1993 Nissan Micra Super S - Mikey Mk2

[Calum]

The new clutch turned up early this morning; I would definitely recommend carparts4less after dealing with them, they are a cheaper online only based supplier of eurocarparts I believe.

Went to my girlfriends house to fit it and thought I'd take a couple of pictures to show the clearance between the box and engine with the driveshafts in situ.

Got the old thrust bearing off and in my excitement I forgot to take note of which side faces the clutch. Due to the way the clips fit on logic suggests that the side in the picture below faces the clutch? If anyone can confirm this for me it would be much appreciated.

I then used my clutch alignment tool to align the clutch but as I figured it wouldn't fit in the gap. Luckily the outer edge of the inner pressure plate and outer edge of the friction plate are the same diameter so they were easy to align by sight.

Whilst the clutch was relatively easy to fit back on thanks to the locating dowels on the pressure plate, me and my dad cannot get the gearbox to go back on. This is primarily due to the fact that the sandwich plate keeps moving, but also because the box tends to pivot around the backside where the driveshafts are attached.

It would probably take more effort to manoeuvre the box so that it slides towards the engine in a straight line as it will to drain the gearbox and take the driveshafts out. Tomorrow I will probably do this as the gearbox could do with some fresh oil anyway, plus it means that I can actually use my clutch alignment tool to centre the clutch

Whilst I have the front of the car stripped apart and the gearbox out, can anyone suggest things that will be easy to check and cheap to replace now to save doing it all again at a later date?

 

[Salzam100]

Crossmember ?

 

[eiregti]

I find the best thing to align the gearbox (especially when working alone) is to take the head off two bolts and thread them into the block by hand pretty loose. Offset them at about 10clock and 2oclock. This will hold the sandwich plate in position as well as being able to support the box enough to be able to just slide it in

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Calum]

Just a quick update. Firstly, got the clutch done on my girlfirends micra (Mikey Mk1), ended up removing the driveshafts and taking the gearbox out. It was much easier than I thought and in hindsight I would have done that in the first place, rather than attempting to be a pro like Frank and do it with the driveshafts in situ . I also fitted a new cable as the old one had run out of adjustment due to stretch and replaced the front springs as they were showing signs of serious corrosion.

On to my Super S! I picked up a few goodies the other day, the first of which was a first cat back Peter Lloyd system. Whilst being in good condition it was showing early signs of corrosion in some places, especially round the welds. Today, in an attempt to preserve the life of the exhaust, I decided to wire brush each section (downpipe / centre / back box) and paint in some Halfords VHT matte black enamel paint (the brush on kind) that I had lying around. This has been on my Mikey Mk1s manifold heat shield for over 2 years now with no signs of peeling, so I hope it will fair just as well on the exhaust system.

I'm quite impressed with how it came out

I also ordered a Frankspeed manifold from Frank, which arrived today.

I'm going to fit this together with a hollow first cat rather than buying a 421 like I originally planned. My turbo build looks like it will commence in the late summer, so it seemed wasteful to buy expensive NA parts and it will also free up more money to upgrade handing components before I start turboing.

I also picked up this

I have already started filling the clip recesses as I will be sticking my plate directly to the bootlid. Has anyone else on here had a March recess and mid spoiler fitted together at the same time?

And I picked these up..

Aside from a Nismo wide arch kit and some new wheels / tyres, that is about as much cosmetic modification as I plan on doing. I'll get some more pics up when everything is fitted

 

[MaxK11C]

Love those Taiwan spec LED lights. I might be after some for my facelift. Plug and play?

 

[Calum]

Love those Taiwan spec LED lights. I might be after some for my facelift. Plug and play?

I have a feeling that out the box they require some (fairly simple) mods to work with our UK spec K11s, mine were used by a previous member though so apparently they have already been converted. Not tried them yet though...

 

[Calum]

^ mods to the wiring that is.

 

[Calum]

Well, got the old exhaust off and fitted the new one today. Decided to drop the ARB and lower the whole thing to the ground as it seemed easiest. Hollowed out the cat and fitted it to Frank's manifold, put back on the car and all sealed up with Holts Firegum paste. The new exhaust went on really easily, although the tip looks ridiculously small.

I reused the old cat - downpipe bolts in the end as Nissan needed two days to get them in and the old ones wirebrushed up okay. I started the car and it seems really quiet... although it is definitely more responsive and it smells lovely due to the decat

To be fair I was driving the car around with my exhaust broken in half for ages so most things seem quiet to me! It does make a nice rally-ish sound to be fair.

