Can a passing mod please change the title of this thread to "MX-5 work log and info thread" as I suppose it's not strictly an "ongoing project" as such! Ta 
MX-5 Project log thread
- Thread starter Howard
- Start date
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Have you seen this on offer Howard?
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/1114
Very happy with mine.
P.S
Will you sell me your slam/kick plates?
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/1114
Very happy with mine.
P.S
Will you sell me your slam/kick plates?
I would if I had something to replace them with. There's just bare body with holes in (proper holes, I hasten to add, not rust 
) underneath them
) underneath them
Pics?
Took my camera with me to do a quick dirty video just to show what it's like
Soldato
I hears a whine...I likes. 
Permabanned
I would if I had something to replace them with. There's just bare body with holes in (proper holes, I hasten to add, not rust
I have the plastic trim as mentioned above, let me know how £ much your after on top.
Email in trust.
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The plastic trim can be seen in the bottom right.
Email sent
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Email sent
replied
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did you get my email Howard?
No?
Send to howard at hcanning.co.uk
Send to howard at hcanning.co.uk
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replied, but you forgot the first bit of the email.
found it on your website though.
found it on your website though.
When I said howard at hcanning.co.uk, I mean as in replace at with @, i.e. to evade spam bots 
Fixing electric window mechanism
I may have mentioned that just before Christmas my driver's side electric window stopped working - didn't go up or down, and the glass would drop to about half way down. I pretty much knew straight away that it would be one or both of the two cables inside, part of the regulator, that have snapped.
So I bought two new cables (about £40) and they arrived just after Christmas.
It's now April and this morning I finally built up the required amount of "arsed" to fix it So I thought I'd shove it in this thread in case anyone cares, or needs to do the same job themselves!
First things first, the door must come apart
So speaker grille, door handle and door opener surround removed
Door card removed
Now you have to remove the dust/water guard plastic sheet, which is held on with nasty horrible black mastic that sticks to anything, and will come off nothing
With that lot removed, you have to remove the glass - no pictures of this step because I was too busy getting annoyed at the process, hehe, but you need to remove the trim on the top, outer part of the door, which is held on with some stubborn clips which must NOT be broken. Ask me if you want any more info on this
Nice dirty pane of glass
Now the motor and regulator were removed, which was a case of marking up the position of a couple of nuts (their positions were adjustable) with Tippex, and undoing all of the nuts that hold these two items to the door. Out comes the mechanism, and...
Yep. There's your problem.
Cables had gotten all mangled up in the motor capstan
And an overview of the mechanism when removed, showing the bit that snapped, causing the grief...
...which is shown here - the tip of that wire should have a little stub which hooks in to a plastic holder on the window runner...
...which is circled here (you can see where/how the intact cable is held in, and the little broken tip is still stuck in on the other side):
It also caused the wire to jump off of one of the pulleys, further adding to the mess and tangle
So with the old cables removed and discarded, I set about attaching the new ones, which is a bit fiddly..
You need to grease up the capstan, then wind the upper cable around the bottom hook in it (underside of it, not visible) approx. 2.5 turns, then wind the lower cable on to the top of it (visible below) approx 2.5 turns, grease up the cables thoroughly, then re-seat it on the motor's axle and make the sure the cables are sitting in the threaded runners on the capstan so as not to tangle it again
Now you can thread the cable onto the greased-up pulleys and into the plastic lug on the runner that holds the cable - not as easy as it first looks, there's not enough slack at first without fully tightening the two plastic "seats" shown in the photo above and compressing the spring and white plastic lug, to reveal as much of the cable from the sleeve as possible
Once you've done this, it should wind round nicely. Now pop the metal cover back on to cover up the capstan, and this completes the re-assembly of the motor and regulator mechanism, which should now look like this:
Now to get the bugger back into the door. Which wasn't too tricky tbh.
Shoving it all back in:
Regulator bolted up
Motor bolted up
And.. All done! Motor tightened up, regulator aligned and tightened up, window stoppers replaced, glass cleaned (Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover for the win) and replaced, and it goes up and down! wooo
Door re-assembled
So there you have it. I was initially viewing this job with great trepidation, but after some initial snags, it wasn't too tricky! I feel I could re-do it in half the time. Which is handly, because my neighbour's MX-5 has got exactly the same problem, and guess who's going to be helping fix it!
I may have mentioned that just before Christmas my driver's side electric window stopped working - didn't go up or down, and the glass would drop to about half way down. I pretty much knew straight away that it would be one or both of the two cables inside, part of the regulator, that have snapped.
So I bought two new cables (about £40) and they arrived just after Christmas.
