I got lots of little jobs done yesterday. Start with the biggest one, the gearbox oil.
I've wanted to do the gearbox oil for some time now, I'm aware that I've replaced all the other fluids except for Gearbox. So I bought a couple of litres of the recommended GL-4 oil and had a look at what is required. While the job itself is quite awkward on the MX5, it turns out the drain and filler plugs are both accessible from the engine bay in my car. The filler plug was first, that needed some persuasion but came off in the end. The plug itself didn't show any signs of issues apart from 20+ years of gunk. I'm 99% sure it's never been changed.
The drain plug was similarly easy to come off, and that's where I found an issue. It turns out there was very little oil in the gearbox, nowhere near the 2 litres that should have been in there. Once it was refilled and the plugs went on, then the job was finished but I wonder how much damage has been done by the gearbox being empty. I suspect sometime in the near future I'm going to need a new gearbox, at least for now it should be happier. Second gear is still the noisy one so I won't push it.
That was the main job I wanted to do this weekend, and it turned out to be a lot quicker than I thought.
I actually started the day with the rear jacking point, partly because I thought I would need it to do the gearbox oil. The jacking point was pretty straightforward, although my welder was not happy for some reason. Lots of sticking wire and burn backs on the tips. Part of it was welding upside down, but I think I'm overdue a new tip and shroud anyway. I'll do that before I need to weld again.
So I now have a rear bar in the right position for the jack, which should make lifting the entire rear a lot easier. No pics unfortunately, I seem to be forgetting photos of work in progress.
The next job was the wiring loom clamp on the engine. The one above the exhaust had melted and distorted so it needed to be replaced and reinforced. The design is as before, but now I have a layer of 1mm steel round it to keep the shape. Once it was all bolted together I could see it was going to be a bit stronger, and at least the wiring and the coolant pipe that is being held by it won't drop on to the exhaust. I'll still monitor it to see if it's sufficient, I may have to upgrade to ABS if this isn't good enough. I don't like printing in ABS mainly because my printer can barely cope with the temperatures, and it warps really easily.
The last jobs were the bodywork. Just under the passenger dash I had a scratched panel where I managed to drop it during fitting. It shouldn't have bothered me but I found I was looking at it every time I drove. It actually took a lot more work than I thought as the scratches were quite deep. Still, half an hour of sanding and polishing got it back to 'nearly' sorted. I left the panel at 1200 grit as I don't want the panel shiny. 1200 grit is roughly where it started, a slightly matt finish with no swirl marks.
The other mark on the bodywork was again on the passenger side, a dent where filler didn't work properly, and then the paint also chipped. It's another thing that I didn't really need to fix, but I've done it anyway. Or at least I'm halfway done. I filled the hole yesterday, I'm about to go at it with some sandpaper to get it flush, then touch it up with some paint. It is just pretty labour intensive work, a couple of hours at least I reckon. But it'll be worth it. Again it's because it's so close to the passenger seat that it's very visible.
I'm also tempted to have a look at the odometer reset button, just see how much work it would be to restore it. It would be mainly replacing the 3D printed part, as well as cutting a small notch out of the panel. I just need to make sure I can get it in the right place.
Oh yeah, and the rev counter is bouncing again. I am hoping it's simply a bad connection, but I suspect it might need a new one.
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