2012.03.17 - Flyin Miata Frame Rails + Butterfly Brace
- Adjusted parking brake at rear calipers
- Cleaned wheels
- Installed Flyin' Miata Frame Rails + Butterfly Brace
The parking brake was in dire need of adjustment, and since it finally wasn't raining on one of my free weekends, I finally got it done. Unfortunately, I've discovered that the self-adjusting gearscrew on the passenger side is partially stripped. I think that when I do my brake job this summer I will replace both rear calipers.
I also took the opportunity to install a set of the Flyin' Miata frame rails and the accompanying butterfly brace. It went fairly smoothly, although it took a bit of time and effort to get everything aligned properly and tightened down. My arms feel like jelly. Thankfully, my dad helped me tighten the inboard bolts--which would have been very difficult for one person to do by themselves unless they have extremely long arms. Once the rails were tightened down, the butterfly brace was a bit overly snug between them, so I had to use a jack to raise it to the proper height while I tightened the bolts. Tightening the bolts was a real challenge as well, and I'm fortunate that I've got a variety of tools. I ended up needing a shallow socket, a small breaker bar, a universal joint, a 6" extension, a swivel-head ratchet, a regular ratchet, and an offset wrench in order to get at all four bolts. The only reason I didn't end up cursing the guys at Flyin' Miata is because they warned me in the installation instructions that I would want to.
** I'm way way overdue for a lot of updates to this thing. I'll try to backfill the updates as best as I can at some point in the future.
- Cleaned wheels
- Installed Flyin' Miata Frame Rails + Butterfly Brace
The parking brake was in dire need of adjustment, and since it finally wasn't raining on one of my free weekends, I finally got it done. Unfortunately, I've discovered that the self-adjusting gearscrew on the passenger side is partially stripped. I think that when I do my brake job this summer I will replace both rear calipers.
I also took the opportunity to install a set of the Flyin' Miata frame rails and the accompanying butterfly brace. It went fairly smoothly, although it took a bit of time and effort to get everything aligned properly and tightened down. My arms feel like jelly. Thankfully, my dad helped me tighten the inboard bolts--which would have been very difficult for one person to do by themselves unless they have extremely long arms. Once the rails were tightened down, the butterfly brace was a bit overly snug between them, so I had to use a jack to raise it to the proper height while I tightened the bolts. Tightening the bolts was a real challenge as well, and I'm fortunate that I've got a variety of tools. I ended up needing a shallow socket, a small breaker bar, a universal joint, a 6" extension, a swivel-head ratchet, a regular ratchet, and an offset wrench in order to get at all four bolts. The only reason I didn't end up cursing the guys at Flyin' Miata is because they warned me in the installation instructions that I would want to.
** I'm way way overdue for a lot of updates to this thing. I'll try to backfill the updates as best as I can at some point in the future.