Coil Overs 2

So I had to wait for new strut mounts or "top hats" to arrive before I could finish the front side. The top hats arrived on Wednesday and I finished the front two on Saturday. It was a really hot, salty sweat dripping on  your glasses, day. I think I lasted 5 or 6 hours to get those put together. I took the car for  a ride after measuring the distance from the middle of the hub to the fender opening: 12 inches. FM suggests 12.5. It was a bit scrapy low, and it made the back look a bit odd. The car sat higher back there since I hadn't done those yet. Driving it was a little weird. The front wanted to turn like nobody's business, but the back was hanging on for dear life. I finished the day with the intent to let it go for another week and enjoy a "proper" Sunday.

I failed. I at least wanted to order another set of top hats if I'd need them, and loosening the bolts would require soaking them in some penetrating oil. I'd read enough that venerable WD-40 isn't that well respected, especially for the job of loosening rusted bolts. PB Blaster is the winner of such esteem. I bought some and sprayed it on the bolts. Later Saturday night, Mandy and I went to Home Depot (hey, we know how to have fun) to look at paint colors, and I couldn't resist looking at the new battery powered impact drivers available. It's amazing $150 gets you a 500 ft-lb device that might be small enough to fit in the trunk of the Miata to pull these bolts out. I left them at the store.

Sunday morning, we ran out to the farmer's market and avoided all the wheat-laced goodies and picked up some Palisade peaches. Palisade, home of Flyin' Miata. I couldn't stop thinking about the bolts and whether or not I should order some top hats.  I googled some more about how to loosen such bolts and decided to run to the hardware store for 6-sided sockets and a breaker bar. My standard sockets are 6 sided, but my new set of deep-dish from the previous week are 12 sided. Apparently, the 6-sided sockets grip better. Ace keeps their Craftsman tools locked away and someone didn't show up for long enough for me to wonder if the brand at the car parts store aren't a bit cheaper. I'd bought a single Craftsman 21mm box-end wrench from Ace Hardware (they only had one) and another from the car parts store to pull the upper A-arm "long bolt" last week. I liked what I found at the car parts store because it was a little narrower and fit into some tight places better. Down the street I went. I found a 6 sided deep-dish sockets in both 14 and 17mm. I picked up a 1/2 inch drive, 15 inch breaker bar. Since many of my sockets are 3/8 inch drive I also grabbed an adapter.

The trunk was open. The PB blaster had been sprayed. Hopes were high.

Miracles happened. The breaker bar is almost 3 times longer than the socket wrenches and the torque you can get from that length is amazing. Combine that with the grip you get from a 6 sided socket and the results are just magical! I'd used a hammer last week and it seemed dangerous, hap-hazard and desperate. The breaker bar works so well, I felt a huge relief and sense of accomplishment. This is the tool!

The trunk is a bit tight. Recommendations to move the gasoline filler out of the way are great!

The bulk of the job looks a lot like the fronts. Instructions were more simple, but didn't work as well until I removed the upper control arm bolt here as well.

All went reasonably smoothly from here. I had to remember to stick an allen wrench in the end of the sway-bar end links to get them out, but the memory came soon enough. I put it back together with anti-sieze for the threads and grease for the flat parts of the bolts. It took a little over 4 hours on  Sunday, not counting an earlier trip for the sockets and breaker bar.

Test Drive. The test drive was amazing. This car is serious about turning, but still quite drivable as a daily driver. If I had fillings they would stay in my teeth.  There is no body roll on sharp turns and the car definitely seems 2 inches lower, though I'm not exactly sure how much lower it is.

It was scraping on the driveway into the garage. I raised it about 1/2".

Here's picture of the new strut: