The last leg!
Well, what a ball-ache of job that was! But, the clutch is finally done! Not a job I want to be doing anytime soon. In fact, I’d rather s
t in my hands and clap that do it again any time soon.
Not a lot of pictures unfortunately, due to being covered in the worlds WD40 reserves, gearbox oil and whatever other secretions the 5 could throw at me. That, coupled with having to contort myself into shaped that should only be seen in tangled headphones and a plate of spaghetti, meant pics were the last thing on my mind.
So the first thing I did was to get the car up on axle stands as far as I could. Using some wooden blocks, got it a good foot and a half in the air. Excellent. Still bloody scary getting under a car that high, when perched precariously on some foldable axle stands!
A few good shakes and it didn’t budge, so all good there.
First item to be removed was the clutch slave cylinder. From memory (so highly likely I’m talking b
ks), 2 x 12mm bolts hold this one. Easy. Then to get the starter motor bolts out. 1 x 14mm nut and bolt and 1 x 12mm bolt coupled up as both bell housing bolts and to secure the starter motor to the fly wheel. A 10mm bolt holding a bracket for the clutch lines came out and another 10mm bolt holding another bracket for some loom on closer to the bulkhead came out.
I cracked the bolts for the PPF at the gearbox end and removed them 90% of the way, as well as removed the bracket closest to the tail of the box. All came off relatively easy (thank the rust gods for sparing these bolts)! Next up was to remove the speed sensor. This was one 10mm bolt and it came off. For anyone doing this, the speed sensor won’t fit back through the hole in the PPF at this point, but leave it there for now as when you separate the PPF from the box, it’ll then get to the right angle to remove easily.
I then set about removing the prop shaft with the help of my glamourous assistant Craig (Superchickenn) who kindly sat topside put the box in and out of gear and applying the handbrake for me to crack the nuts off at the diff flange. Now, I REALLY didn’t want to remove the exhaust if at all possible. Mainly because when I fitted it, it was such a bodge I can’t be bothered to re-bodge it. So with some clever use of a pry bar, I managed to remove the prop shaft from the box and out the rear end. Like some really long, hangover s
t after drinking many pints of Guinness. It was a hard squeeze, that came out in small sections at a time
. Oh, and remember folks – drain the gearbox of its oil before removing the prop shaft
With the prop removed, it was onto the bell housing bolts. I think there were 8 x 17mm bolts altogether. 2 at the bottom, 4 in the middle and 2 at the top. The bottom 6 were easy to remove with an extension and a UJ. The top bolts were a massive pain. In the end, for the driver’s side, a breaker bar with a swivel head, accessing the bolt from the engine bay, with me underneath guiding Craig into the promised land. Once he cracked off, I was able to get to the rest with my fingers
. For the passenger side, we used approximately 62 miles of extension bars and a UJ coupled to a 4ft breaker bar and accessed it from underneath. With lots of swearing, sweating and toys thrown out of the pram, it finally went. Cracking! Again, as soon as the initial tension was released, it came out only finger tight.
Once all the bellhousing bolts are loose, it’s time to remove the centre console (5 Phillips screws) to reveal the turret. There’s then 4 x 10mm bolts holding the rubber boot over the shifter. These need to be removed to remove the boot. If you are in the special 1% of MX5 owners whose shifter boots are in one piece, this step needs to be done or the shifter won’t drop from the transmission tunnel. If, like me, your shifter boot is in a million pieces, this step isn’t really necessary. I chose not to remove my shifter from the turret. Primarily because of laziness, but also because there’s oil in the shifter turret and I was already saturated in the stuff anyway! From the top of the trans tunnel, you can now access the loom attached to the top of the box and under the reverse sensor and what looks like some sort of secondary speed sensor? Not entirely sure what these wires did. Top tip, colour code the wires you’re unplugging for ease of re-assembly.
Once that’s all done, remove the PPF bolts all the way and give the box a wiggle and it should un-mate from the block. Should. Mine took some persuading but it eventually broke free. Now, like I said previously I was trying very hard not to remove the exhaust. Some people say you must, others disagree. I’ve not doubt it would be easier with it removed, but I can 100% say it comes out with it in situ. Lots of heaving and hoe-ing and it was out and on the floor! Huzzah!
Old clutch removed and it was clear it had seen better days. Seems to be some meat left on it, but clear glazing where it had obviously been slipped a lot in a previous life. Flywheel cleaned up and replacement LUK friction plate and Exedy pressure plate installed. As per Haynes manual, refit is same in reverse.
At this stage, I was fed up of gearboxes and so were my companions as they’d both f
ked off. So at this stage I decided to fit my Yellow Stuff pads. I’d decided on retaining my original discs as they were in really good shape. Must have been recently replaced prior to my ownership as the old pads were still very healthy. I’d also read that Yellow Stuff pads take a lot longer to break in with new discs. Not sure how true this is, but given I’ve only a couple of weeks before I leave, it did play a part in retaining the old discs. That and laziness. Oh, and because I’m skint
Off with the old, in with the new shiny stuff!