It's now April and this morning I finally built up the required amount of "arsed" to fix it
So I thought I'd shove it in this thread in case anyone cares, or needs to do the same job themselves!First things first, the door must come apart
So speaker grille, door handle and door opener surround removed
Door card removed
Now you have to remove the dust/water guard plastic sheet, which is held on with nasty horrible black mastic that sticks to anything, and will come off nothing
With that lot removed, you have to remove the glass - no pictures of this step because I was too busy getting annoyed at the process, hehe, but you need to remove the trim on the top, outer part of the door, which is held on with some stubborn clips which must NOT be broken. Ask me if you want any more info on this
Nice dirty pane of glass
Now the motor and regulator were removed, which was a case of marking up the position of a couple of nuts (their positions were adjustable) with Tippex, and undoing all of the nuts that hold these two items to the door. Out comes the mechanism, and...
Yep. There's your problem.
Cables had gotten all mangled up in the motor capstan
And an overview of the mechanism when removed, showing the bit that snapped, causing the grief...
...which is shown here - the tip of that wire should have a little stub which hooks in to a plastic holder on the window runner...
...which is circled here (you can see where/how the intact cable is held in, and the little broken tip is still stuck in on the other side):
It also caused the wire to jump off of one of the pulleys, further adding to the mess and tangle
So with the old cables removed and discarded, I set about attaching the new ones, which is a bit fiddly..
You need to grease up the capstan, then wind the upper cable around the bottom hook in it (underside of it, not visible) approx. 2.5 turns, then wind the lower cable on to the top of it (visible below) approx 2.5 turns, grease up the cables thoroughly, then re-seat it on the motor's axle and make the sure the cables are sitting in the threaded runners on the capstan so as not to tangle it again
Now you can thread the cable onto the greased-up pulleys and into the plastic lug on the runner that holds the cable - not as easy as it first looks, there's not enough slack at first without fully tightening the two plastic "seats" shown in the photo above and compressing the spring and white plastic lug, to reveal as much of the cable from the sleeve as possible
Once you've done this, it should wind round nicely. Now pop the metal cover back on to cover up the capstan, and this completes the re-assembly of the motor and regulator mechanism, which should now look like this:
Now to get the bugger back into the door. Which wasn't too tricky tbh.
Shoving it all back in:
Regulator bolted up
Motor bolted up
And.. All done! Motor tightened up, regulator aligned and tightened up, window stoppers replaced, glass cleaned (Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover for the win) and replaced, and it goes up and down! wooo
Door re-assembled
So there you have it. I was initially viewing this job with great trepidation, but after some initial snags, it wasn't too tricky! I feel I could re-do it in half the time. Which is handly, because my neighbour's MX-5 has got exactly the same problem, and guess who's going to be helping fix it!
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I also decided that now was a good time to fit my new (to me) iPod capable head unit, thanks to a generous friend of mine. I wanted to be able to use my Ipod on longer journeys (to the rolling road in Gloucestershire, for example!) to alleviate some of the boredom of sitting on the motorway, and the radio is rubbish, so step up Alpine.
Old stereo, filthy interior
Centre console removed to wire in ipod connection to armrest/cubbyhole
iPod connection successfully wired in
Clean(ish) interior, new stereo. Works much better now!
Old stereo, filthy interior
Centre console removed to wire in ipod connection to armrest/cubbyhole
iPod connection successfully wired in
Clean(ish) interior, new stereo. Works much better now!
Nice write up mate, I was tempted of converting my keep fit windows to electric, but with the MK1's knocking on a bit, most s/h windows are knackered.....I need the exercise anyway
Im fed up with my drab interior, so I painted the centre radio surround, but its a but too shiney so Im gonna go back to black, I quite fancy the Nakamae gear surround tho, and I want to flock the crash pads.
I'll stop trashing your thread now
Im fed up with my drab interior, so I painted the centre radio surround, but its a but too shiney so Im gonna go back to black, I quite fancy the Nakamae gear surround tho, and I want to flock the crash pads.
I'll stop trashing your thread now
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- Joined
- 28 Feb 2007
- Posts
- 1,479
Good stuff Howard, fixing the window looks pretty full on, I have encountered that black gunk stuff when replacing my locks, nasty stuff 
I like the idea of the iPod stereo thing, but im pretty sure a fancy stereo like that would get nicked around here
Ive got my MX-5 running standalone on my megasquirt N/A at the moment, just started tuning it properly. Here is a picture of my MS1 V3.0:
Here is how the engine bay is currently looking:
Supercharger next
I like the idea of the iPod stereo thing, but im pretty sure a fancy stereo like that would get nicked around here
Ive got my MX-5 running standalone on my megasquirt N/A at the moment, just started tuning it properly. Here is a picture of my MS1 V3.0:
Here is how the engine bay is currently looking:
Supercharger next
