "What does it fit?". As her hands are poised over the keyboard. Finally I did my old man, look at her over my reading glasses..."young lady go into the back where the FelPro parts are shelved and get me a 3157. Please and thank you".
Edit : can I ask what the issue is with the stock carbs? We used to have one of these, and I loved the truck, but for some reason it started running like crap and I could never figure out WT berk was wrong with it. It end up in the junkyard sadly.
Mr. Lee said:
Edit : can I ask what the issue is with the stock carbs? We used to have one of these, and I loved the truck, but for some reason it started running like crap and I could never figure out WT berk was wrong with it. It end up in the junkyard sadly.
I don't know the details exactly. Complexity and parts availability would be my guess. The easy button is always a 300 dollar Weber conversion. I am a patient man, but not having to learn the nuances of a tedious Mazda factory emissions compliant carb suits me just fine. I registered this truck as an a classic here in Texas so inspections are a thing of the past. My little de-smogged engine makes me happy.
I think the problem with most of the emission compliant carburetors in the 80's was the requirement that the rest of the engine had to appear as if it was being eaten by snakes (aka vacuum lines). There are vacuum ports operated by coolant temperature, some by electric solenoid valves and some by mysterious Tokyo air that once was released could never be replaced much like the smoke in Lucas wires.
I restored / rebuilt a 1986 Toyota 22R a few years ago, complete with rebuilding bundle-of-snakes carb. It had 3 different vacuum actuators externally, plus various solenoids and even an O2 sensor and ECU to adjust mixture. It was intimidating, but including research, teardown, and rebuild it was sorted out in 2 to 3 weeks. I broke everythign down into sub-systems and worked on one function at a time (cold idle, power valves, AC idle-up, main circuit, etc). It got all new vacuum hoses and only needed a bit of adjustment once the engine was running again. Not the simplest job in the world but doable for an amateur mechanic - but I can totally understand not wanting to dig into them!
The B2000 is looking tight.
In furtherance of yesterday's efforts on the intake manifold, I worked today on cleaning up the carburetor and sorting out all of the shady install hardware. I used the old cylinder head for mock up purposes. I have a different head waiting in the wings for the engine build.
To change gears a bit, upon disassembly I noted the precat was broken inside.
And the factory exhaust manifold had four shiny chrome lugnuts screwed onto it where the old air injection tubes used to live.
So, between the broken converter and the ugly manifold, some changes were in order.
I like that much better. And there is a strong possibility of gaining 1 or even up to 2 horsepower from it. I may approach 90 horsepower when all is said and done. It's gonna be hella fast .
I actually applaud the lug nut air caps. Thats some genius hackery right there.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
That made my day, My old mazda truck had the same thing.
Cousin_Eddie, I really enjoy following your threads. Your attention to detail is second to none and the small upgrades you do along the way for the OEM+ style. I'm hoping to give the same effort in the build of my new Mazdaspeed Protege project.
That's funny, y'all getting a kick out of the lugnuts on the exhaust manifold. I thought they were contrived looking, like those purposeful rat rods with spikes and such.
Untchabl, I was just reading your thread this morning over my coffee. I'll be following along and I sure appreciate the compliment.
I was already to old (and busy with muscle cars) during the mini truck craze but bought Mini Truckin' in the supermarket to see all the "modern" stuff.
Been enjoying the thread and nice to see your attention to details. It's the little things like just the right screws for the license plate frame and intake plugs.
Nice work, carry on!
In reply to NOT A TA :
I remember seeing a bit of it in Freestylin’ magazine too. IIRC Mike Dominguez had a pretty sweet mini truck back then.
If my junkyard had tacos i’d actually go there
when i’m president all junkyards shall have tacos. Patrick/Stampie 2020
So, my radiator was janky as hell.
The problem is, my long time radiator guy recently had a heart attack and had to retire, so I no longer have a trusted radiator shop.
So I started looking at options for a new one. I have a nice CSF brand radiator in my Miata and am really pleased with it, so back to CSF I went. Their catalog showed part number 865 as the all-metal heavy duty, two row unit for this truck. The Googles show that they run from about 160-200 dollars depending on where you buy. But, I did find one for sale at Amazon for 63 dollars with a questionable description/ad. But, since it was sold by Amazon themselves, I had confidence that in the end I wouldn't get stung too badly.
The picture is from out in left field somewhere. That's not a radiator !
Then as soon as I bought this one, they went up to 177 dollars, which is going price everywhere.
How I scored this thing for 68 dollars delivered can only be described as luck.
So I cleaned up the fan shroud and rounded up hardware to mount it. The old radiator had two crappy rusty bolts holding the shroud in place. Now, it is done properly with all four fasteners.
At this stage of the project, it's easy to get lost in the minutia and let momentum grind to a halt. But, one little sub-project at a time, in the end will all add up to overall completion. I prefer to think that I'm best known for underhood detail and dogged perseverance at the little details. It's damn sure not my looks or personality that I'll be remembered for.
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