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Discussion starter · #141 ·
Forgot to mention last November/December when the wheels were changed from 14" to 15" the car went through lots of strange alignment issues some were based on uneven tyre wear but we couldn't figure out why until I visited WIM on Amersham and they weren't able to align one side on the front because it had too much caster. Turns out I had one mk2 wishbone fitted and one mk1 wishbone. I decided to replace both and as you can only now get mk2 wishbones I bought two of those. When put side to side it looks like the old mk1 wishbone had been bent as it was about 10mm shorter! Strangely they both still fitted so the difference must have been taken up by the bushes.

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Discussion starter · #143 ·
It will be interesting to see if you can get the new wishbone seated inside the subframe. Have seen another picture with a similar difference between new (rockauto) and original arms.
The new ones fitted perfectly, the old one looks like it got bent somehow and the 10mm or so difference got soaked up by the bushes luckily not the subframe mounts!.
 
Good find, I'm intrigued how you had one of each fitted, as the anti roll bar links are different, with different mounting points MK1 and MK2..
iIrc, mk2 wishbones are the oem replacement for mk1 cars (Mazda only stock the mk2 items?)

Rich.
 
Yes Mazda only sell mk2 wishbones now, you have to switch to mk2 arb droplinks which are at a slightly odd angle now but they do still work. The PO had ignored this and just refitted the mk1 droplink to a mk2 wishbone fixing it on just one end :rolleyes:
 
Refurbished the 1.8 brake caliper carriers from the old 1.8 RS at lunchtime today, wirebrush + tiny rotary brush on dremel. treated with Kurerust then painted to keep them protected. New seals & slider pins to go on when fitted.

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Rust cleaned off & converted

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Painted

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Managed to fit the front brake upgrade on Sunday, the size difference is more than I thought particularly in the pad size. They fitted well but the carriers needed even more cleaning/filing away any remnants of surface rust/paint in order for the fitting clips to seat well and the pads move properly without being jammed. Fitted new rubbers, slider pins & clips as well as Brembo disks with OEM Mazda pads.

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All fitted together, I'm told that you swap the 1.8 carriers left to right but I wouldn't be able to tell as I just fitted them the same way that the 1.6 carriers came off :) plenty of clearance for the 15" wheels

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Changed the fuel filter as it's not been done during my ownership, the old filter was pretty dirty externally but was definitely doing it's job as the fuel coming out was clear, but when I emptied it off the car through the inlet tube this was what came out!

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This isn't a very hard job but it does list as one of the least enjoyable as you're crawling under the car with petrol p1ssing everywhere despite me pulling the yellow plug to the fuel injection relay whilst the car was running so that all pressure was released and the engine stalled.

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Thanks, the Panasports were lovely but they looked lost in the arches and moved around a lot on the sidewalls when pushed, The TD's actually look a lot better in the flesh, plus I have a long term project set of these 15 x 6.5 Watanabe RS-Eights squirrelled away to sort out eventually...

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Rear callipers going on now, plus a few surface rust spots under the chassis to treat & re-underseal as well as repainting the chassis braces. Size difference between the old and new disks is even more on the rear brakes.

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Discussion starter · #157 ·
Treated the interior to a bit of bling today from Jass, a Roadster gearlever surround plus some window switches. Looks great but the switches seem really stiff, anyone else found that?

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Started fitting driving/fog lamps to the car this weekend, I looked at the JDM ones but they seem to be very large, taking up some of the airflow in the grill, plus there's a lot better lighting technology out there these days. I bought a set of Ring BRL0382 driving lamps which are only 70mm across so after I removed the baby teeth they fit nicely in the corners of the bumper mouth which was what I was looking for.

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Brackets were made up to brace the bottom of the light by replacing one of the plastic bumper fixings with a nut & bolt, the top fixes directly to the metal bumper mount making it nice and sturdy

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Now onto the electrics, I bought a rear fog light switch from eBay and what turned up was a front fog light switch! result :) I already have an OEM rear fog switch for the back they have the lines pointing horizontal where the front switch lines point down. I removed the other switch blanks and to my surprise in one of the blanks was a wiring plug, so after a bit of searching it looks like my JDM Eunos came with the switch wiring in place which just needs the switch plugging into. This then powers a connector in the engine bay which you run a relay & signal wire from.

Switch blank with wiring behind

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New front fog switch plugs straight in

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Loom connector in engine bay located on drivers side with signal & relay power

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Next step is to make a loom to a relay then wires down to the fog lights when I get some time.
 
Finished the 1.8 brake conversion last week, I've now added a Willwood adjustable brake proportioning valve which allows me to send more pressure to the new back brakes (which were proportionately much bigger on 1.8 than the 1.6) Overall very pleased with the new setup, they are definitely an improvement over the 1.6. It wasn't that the 1.6 were bad but the new brakes seem to need much less pressure to get the same braking power and when you really stand on them the car pulls up a lot quicker! Still playing around with the proportioning valve to get the fronts to lock up just before the backs. I think I've got it right at about 5-6 clicks but I need a brave passenger to come out with me to see which wheel locks up first :D

Fitting was a bit of a b@stard because the pipes were the originals not disturbed for 29 years so needed a lot of tightening to stop them weeping on one connector.

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