Mazda Talk Forums

Darn you, Brian! You get both of yours before I even get mine. Not fair!!!!!

Ron

ronbauer wrote:Darn you, Brian! You get both of yours before I even get mine. Not fair!!!!!

Ron

I had to give up on our CLUB order and go for "any manual"...but we could not wait any longer, need Moti at Blackbird Fabworx to get busy for a few weeks on the roll protection so we have an ND to drive around the big Laguna event.

Brian, since you are already working on suspension component testing - how long do you think it will be until the first aftermarket ARB's (anti-roll bars) are designed and produced for this car?

You can order aftermarket sways today from japan if you don't mind paying about double the cost because of the distance.

I expect sways available here by SEMA show in the fall.

Brian wrote:You can order aftermarket sways today from japan if you don't mind paying about double the cost because of the distance.

I expect sways available here by SEMA show in the fall.

Thanks for the info. I didn't think about the Japanese aftermarket being months ahead of us. =)

Do you have any idea how much effort is involved in replacing the anti-roll bar? Somewhere on the Miata.net forum it was noted that replacing it required putting the car on a lift.

Yes, you need a lift....and that's just getting started. Here is my instructions cheat sheet, courtesy of Mazda's own Dave Coleman.

Mark the steering shaft U-joint position and remove the clamp bolt.

Remove the two bolts holding the steering rack to the subframe.

Slide the rack forward out of its double-shear mounting brackets, then let it drop down.

Unbolt the sway bar and slide it out.

No need to remove either tie rod end.

Sway bar has already come out of our LE, it is not easy, bushings are bonded to the bar making it a fight to get out. We might be at the point that most folks pay a shop to do the sway swap.

Ouch. What took about 30-45 minutes on an NB, a bit more than that on the NC, is now a job that a home garage mechanic will probably not be able to do anymore. That's a bit of a bummer.

How about the rear bar? Any issues there?

Also, any idea why the bushings are bonded to the car? My guess is to create a tighter coupling with the chassis and reduce vibration.

Rear is mere minutes, but supports are suspect in the way NA front mounts were suspect, so we are looking at that.

Not sure why the bushings bonded to the bar, something seen on recent Ford products too.

Having the bushings bonded to the sway bar makes the whole bar resist pivoting within the mounting bracket. This helps prevent nose dive under braking, might offer some added fore-aft stability at freeway speeds too. My guess is this feature is made necessary by the very soft factory springs, and the need for it disappears with stiffer springs fitted.

-Ryan

Took our new Blue ND from dealer direct to Auto Armour for full front end protection film. Didn't even let the dealer pull the plastic wrap...just to make sure it got to filming without any nicks in the paint. Now we finally get to drive it and start wrenching!

First on our BLUE ND is RoadsterSport Race for ND Production Sample test fit. Sound clips soon...this one is seriously fun and at just 11 pounds about half the weight of the stock muffler!

Also shown our ND RoadsterSport Q with the nice rolled tip!