Help in Atlanta!

[jcargile]

I've been informed by our good friend Durwood that I have a potential catastrophe waiting just around the bend. My crank pulley is wobbling, which, along with other symptoms (mainly lack of power under 3k RPM) is indicative of a worn crank keyway. I've read up on this Loctite Crank Fix but I'm not terribly mechanically inclined. I can do some basic shat (tune-up, oil change, etc) but I have no confidence whatsoever that I could accomplish this repair on my own. So I turn to you, faithful ClubProtege members, for help with this. Is there anyone in the Atlanta area with experience remedying this issue on a Miata or BF 323/Tracer who'd be willing to help me? If so please let me know. There's free beer in it for ya! I also have some skills of my own I could barter, of the database and data analysis/reporting sort. Or free beer. Or my everlasting gratitude. Whichever you'd prefer. I just need to get this problem checked out and remedied as soon as possible. Thanks in advance.

[FE3-323]

first things firts, start by pulling the crank pulley off. use an air gun.

[BFMRGTX]

Get the factory service manual.
Many posts of this symptom are on the yahoo forum: uprated bolt, part numbers, loctite fix, crank and oil pump swap for large nose crank, what to look for, etc etc.

Some posts go back to 1999, or so.

[jcargile]

And I've seen the posts and even know the part number I'd need to do the work and where to buy them. That's easy. But the actual DOING is my problem. An air gun I do not possess, nor the skills to tackle this repair. I could take it to a shop but I'd rather deal with someone who's done this particular job before and knows WTF they're doing.

[me109]

You don't need an air gun. Just a breaker bar against the ground and a working starter.

[BFMRGTX]

I actually bought a miata crank bolt removal tool from amazon.com. Crazy! They even had an HKS GTX exhaust listed. Yes, it was a long time ago.

[jcargile]

Aye, I see that tool on eBay. I'm guessing I would need that right? Along with the woodruff key (B63011317A), crank bolt (B63011406C) and timing belt pulley (B36611321A or B63011321B). On that last, I can't tell which one I would need. I'm looking here and I see the part identified in the assembly diagram as 11321, but when I look in the part list below it has those two different part numbers (with different prices). Which is the right one?

C'mon, someone near me must have some experience with this and a bit of extra time on their hands. I know in my original post I was talking about free beer and all that, but I could come up with actual money here too. I just want to get this figured out and fixed before I find myself with a broken engine.

[BFMRGTX]

Your timing belt pulley is probably good. I've only seen damage on the woodruff key and key journal on the crank.

Now roll up those sleeves, grab a couple of long breaker bars and get crackin'

[jcargile]

Ok, I really REALLY don't want to try this on my own. After a little looking around I'm hoping I won't have to.

Car has a rough idle. I noticed while under the hood that the crank pulley only seems a little wobbly when the car is idling. When I give it some throttle the wobble goes away. Could it be that the wobble is just the engine shuddering with that rough idle?

I replaced my plugs/wires/cap/rotor which seemed to slightly improve the performance of the car. The old NGKs had increased in gap up to around the .6 range, and were white as ghosts. That's a sign the car's running hot/lean, right? I'ma get the TP sensor and O2 sensor tested, check the MAF, and replace the fuel filter next.

Also, I noticed the two 30amp fusible links under on the driver side of the engine bay both look corroded inside. Could that be causing any problems?

[BFMRGTX]

Got a timing light? What's the timing set to? If it's the keyway issue, the timing will be off quite a bit; it will also be inconsistent due to the damage.

Or just take it to a shop that is familiar with Miatas, and have them diagnose it for you.