It took two of us to get the box back in using a very high lift jack. But was easier than I thought it was going to be. Bell housing on the jack and using the jack “plate” which had some steps in it, hooked it onto a lip on the box and kept jacking. We’d pulled the PPF as far to the driver’s side as possible and tied it to something with a ratchet strap (dodgy!) This allowed loads of room to lift the bell housing up over the subframe and exhaust and then drag the jack towards the front of the car. Then lifted the tailshaft and it slotted into position. Put 3 or 4 bolts in to secure it and job was, indeed, jobbed! It was just then a simple case of torqueing up the bellhousing bolts (I actually used a torque wrench for this too, as opposed to 2 or 3 ugga duggas on the impact gun!), reattaching the PPF and prop shaft, topping up fluids and we were good to go!
A massive syringe helps to get the oil into the box and diff!
The MX5 has a separate chamber for “turret oil” which gives that bolt action rifle style gear change. It’s very rarely changed as part of regular servicing, but makes a massive difference. So, as I was topping up the gearbox oil, I replaced the turret oil too. Whilst the box is in the car, the 3 bolts holding the shifter in need to be removed, the shifter then pulls out revealing the oil. At this point, check the nylon shifter cup for any signs of unusual wear as it may need to be replaced. I left mine. The old oil needs to be syringed out using a turkey baster or similar. Then top up until full. Another job jobbed.
To finish, I replaced the rear diff oil and the engine oil and took her out for a light drive to bed in both the clutch and the new brakes. Clutch life is good again!
Just try to be careful with your full pan of used engine oil as you carefully dip your brand new, green tow strap into it
Only 11 days until we leave and I’ve still got my Sparco seat to go in. I’ve ordered some JB Fab side mounts off eBay for it to be fitted. I’ve also got to get my tyres fitted and some EU driving regs stuff to do like beam deflectors, GB sticker etc.
Getting there
Nothing like last minute, is there?!
So it’s about 2 and a half hours until we leave for the ferry and today was spent making some final touches.
I’d finally got the JB Fab side mounts delivered so I could fit my sparco seat. These are a nice piece of kit and I got them relatively cheap secondhand. However, they’re still expensive for what they are, IMO.
Seat and harnesses in. Ballache of a job with about as much room as a badgers a
hole to get the bolts in and harness straps fed through. I could only manage about a 1/540840 of a turn so it took me approximately 12 lightyears to get them tightened. The shoulders of the seat foul on the door card and with the door closed, it moves the seat a couple of mm. Not a big deal in my view, but not ideal and will do for now. The fit is super snug. But gone are the days of “hopping in” the 5 for a quick spin. By the time I’ve got in, preflight checks, wrestled with the harness and wedged myself in, it’s time to go back f
king home.
I’d found a spot to mount my walkie talkie on top of my super high tech, super expensive luxury cupholder. A big GoPro sticky pad secured it
For those of you who remember when I collected the car, the VR Ltd have a unique Enkei wheel. They’re lovely wheels and lightweight too. But the ones I had were a bit knackered in terms of appearance. Almost bronze with brake dust and grime. So I set about giving them a good going over. Using some pretty harsh alloy wheel cleaner and Poundland’s entire backstock of scourers, I attacked them with all mu gusto. Which wasn’t much. I hate cleaning stuff. But they didn’t turn out too bad:
Before:
One cleaned up to a semi-acceptable standard:
Before and after:
All done:
Off down the local tyre place to get my Nankang NS2R’s fitted. Who said 5s weren’t practical?
Fitted. Just in time for the lovely dry, warm weather
I’d also finally got around to fitting the decorations
A full, fighter pilot style shark mouth vinyl. I’m not the most patient of people. I think I’d get impatient of my own impending doom. But, I set about doing the one side on my own, armed with the OH’s hairdryer, a cloth and a blunt stanley knife. What could go wrong right? I’d waited for the optimal weather conditions. Dusk, hurricane gusts and rain. Perfect. As you can imagine, the results were somewhat dubious. I think an armless Stevie Wonder could have done a better job. Whilst being electrocuted in the perineum. But, it looks awesome. In a “they’re your kids you have to like them” kinda way. This is the “better” side. Which the OH helped me with. She’s better with a hairdryer than me, that’s for sure.
GB stickers and others fitted
And that was that. I’m ready to go. Tonight we’re heading for the ferry in Dover from South Wales. Our ferry isn’t booked until 8am but we’re going to try and chance it on an earlier one, if there’s space. We’ll get to Dunkirk and head to Rotterdam and spend the day/night in Amsterdam. From there, we’re going to head to Spa where there’s some LMP1s qualifying for a 4 hour event. Then we’ll head into Germany to the Nurburgring where the track is open between 6pm and 7pm. We’ll crack on with a few sighting laps and find a local for a pint. Then the Sunday is going to spent all day at the Ring
. Home Monday via Luxemburg, because, well, why not!?
Final fill up before I leave. Interestingly, the MX5 is listed as having a 45 litre tank
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