The end of the beginning

This is the final push to get all the rest of the parts off the MX-5 that I need for the Zero. This includes freeing the rear right hub, taking out the wiring loom, and seeing what other bits I can salvage and maybe list on a popular web based auction site. This whole project is still very exciting although I am getting a bit bored of working on the Mazda.

Right, time to free that rear hub from the axle. When I last worked on the car a few days ago (I am a little late in writing this) I had hit the CV joint protruding through the hub bearing with all the hammers in the workshop, and only succeeded in flattening off the end of the shaft. I clearly wasn’t going to have any more success today so I collared friendly mechanic Mick, who had arrived to take my father’s car or van for an MOT test or something less important than my hub predicament, and informed him that the hub was properly stuck and even he wouldn’t be able to shift it. This did the trick and, with the use of a 1/2 inch socket extension (many thanks to my father for this noble sacrifice) and a lump hammer, hit the shaft three times – that is THREE TIMES and only three times – and the end of the CV joint started moving out of the bearing. I could hardly believe it. I spent almost a whole afternoon on that thing and it didn’t shift a bit. Mick hits it 3 times and it does as it’s told. Unbelievable, he must think I’m useless. Anyway, it’s free now. After a consolatory “I know what you’ve been through” speech, Mick left to get on with what he was expecting to do that day.

Onwards, and with the arrival of more help in the shape of my brother – very experienced in taking cars apart and as a bonus putting them together again – we took out the dashboard and carpets to expose the wiring, and removed the loom in 3 sections from the car. The whole thing has taken up an entire storage box.

The ECU and ABS controller were neatly hidden under a metal plate in the passenger foot well which was the only thing to be held on with sheered bolts. No problem for the crowbar and I now have a full wiring loom with ECU all intact ready to be re-purposed in the Zero. In terms of electrics and particularly the ECU in the new car I think the ABS shouldn’t be a problem as the ECU will just light the fault light on the dashboard if it can’t see the ABS controller, and I don’t plan to have a ABS light on my dashboard, but there might need to be some attention given to the power steering as the ECU will increase the idle speed of the engine when the car is not moving to keep the pressure up in the system that will not be fitted on the Zero.

We also fully removed the rear right hub and freed the drive axle half shafts from the differential casing. Lastly the hood and handbrake attachments came off with little drama.

With everything required, and quite a lot not, all removed from the MX-5 it presented a sorry sight sitting on stands with no wheels or bonnet and the seats and doors dumped inside. That car had been someone’s pride and joy blah blah blah… anyway it’s just scrap now, and it's in the way of everything else so it has to go. I managed to fill the back of my small estate car with the remains of carpets, trim, dashboard, random bits of metal, and take it to the local tip – sorry – recycling centre. I was a little unsure if they would take it as there are procedures for scrapping cars involving filling in the V5 etc. which I can’t do yet as I am not getting rid of the chassis yet, but the guys at the tip didn’t seem to mind. One of them saw the cigarette lighter in the dashboard and asked if he could have it as his had broken. Fine by me, he even took all the stuff out of the car and distributed it in to the various recycling skips for me, good deal.

I’ve now moved all the parts to my tiny garage under my flat in Hampshire and from now until the kit arrives it’s a matter of cleaning and refurbishing the parts and painting them so they will last and of course look good in the kit. The differential housing, half of it being cast iron, is particularly rusty. Flakes of it just coming off whenever it’s touched. I could take it for shot blasting but this would mean stripping it down to remove all the bearings so they don’t get full of the aluminium oxide used in shot blasting essentially meaning a full rebuild of a fully working differential, so I have decided to take the manual approach and try to take the rust off with the aid of a wire brush and elbow grease. That and some wire wheel drill bits and some very nasty rust-remover chemicals. Next I will get to work on cleaning the gearbox – no rust just surface aluminium corrosion – and then the hubs – much rust.

Differential housing after only a light wire-brushing.

Whilst I have the engine and gearbox apart it makes sense to change the clutch. I am told I need a new clutch plate, thrust bearing, spigot bearing, and something else. All these I shall get and replace when I put the engine and gearbox back together.

So I have plenty to do and it’s all shaping up quite nicely as an exciting project. I hope the ebay community need some Mazda bits.