MECCS?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by sti deede

That sucks Scott. The welding supply store in Sacramento is open on Saturdays till 3. So at least they got it right. It's also a 1/2 mile from our house.

I hope you were able to finish up.

I switched the welder over to flux core and got the brackets I needed fabbed up.

I now officially fit in the Miata:



I can even heel-toe, and I think if I slouch a little I pass the broomstick test with the rollbar. Though I do need to put some padding on the bar since in a rear-ender, I'll hit my helmet on it. I also need to fab up a harness bar, swap a set of the 6-points from the WRX into the car, and add a seatback brace to the seat... but at least now I can drive it for more than 10 minutes before my ass starts to hurt due to the zero padding and narrow ass on my stock seat.

Sorry for the crap picture... iPhone's are phones, not cameras, apparently.

Oh, on a side note, does anyone know how to clean a suede steering wheel?

[sti deede]

You sir have defied physics. Excellent.

[sperry]

I guess this is the Miata thread.... so:

The other day I got this email:

Dear MiataRoadster customer,

I'm writing to you because, within the past six months, you purchased a =
Works Bell steering wheel hub from MiataRoadster.

Over the past five years, I've sold hundreds of Works Bell steering =
wheel adaptor hubs without incident.

Yet, in the past couple of weeks, I've received four reports of the cast =
aluminum 909T and 909T hubs developing cracks.=20

At your earliest convenience, please completely remove your Works Bell =
hub from your steering column and carefully study the areas around the =
splined center hole that goes over the steering column, the areas around =
the two small holes for the turn signal return mechanism (AKA clock =
spring) pins, and the sides of the body.

See the attached pic showing the type of cracks that you should check =
for.

If you do find any cracks, please immediately discontinue use of the =
part and return to using your stock steering wheel, if you have it =
handy.

Take pics of your damaged hub, send them to me, and I will make =
arrangements with you for an equivalent value replacement part ASAP.

If your inspection finds no issues, I believe that you're safe to =
re-install the hub.

Be careful not to torque the nut holding the hub to the steering column =
to any more than 25 foot-pounds or 29 Newton-meters.

Please let me know what you find, in either case.

STAY TUNED

Bill Wilner
Owner
MiataRoadster
AeroCatch.net

Yesterday, I got around to pulling the wheel of the car and found this:



Super. I hope MiataRoadster can get me something before the track day at the end of the month because it doesn't look like the WRX will be running unless Matt can pull off a miracle. I will say though, it's nice to see someone proactively reaching out to customers to notify them about stuff like this.

[Nick Koan]

Is that what was causing the airbag light to go off all of a sudden?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Nick Koan

Is that what was causing the airbag light to go off all of a sudden?

No, I think that's just the spoof resistor in the plug just being out of range in really high ambient temps. At this point, I'm not worrying about it. Mostly because I'll be getting a new resistor when I get the replacement adapter (the replacement is billet aluminum instead of cast... should be a bunch stronger).

[MattR]

Wow, great communication from the vendor, but too bad on the part failure. Is it caused by torque on the wheel or by vibration? No chance you can run with the stock wheel correct?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by MattR

Wow, great communication from the vendor, but too bad on the part failure. Is it caused by torque on the wheel or by vibration? No chance you can run with the stock wheel correct?

The manufacturer of the part is claiming that the failures are all due to over-torquing the nut that holds it to the steering column. Now I know I used a torque wrench when I installed mine... but I don't remember the torque spec I used. The hub adapter manufacturer says 25 ftlbs max, the factory spec is 36 ftlbs. I may have used the factory spec because I don't remember even seeing a spec in the adapter packaging/instructions. My guess though is that the break occurs if you have to remove and reinstall the adapter. I installed mine, then had to take it off in order to fix a bad relay in the steering column. In order to break the nut loose to remove the hub adapter, I had to install the steering wheel and hold it while breaking the nut loose w/ a breaker bar. It took kind of a bunch of torque to get it to come loose... I'm willing to bet that's when the spline fractured, then the crack widened with use.

Either way, MiataRoadster is revising what they sell when it comes to those adapters... they're going to be including explicit warning not to over-torque the nut, a different nut w/ a washer or flange to distribute the force of the nut, and a pressed on steel ring around the back of the adapter to prevent any possibility of a fracture. The problem is, those kits aren't going to be ready in time for the track day.

So, Bill at MiataRoadster is sending me a different version of the adapter (the 20mm shorter one) that's billet instead of cast aluminum. It's designed to be more compact for use with a wheel quick-release without changing the location of the wheel... but since I'm so tall, I need the wheel to be pretty far away from the dash (which is why I purchased the longer 3" adapter in the 1st place). So Bill's also selling me a 30mm spacer for use with the shorter hub. I should net a +10mm longer adapter which should fit well for me in the car. And it should be in the mail today, so I might even have it before this weekend.

[ScottyS]

Yes, but is it "weapons grade?"

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Cast aluminum can be fairly brittle, especially if it's a cheap casting (which it probably was). Billet machined could be a healthy strength increase if they use a decent material grade.