Next on the list after spending a day assessing the underside of the car.

Front
-New Wishbones
-All bushes replaced with Polybushes
-Uprated discs and pads
-Goodridge brake hoses
-Uprated Anti Roll Bar
-Spax fixed platform adjustable dampers + springs
-Camber bolts
-Strut brace

Rear
-Good condition second hand axle
-New trailing arm components (drop links etc.)
-Nismo trailing arm bushes
-All other bushes replaced with polybushes
-Uprated anti roll bar
-Strut brace
-Conversion kit for brake disc setup with uprated discs and pads
-Goodridge brake hoses
-Spax fixed platform adjustable dampers + springs

I'll be ticking off the list as I go along, I hope to have it finished by mid April as I have a holiday to Scotland booked Aside from a roll cage, bucket seats and stripping the interior that should be most of the handling mods done before turbocharging. If anyone has any suggestions for the list let me know, as I'm sure I have missed stuff out. I really need to get rid of the sunroof if I'm putting a cage in, but I really like it .

 

[Calum]

Just an update for future reference:

Front
-New Wishbones
-All bushes replaced with Polybushes
-Uprated discs and pads
-Goodridge brake hoses
-Whiteline anti roll bar
-BC V1 Coilovers
-OMP Strut brace

Rear
-Good condition second hand axle
-New trailing arm components (drop links etc.)
-Nismo trailing arm bushes
-All other bushes replaced with polybushes
-Whiteline anti roll bar
-Conversion kit for brake disc setup with uprated discs and pads
-Goodridge brake hoses
-BC V1 Coilovers

 

[frank]

were the front wishbone polybushes ok calum ? because mine had way too much flex (they even failed the mot !) and that was the harder compound ones.
i ended up with a solid nylon/poly combo

 

[Calum]

were the front wishbone polybushes ok calum ? because mine had way too much flex (they even failed the mot !) and that was the harder compound ones.
i ended up with a solid nylon/poly combo

View attachment 40448

I've not fitted them on the car yet Frank, I originally only decided to replace them as the wishbone themselves are well corroded and for what they cost it seemed worthwhile to replace them, I figured I might as well swap the bushes out in the process.

When I get everything together, as I still haven't bought certain things, I am going to fit everything at oncce. I'll report back on my findings when I've got them on the car. The only advisory on the MOT was some play in the rear drop links.

I've yet to buy the polybushes; which ones were too loose / which ones did you end up fitting to solve the problem?

I'm also still trying to decide between BC coilovers and AVO ones, its hard to find a direct comparison. If the BC ones hadn't seemed to have gone up in price it would have been an easy choice, but they are getting closer to AVO prices now..

 

[Calum]

^ I should probably add that the list is a 'to do' list, not an 'already done' list

 

[frank]

shown in the pic mate ^ the white bush is nylon, and the yellow one is poly
the problem is that the front bush inner sleeve on the stock bush is bonded in, and that bonding is critical for stopping the wishbone moving fore and aft, so if the poly one has a stainless steel inner sleeve and 2 piece bush the only thing stopping that movement is the thin tube of the wishbone cutting into the poly side flanges
and also the sleeve compresses into the poly because it is,nt bonded in
i fitted mine just before the mot to help it pass, but the flange on the front poly had been chewed away as the power was put down and the wishbone flexxed forwards (in only 2 weeks), and the mot man showed me the horrendous flexing while it was on the ramp

 

[Calum]

shown in the pic mate ^ the white bush is nylon, and the yellow one is poly
the problem is that the front bush inner sleeve on the stock bush is bonded in, and that bonding is critical for stopping the wishbone moving fore and aft, so if the poly one has a stainless steel inner sleeve and 2 piece bush the only thing stopping that movement is the thin tube of the wishbone cutting into the poly side flanges
and also the sleeve compresses into the poly because it is,nt bonded in
i fitted mine just before the mot to help it pass, but the flange on the front poly had been chewed away as the power was put down and the wishbone flexxed forwards (in only 2 weeks), and the mot man showed me the horrendous flexing while it was on the ramp

Might be worth leaving the standard bushes in then? Not sure how much polybushing the wishbones will improve handling, as K11s are relatively light compared to the other cars which I've seen them fitted to and driven before and after..

I'm not really fully competent on a lathe yet as I don't get much practice on it, if I was I would probably have a go at turning some on my own, and then they could be made to spec..

