Miata Mailing List: October 1992, Message #1
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   From: (none)
Subject: Track Bar installed!
   Date: (none)

My Track Bar from Technosports finally arrived, almost exactly eight weeks
after I ordered it.  I installed it last night but I have not yet really
tested it out (I don't count the commute to work today).  When I have
experimented and formed a real opinion I'll post that.  What follows is just
about the installation.

They shipped it loosely assembled in a box which was too big for it and
which was sloppily sealed.  Some of the pieces had come loose during shipping
and one washer was missing; I guess it fell out of the box between there and
here.

A few things complicated my installation.  First, a piece of my rear frame
(the front flange of the passenger-side lower A-arm pivot housing, behind
which one of the Track Bar stud plates must go) was slightly bent out of
place.  On the bottom surface I could see scrape marks, and the metal was
bent toward the back of the car, so I guess I must have bottomed out
somewhere and touched the back of my car to the road.  It took a lot of leg
strength applied to a lever to bend it back into place.

Second, a clamp holding a heat shield to the tailpipe on the driver's side
in front of the muffler was in the way of the Track Bar mount for that
side.  I thought, no problem, just loosen the clamp and rotate the
problematic flange right out of the way.  Not so easy:  the bolt broke (I
guess it gets hot there :).  I managed to scrounge up a replacement.

Third, my cats kept demanding attention by lying down on my chest and
purring while I was on my back underneath my car.

Altogether the installation took me about two hours (including time out to
pet the cats and unbend things and fix a broken bolt).

Frankly, I'm skeptical about the whole thing.  Pretend the rear frame of the
Miata looks like a big upside-down "U."  The A-arms for the rear wheels
attach at the ends (bottoms) of the "legs" of the U.  This Track Bar closes
off the U (forming an "O" :).  The metal of the Track Bar is flimsy enough
that I can't imagine it countering any torsional or shear force, only
longitudinal -- that is, I can't see it keeping the "legs" of the U from
bending out of the plane of the U, but maybe it can hold them from moving
toward or away from each other within the plane.  But then, both Track Bar
crossmembers have a slot in one end for the bolt there, not just a hole, so
a really nasty bump might overcome the clamping force of the bolt and make
the bar slide a tiny bit ... and then the bar will be stuck in a position
that forces the legs of the U a little bit closer together or farther apart
than they had been, disrupting the rear alignment from then on.  Also, since
the Track Bar hangs lower (by a couple of inches!) than the piece I mentioned
above that was bent on my car, the next time I find the piece of road that
caused that damage it will severely mangle the Track Bar.  It might even
destroy it, or twist it badly enough to cause major rear suspension damage.

So:

If anyone else receives their Track Bar with parts missing, I'd like to know
so we can inform Technosports of this problem.

If anyone else notices that their rear frame is bent in the same place
because of contact with the road, I'd like to know that too, so maybe we can
write Mazda and help them prevent that in the next-generation Miata.

Be careful loosening bolts on the exhaust system!  Use Liquid Wrench first.

Close the garage door to keep the cats out while you're working.

And one last piece of advice:  Try not to drop your big heavy torque wrench
on your nose while you're under your car, it hurts!

Once I have "properly tested" my new toy I'll post again.  Too bad it's
gonna rain for the next few days....
--
Michael J. Abbott		mja@kpc.com
Kubota Pacific Computer Inc.	Santa Clara, CA		408-987-3303