MX5 Donor - How much can I use?

[CTWV50]

I used an old winch attached to a 2x6" beam in the garage and tied and gaffer taped a steal rope to the two lifting points on the engine. I just slide the rope one way or the other to adjust the position. A load leveller would of helped but I was being tight at the time.

I weighed the engine and gearbox on bathroom scales before putting it in. The Mazda 1.6 engine and gearbox with shortened loom, ecu, manifolds and oil but not gear oil weighed 177.7kg.

[JasonL]

Thanks. Where's a good place to get the chain? I've found that it's not much cheaper than a leveller, but I'm sure I'm not looking in the right places!

[Stot]

I happened to have chain for lifting my lathe.

Its probably only 6-8mm thick steel on the links and I can only just get an M12 bolt in between the links. A cheap motorbike locking chain would do or they sell lose chain in B&Q or something like this from Screwfix is only £14 and 2m is plenty.

Cheers
Stot

[JasonL]

Thanks for the input everyone.

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by PorkChop

Welcome

Make sure you undo the hub nuts if you're going to refurb the driveshafts/uprights while they're still fitted on the car; it's a lot easier! The front nuts are an unusual size (29mm), the rear nuts can be 29 or 32mm depending on the car.

The whole rear section can be a PITA; the driveshafts can get properly stuck in the uprights and the lower wishbone to upright bolt is exposed, so removal a lot of the time can be problematic.

You'll most likely have an issue with the steering rack fouling the front lower wishbones at full lock and droop; there's lots of examples over in the States where the Miata has been a popular donor car for a lot longer than over here. There are several ways to fix it, which are covered on the forum.

You'll need a custom tank anyway, you can use the MX-5 sender and pump, you might need to modify it. Someone might even have a MX-5 tank for sale

Where in the world are you?

PorkChop,

How did you get the bolt out in the end? My donor has only done 65k, so thought it would be easy, but it's a real bitch. It's basically swimming in WD40, trying to turn it to loosen the damn thing (limited success) and I've even tried a sledge, but that's just damaging the end of the bolt.
Any suggestions welcome.

J

[Stot]

Originally Posted by JasonL

PorkChop,

How did you get the bolt out in the end? My donor has only done 65k, so thought it would be easy, but it's a real bitch. It's basically swimming in WD40, trying to turn it to loosen the damn thing (limited success) and I've even tried a sledge, but that's just damaging the end of the bolt.
Any suggestions welcome.

J

I cut mine off carefully with an angle grinder then pushed the bolt out on a 12 ton press to break the friction then hammered it out with a drift.






Cheers
Stot

[CTWV50]

Originally Posted by JasonL

PorkChop,

How did you get the bolt out in the end? My donor has only done 65k, so thought it would be easy, but it's a real bitch. It's basically swimming in WD40, trying to turn it to loosen the damn thing (limited success) and I've even tried a sledge, but that's just damaging the end of the bolt.
Any suggestions welcome.

J

I bought a good one off eBay! And cut the rest of the hub off driveshaft carefully.

[JasonL]

Thanks Guys.

I was about to start cutting, but decided to try shock and unlock from Halfords and work it loose with a tyre iron (ironically the right size). Used a piece of the exhaust pipe for leverage and it did the trick, probably because the donor hadn't done that many miles.

Thanks again.

J

[JasonL]

Took the VIN plate under the bonnet out and scraped the sticker off the driver's side door well.

Are there any other hidden ones?

[Stot]

I cut the actual vin number out of the chassis too.

Cheers
Stot