 

[frank]

the stock ones probably do flex a bit calum, and that affects the toe/camber/castor eh
you can see here how the sleeve sinks into the poly if its not bonded in, even tho its a harder compound than the stock rubber
the rear bush gives some rearward location when you brake hard, but the forward location if you have decent power rely,s heavily on the front bush bonding

 

[Calum]

the stock ones probably do flex a bit calum, and that affects the toe/camber/castor eh
you can see here how the sleeve sinks into the poly if its not bonded in, even tho its a harder compound than the stock rubber
the rear bush gives some rearward location when you brake hard, but the forward location if you have decent power rely,s heavily on the front bush bonding

View attachment 40450 View attachment 40451 View attachment 40452

Thanks for the details / pics. I'll have to have a think about the best way to solve these issues when I get the polybushes. I guess I'll have to wait to see how they piece together and take it from there, I'll possibly have to find some way of bonding the bush into the wishbone, if such a thing can be done.

I might also attempt to fit some thin metal washers between the wishbone and bush, and bush and mount, so it stops the bush getting chewed up under flex, need to do a bit more research I think.

 

[Calum]

Well, it looks like my K11 is going back into the safety of a garage and probably won't come out for some time. To cut a long story short I did a 7 hour drive in it up to Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland a few weeks ago and, despite getting 45mpg, it was rather uncomfortable and the lack of power for motorway driving really got to me.

I have another holiday in the summer to the Outer Hebrides which is a 14 hour drive away, so I decided to get a more comfortable / powerful car. Me and girlfriend found one today and we are picking it up next Saturday.

Its a 56 plate Mazda RX8 PZ in Galaxy Grey with one previous owner, a huge pile of Mazda service records and invoices, 50k on the clock and is in immaculate condition, its obviously been owned by an enthusiast.

They are lovely cars for what they are, despite having poor fuel economy and needing constant care to maintain the rotary engine. Insurance wasn't any more expensive than the K11 either despite it being the ProDrive 231 bhp model.

Whilst I will miss the K11, I'm looking forward to having some RWD fun and enjoying revving past 9k! Does anyone on here own / has owned one of these before? Any pointers would be appreciated.

If anyone wants me to upload some pics I can start a non-micra blog if people are interested; RX8s seem like a good step up from a micra, although the cost of ownership is significantly higher.

I have done a fair amount of work to the K11 since my last post, I'll try and update this thread when I get a chance. I did almost consider selling it, as it seems a shame to lock it away, but I couldn't bring myself to part with it, its still such an amazing, yet simple, little car

I'll admit that the antics on the FB group has made me lose a bit of motivation for updating my blog (although I know almost none, if any of the culprits have blogs on here). I wish you true Micra enthusiasts all the best with your builds and I'm sure I'll keep an eye out from time to time to see what's happening

Calum

 

[r-reg-sr]

hmmmm tasty looker in the flesh nw10 today?

 

[Calum]

hmmmm tasty looker in the flesh nw10 today?

(Outside Asda right?) It certainly was I only noticed you go past when I heard your exhaust - Micra's are everywhere around here

 

[Calum]

Well, after nearly four years and 13,000 miles of trouble-free ownership, the Super S will be off to it's new home this weekend.

I never really thought I would sell it, but I promised myself if I did, that it would only go to someone who will look after it as much as I did. I'm fully confident that I've found such a buyer.

In the end, lack of space to store the K11 and the RX8 meant that I had to sell both of them.

I decided their replacement must be something that ticks all the following boxes.

- Space for luggage / bikes
- Comfortable for long journeys
- Cheaper road tax than the RX8 (which was £550 per year)
- TURBO
- FAST

The last of the two being the most important of course!

I decided to go for an Audi S4 B5 Avant 2.7 V6 Biturbo

It's had small fortune spent on it already to bring it closer to RS4 spec with K04 turbo's etc. so it's currently running a rather conservative stage 2 map (380bhp / 600nm).

In May it's going to get 750cc injectors, 3.5" exhaust with full bypass, FMIC and water methanol injection. On a stage 3 map it should be knocking on the door of 500bhp / 720nm.

Will post up a few pics of the micra before it goes to its new home for memories sake. It's had quite a bit of work done to it since I last posted.

 

[Calum]

Off to her new home up North! She's in good hands

 

[LordJunk]

should have tried small lightweight steelies on the micra... makes a big difference in acceleration, although motorway is always a problem for the short but tall formfactor and small engine.
And getting it low and hard obviously doesn't help with the comfort. I'm totally satisfied with motorway comfort with fresh stock suspension parts.

thanks for the late updates ?