Miata Service

New Top

We had to wait around the shop for an hour and a half past the promised time while they finished up the top install this afternoon. It is a Robbins Streamline Top and it looks a lot cleaner than the OEM unit because it lacks the top seams and the extra panel around the back window. The top is a different shade of tan, a bit darker and browner, but unnoticeable to probably everyone but me. That sucker is as tight as a drum and it took two guys at the shop to get it closed, so we’ll probably leave it up for a couple days to stretch out. Because the old top had stretched loose over the years it had become easy to ignore the fact that the passenger side top latch is broke, but now it is going to need fixing. The latch itself works, but the locking tab that keeps it shut has worn making it possible to come undone if I hit a big bump or something. Guess it is time to buy a new one…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 0

Born To Run

Episode #22 is Kate-centric as she tries to get off the island on Micheal’s raft we find out more of her off island back story and just who belonged to that little plane and what happened to him.

Tonight the Emperor got a transfusion and a new kidney. While he was on the table I swapped his gloves with his socks. Friday he gets a new crown.

In one way I’m glad I live in a very red state, no robo calls bad mouthing the other guy clogging up my answering machine.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 388

Squeak Removal

I made an attempt to eliminate a couple of unwanted sounds that the Emperor has been making tonight.

First up was a high pitched ringing or whine that it seems that only I and possibly certain breeds of dogs can hear. I’m hoping that this is what it was in the past, a singing clutch actuation fork. A bit of grease needs to be applied on the fork where the slave cylinder rod touches it. It seems like there was still some grease on there, but I applied some more and worked it around a bit.

Second was the annoying belt squeal, mostly brief when the AC kicks in and occasionally long, loud and embarrassing on damp morning start ups. I’ve been treating this issue with belt dressing with limited success and decided it was time to attempt to tighten the offending belt. I have been avoiding this because I didn’t think that I could manage it without making it worse. Turns out in the intervening 25 years since I last tried tightening an automotive belt they have made it easy. Once you’ve loosened the mounting bolt, there is now a fancy screw that you can tighten with a wrench which increases the tension. Heck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have had to listen to that squeal for the past year.

When I finished the maintenance I pulled out Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and gave the car a sponge bath.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 326

Bike Cam

My first attempt with Version 1.0 my new Photojojo BikeCam. They advertise it as all it takes is $10 + 10 minutes to make a camera mount for your bike. The cost was free because I actually had all the bits and pieces laying around, but it took about 15 minutes to find all the bits in my *20-year draw.

Half way through the ride I found a bug that I will have to fix for Version 1.1, the camera started to rotate because the vibration of the ride had loosened the nut on the clamp. The fix should be a simple matter of swapping out of the plain washer for a locking kind.

I want to take a sort of strobe movie of our commute to work, you know take a picture every couple of minutes and make a little animation out of it. May have to do it on the way home though because the ride in is on the ragged edge of dawn.

Changed the oil and rotated the tires on the Emperor tonight about 800 miles past my usual maintenance point (oh well, better late than never) in preparation for a possible trip to Charleston. We were going to leave in the morning right after the MMC July breakfast, but we are now going to wait to make a decision until after the Tour de France coverage around lunchtime. It is going to depend on what happens with a storm that is just off the coast.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 256

Oil Change

The floor is back in the second bathroom. The tub is in and the backer board is up around two sides, but the third side will have to wait until some plumbing work gets done. The new tub is about 4 inches taller than the old, so the old knobs just barely clear the new tub.

Came home from work and changed the Emperor’s oil. Rotated his tires too. 75,576. Yesterday when I decided to change the oil, I looked under the shelf in the garage where I keep a stash of OEM Mazda oil filters and didn’t see any, so when I bought the oil I picked up a PureOne filter (somebody was supposed to remind me not to.) After changing the oil, as I was putting away my drain pan and funnel, I noticed that stacked just to the left were three Mazda filters. Normally I keep the stock of filters inside the oil drain pan, when I checked yesterday, I didn’t see any in the pan, so I figured I needed one. Wrong.

Someone remind me next time that the filters aren’t in the drain pan (somebody other that the person who was supposed to remind me not to buy a PureOne oil filter…)

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 124

Emperor’s Christmas Present

Agusta Commons Christmas DecorationsI headed over to the closest LTS this morning to get the tire plugged. I walked up to the unmanned desk and spun the tire to get the nail facing up. When I did this I noticed a tear in the sidewall of the tire right to the inside of where the nail was. Yikes. The nail was a long framing nail and after puncturing the tread area (the initial clicking that went away) it must have gotten bent and worked its way over and punctured the sidewall (the squirming and rapid deflation.)

When the desk guy came out and asked if he could help, I told him, “Maybe not any more.” I showed him the sidewall and told him I realized that eliminated the easy fix. I asked if he might have a used tire in my size to tide me over ’til after the holidays. He searched and couldn’t come up with anything, so I asked what he had in stock in 195/15 x 15. He had a Michelin Raptor for $75. I thanked him and said I’d let him know.

When I got home I checked the Michelin website and could find no mention of a tire called Raptor. Searching the web led me to a Riken Raptor made by Michelin, but it doesn’t come in 15″ sizes, so what was that guy thinking? Next up I started calling the other 5 tire stores in town and discovered that 195/50 x 15 is not a popular size in these parts. I guess if it doesn’t fit a pickup truck or an SUV… Two of the local tire stores had something in that size, first place had some Kuhmo AST tires for $65 a piece and the second had some BF Goodrich g-Force Sports for $82. A little research let me toss out the Kuhmos as the AST is an all-season tire. The BF Goodrich’s were listed as an Ultra High Performance Summer, much better.

Headed off to Miata.net for more in depth research. A few tires got the best reviews, my current, but holy, Toyo T1R, The General Exclaim UHP and the Bridgestone Potenza RE750. I widened my search area and started calling Augusta tire stores. Nobody had any of those top three or anything else in my size. I checked in at TireRack.com for some reviews of the g-Force and was pleasantly surprised, it ranked 7th of all the Ultra High Performance Summer tires they sell

Merry Christmas your Highness – four new BFGoodrich g-Force Sports.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 497

Sixty Eight Two Seventy Eight

At 23:30 hours last night, 68,278 miles from Earth, we lost contact with the Luminix probe after it’s last pass of the moon Bownce. All attempts to re-establish communications have failed. It is a great loss for the scientific community and we won’t be seeing any more of those cool photos.

Tonight in my driveway, just beating the darkness, I transfused the Emperor’s oil and did a kidney transplant. I also swapped his gloves with his shoes. Coincidentally the car’s odometer read 68,278.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 458