Miata Mailing List: May 1999, Message #62

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In a message dated 5/1/99 12:47:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, LX935OH@aol.com 
writes:

> he clutch does seem to chatter at times, mainly when starting off on slight 
>  inclines but nothing during highway speeds.  Is this an indication of a 
>  clutch going bad?
>  
>  The car seems to wander on the highway, basically darting around.  I know 
> the 
>  car needs aligning as I am starting to see some outside edge wear on the 
>  rears.  That will be taken care of soon.  I know rubber bushings 
deteriorate 
> 
>  as time goes by.  Is it possible the bushings are starting to go, too?  I 
am 
> 
>  NOT going to replace with polyurethane bushings based on my recent 
> experience 
>  with them in my Mustang.  Where is a good place to purchase the stock 
>  replacement bushings...dealer, auto parts place?  Do places like RSpeed do 
>  jobs like bushing replacements?  (I mention RSpeed since I live in the 
>  Atlanta area).
>  
>  I truly appreciate any responses and TIA.
>  
>  Jay

  Clutch chatter is often the result of oil on the disc from either a leaky 
rear cank main seal or front trans seal.  It's possible, but not common, for 
it to happen if the clutch has been severely overheated and warped.  In any 
case, the fix is the same -- new pressure plate, disc, release bearing, pilot 
bearing, crank seal, trans seal, and resurfaced flywheel.  Since transmission 
removal is not a trivial thing, it's wise to do all of this if any of it is 
needed.
  At 95K it's entirely likely that the A-arm and anti-roll bar bushings have 
deteriorated to a noticeable degree.  So far I've found no supplier for the 
A-arm bushings except Mazda (with their ridiculous prices).  I replaced the 
anti-roll bar mount and link bushings (they were worn to the point of falling 
out) about 100,000 miles ago with urethane pieces from Energy Suspension.  I 
know what you mean when you say you don't want this sort of thing on your 
Miata.  They're harsh, noisy, and require frequent lubrication.  Still, I'm 
quite happy with the change.  I'd even embrace that material for A-arm 
bushings if I could find it.  Failing that, I'm thinking of buying all 8 
A-arms from a wrecking yard (some place cheaper than MazMart), blueprinting 
them, and renewing the bushings with Mazda bits.
  By the way, I just noticed that the 204,000 mile rear A-arm bushings on ol' 
Rocinante are shot to the point that shiny circles exist around the rear 
adjuster cams.  I tried setting rear camber to 2 deg negative with a friends 
NASCAR style caster-camber gauge, ran hard around the block, then checked it 
again to find that the static alignment is entirely dependant on the 
direction of the last turn.
  Let's keep one another posted on upgraded parts.
  Foureagles