Parts Galore

In preparation for the Mazda meet tomorrow, and work on the car Sunday as well, I ordered a few parts that need to be replaced.

I'm not sure what I'm going to get done tomorrow, but at the least it'll be a good time, and hopefully, somewhat, productive. I've found I'm more productive at these meets then anywhere else though, mostly from the ribbing of the other club members.

Here's a pic of the parts I got this week:


1- wink mirror
2- front motor mount
3- rear motor mount
4- complete A/C oring kit

At the least I will get the mirror in...anything else will depend on how motivated I am and what space I have to work in.

To do before the meet:
- get gas
- clean out garbage from car
- empty trunk of crap
- fit bike in car (washing that too!)
- charge cameras: P & S Canon
- wake up RFE (really fucking early)

Pics and videos from the meet sometime tomorrow!

Curves, racing and mirrors, oh my!

My mirror fell off my car yesterday.  Again.

I have thus ordered a 'wink' mirror, which I'll get this week hopefully.  It's a 4 panel one...allows me to have almost no blindspots in my car.  Here's an example:

Friday afternoon drove down to my parent's house in CT, and on the way took one of my favorite roads in that area...here's a video showing the curves coming down the mountain.



Saturday was spent cleaning the car...didn't get a chance to take any good pics...went to the Pike for the first time in months, and saw some people I hadn't seen in a long time. Again...no pics...I was tired.

Sunday was the first Auto-X of the year for CartCT. I managed to drag my dad down, since I've been going for 4 years and he's never been. Real people racing real cars in a town 20 min away...how could you not?

Anyway...didn't race, of course, but that will change this year. Here are the pics:
http://redd-design.com/albums/2009/4-19-09_autox1/







Jamal is going to talk to his boss about maybe bartering working on my car for design/photography work...so we'll see how that goes, maybe I'll get my car fixed sooner than I thought.

Pics and such when I get my mirror in!

Disty...again!

I've had a replacement distributor sitting in my apt for several months, was always too cold or too busy to replace it, finally got around to it today.  The old one would act up on longer journeys, and one bolt was stripped from the cap...so new (reman) disty, cap and rotor were installed earlier.

After driving around I feel the car is much smoother, power-wise.  I know there must have been power loss from the cap not being completely connected, and the fact that the disty was on its way out.

I made sure, for the first time, that the disty was lined up according to the old one, since Bahr had timed the ignition when Macy went in for emissions.  I'm hoping they timed it correctly and didn't leave it advanced at all.  I've never done timing myself so I really don't want to mess with it.

Soon it's going to be getting warm out again, which means I'm actually going to be able to get work done on the car, instead of procrastinating about it.  Thankfully, most the parts that need to be replaced are under warrentee.

On another note...I'm an avid cyclist, and as such am looking for a new jersey...preferably from a team.  I can find those no problem, but finding a womens size is another story.  Thought of the day...a womens professional cycling team sponsored by Mazda.  Now that would be nice.

Oh yeah and...

I completely forgot to mention that last week I took off all the stickers on Macy. I left the NEPOC, NETC and the front NER stickers on, but the rest are gone. Reasoning is I want to start doing some bodywork, and it was time to see the real Macy again. Here are some cell phone pics:

Long lost...belt?

So I brought a friend to Boston last Monday...then went out for food and beer and such.  Was raining out pretty bad on the way back...heard a weird noise...thought nothing of it.

Later on I noticed the charge light and rear taillamp light were on...figured the rain was doing screwy things, or maybe the alternator was dying...thought nothing of it.

Then it started getting weird.

The radio started cutting in and out...the guages started dropping...the radio shut off completely...the wipers started slowing down...

dubya tee eff?

Long story short...very nervous drive home, nursing the car really...brought my friend home, then barely made it home myself.  Parked her in the driveway and popped the hood...

Yup...alternator belt was missing.

It had been squealing for awhile but I was always too damned lazy to tighten it, so first reaction was...oh...a/c compressor seized...broke the belt.

Bought a new belt earlier today...just the alt since the p/s was still on there, and figured out how to put it on.  It wasn't that bad really...just had to make sure it was on tight, and all lined up.  Shining the flashlight down...making sure the belt was on completely...I noticed something laying on the splash guard below.  Go underneath...pull it out...and...

It broke across...as if a rock hit hit it.  Regardless, I had put on a shorter belt so it would bypass the a/c compressor, since that doesn't do anything right now anyway, so that'll free up a tid bit of power.  Went to start her up and the battery is dead (no surprise) so I'll just wait for someone to give me a jumpstart and all should be well.

I'm getting my tax refunds back next week, and I'm going to use half to fix up my car, mainly the motor mounts and exhaust as first priority.  I priced out the parts, but not sure how much the labor will be.  I'm not comfortable at all with doing it myself, I'll leave it to the pros.