Good-Win Racing NC and ND Brace Kit Installations

[Brian]

Full 6 Piece Brace Install

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[Brian]

Pics

[Brian]

Install Notes:

[Brian]

FRONT BRACE INSTALL

Step 1, remove factory brace shown below. This crude steel factory brace is so heavy it will essentially make the rest of your new brace kit a net zero change in weight.

[Brian]

FRONT BRACE INSTALL, Part 2

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Step 2, fish two mounting bolts as shown above, result in pic below with threads hanging down.

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Now lift brace into place. You need to get washer and nut onto those front bolts without pushing the bolts back up inside the subframe. The key to getting nuts started is to shove brace forward as you see me doing in picture below with my left hand, so it puts some tension on the bolt, while I start the nut with my right hand. This pressing against the bolts with the brace keeps them from spinning just enough to get the nuts started(use this same trick with the other braces).

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Next two bolts from front are large factory bolts, but remove washers which don't fit the holes in the brace. Make these finger tight.

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Finally, third set of holes for front brace get the 8mm bolts.

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After you get all bolts finger tight, grab your torque wrench...and buy a torque wrench if you don't have one or you will snap off one of these bolts in a whole and have a mess of trouble recovering it.

Tighten the BIG factory bolts in the middle holes, torque to 60 ft/lbs
Then torque front bolts to 25ft/lbs
Finally, torque rear bolts to 20ft/lbs

[Brian]

SECOND BRACE

Start with front two bolts again, fish them through frame rails, notice there is an oval access hole about 3 inches ahead of the hole the bolt will drop into. Use the grabber to fish the bolt back to the holes.

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Another trick to keep the bolts from pushing back up into the frame rails is to use a screw driver as shown to put some tension on the bolts while you lift the brace into place and get the nuts started.

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Use same procedure to fish the bolts for middle two holes in this brace from access holes about 5 inches behind where you want the bolt.

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Once you have the bolts in the holes and you press the brace into place (carefully so you don't knock the bolts back up through the holes), you can then add the two rear 12mm bolts to hold entire brace in place.

Once all bolts snug start with middle holes and your torque wrench and torque middle 14mm nuts to 25 ft/lbs
Then 25 ft/lbs on front two 14mm nuts.
Then just 20 ft/lbs for rear 12mm bolts

Note that one puck on the second brace, shown below, is intentionally at an angle in the brace, this fits the earlier versions of the pan, Mazda made a change on this spot in the later NCs but brace will still bolt up just fine, it just may look a bit off at this one spot.

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[Brian]

Triangle Rear braces.
Look close at the pictures of the mounting below. Fish the bolts into the holes shown. Notice you can reach in from above to hold them from spinning while you add the washers and nuts from below. Torque the 17mm chassis bolt to 60 ft/lbs. Torque the 14mm bolt to 25 ft/lbs, torque the little 12mm bolt to just 20 ft/lbs.

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[Brian]

Rear TOE Braces

Hold wrench on the back, perhaps even paint white line across the alignment bolt just in case you fail to hold that back wrench still while you remove the front nut. If back nut moves, your alignment moves, but be reasonable careful not to move that back wrench and you can get the job done without changing your alignment, and a bit of paint line can help you reset the position if you do move the wrench.

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[MichelB260]

What are the torque specs for the bolts on the Rear Toe Braces for your 6 Piece Complete NC Underbody Brace?

[Brian]

ND Brace Install

2016+ ND Generation Miata Brace Kit Install

Similar, yet different. ND does not toe out under load like the NC, so no toe links need this time.

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The only 'trick' with the ND install is one nut on each rear triangle needs to be fished through the frame rail. To make it easy the nut is attached to a little metal stick. First, notice in the picture above that one hole is shown empty in each rear triangle brace, that's the hole that lacks a nut until you fish it through the frame to that spot. Bend each metal stick into slight 'S' pattern as shown in pic below and then fish it through the hole as shown below so you can get the bolt to start threading. All M10 bolts on the install 20 ft/lbs, bigger M12 for rear subframe (one in each triangle brace) 45 ft/lbs