Gotta Start somewhere…

There are so many things going on it hard to know where to start LOL.
Right now I’m focused on the front suspension. Since she’s a Copart Auction rescue speed, the accident that landed her there was a heavy impact to the front drivers side. Friend I bought it from did most of the initial repairs of tie rod, upper control arm and sway bar end link. It still had a little bit of a negative camber to it so I tore into it. Turns out the actual spindle was bent (thank goodness as I originally thought it was the frame) Have new spindles along with upper and lower control arms enroute. But dang, since she’s a New England car she’s seen a bunch of salty roads . Wanted to slap this up to share my woe and to document her return to glory and the emptying of the bank account.

 

Another day another set of parts partially in the books… I finally managed to get the spindles removed and moved onto the lower control arm bolts the ones in the sub frame. I’ve already managed to strip the head on the front lower driver side and round out the set of cutting extraction tool socket, these friggin bolts are in there to win it I am not sure how to get them out, any suggestions? I do not have access to a welding torch I have tried to heat up the backside with a small hand held butane torch where the nut is, to no avail.
On another note I got new spindles in under $200 each and compare the two sexy newness old and busted
Also got my bumper off and found bits and pieces of plastic and other items getting together at nice need to order list.

 

So another 7 hours of dismantling, or attempted dismantling in the books. Frickin rust I loathe it so much!!
Since I cannot access the lower control arm bolts, I thought I’d just drop the subframe and get it out where I can get better leverage. The ones in the back with the 3 bolts came out decently enough with some PB Blaster and a 1/2” drive impact gun took maybe 30mins. I tightened those up and move to the front ones, dear mother of God…. I dowsed it with PB tried doing a the back and forth with the 1/2” impact, no movement. Tried th 1/2” drive breaker bar, stripped.. mother/fathers!!! So grabbed the special socket for the stripped ones, ran it with the breaker bar the socket literally tore the sides of the nut and made it smooth (both sides did this, insert more cursing. Then made a run to Lowe’s for the nut breaker, which was partially effective? (Insert I’m Ron Burgundy?) the nut is tapered and didn’t get through the meaty part of the nut. So reverted to the dremel with metal cutting bit and ended up cutting through the bolt and nut. Ran out of cutting wheels, another trip to Lowe’s…. Tried to hammer out the passenger side and realize that the bolt is tack welded on top, more cutting (gently and put a wet shop towel over the ABS distribution block and other wiring). Finally got that one out and went to work on the drivers side and since this was the accident side I'm pretty sure bolt is bent as it won’t come out. Soo with those clear moved onto the rear motor mount PB and impact driver, didn’t budge… at this point it had been about 7 hours and the wife was a little upset as I hadn’t heard the call to dinner…

So posting this update after shower and dinner, man I didn’t mind a partial project car but holy moly, this is a bit much for my skill/tool level. Passion project? Cause there is no way I’m ever going to see the return on investment

 

Welp, I'm right here with you.

Bought a 2007, didn't check it well enough, and now I'm dropping and replacing the subframe. Your parts look an awful lot like my parts, and I sure am not looking forward to trying to get those front bolts off the car. Good news is that when I drop the subframe, I can leave the control arms attached and just take them off while the frame is off the car. I have the new subframe, just pulling pieces off a little at a time in order to get this done.

So far, only had to cut off two small bolts, I'm sure there will be more.

Your old spindles look better than mine, the brake caliper looks the same, and the control arms are exactly the same as mine. I'm currently soaking the coil supports in a rust remover solution, that seems to be working for eliminating the rust (that, and a wire brush). If they come out ok, I'll be soaking all the parts and repainting. My spindles are so bad that the dust shield for the brakes is completely gone. I wasn't even sure what had rusted until I saw the schematic.

 

A question about the front subframe bolts. Are you saying if I cut the nut off the bottom I can't get the bolt out? I believe that my subframe is in about the same shape as yours, my back bolts look to be in good enough shape to get out, but both of the front bolts are in horrendous shape. From my schematic, looks like there are bushings on the front part of the sub where those bolts come through, doesn't look to me like they are tack welded at that point. Any guidance you can provide would be helpful.

 

Hi Kevin! First off good luck man! For those two front subframe bolts, they come down the two nuts. If you can get those nuts off you shouldn’t need to back them out so that the subframe should drop down. If you will have to back them out. I included a picture of the new one below. The top of this bolt was the one that was tack welded on top for me. Feel free to IM or message me for questions. I’m stumbling through this and if I can help out at least in person from my misery than missions successful!

 

Sooo there has been a bunch of stuff going on, trying to get this subframe prepped for control arms and the like, seems like a never ending cascade of rust and time wasted but I’m steadily made progress and I’m now on a time crunch to get this girl moving again because we’re moving out of this rental house back into our main house (had a fire back on March 15th of 2020, total loss) Anyway that’s happening in two weeks so she needs to be mobile.
One of the decisions to make was to replace the subframe bushings and instead of stock went with the solid set from @Maisonvi (quick plug: quick shipping and the bushings look quality, thanks again!!) that being said get the stock ones out was a PITA!! Needed a lot of perseverance a hammer and crowbar to lightly tap under the lip and work your way around the perimeter prying it up. The ones toward the back of the car come apart in two pieces however the fronts are interconnected and once they are pried up they get sawed off then pounded out the opposite side, ended up using a 32mm socket and 3lb mini-sledge to smoosh it out.
Now to spot weld (JB) some shady areas then, clean and paint and reinstall!
Oh and also to save $700 decided to delete my power steering and go with a manual rack. Found a local shop here in New Hampshire, Eaton Motorsports. They pulled apart the rack pulled the valves, welded in plugs rebuilt with a quality grease. So should be interesting!!

 

Lol, looks like you’re about two weekends ahead of me. I thought I was the only one crazy enough to do this, kudos for the effort.

 

Why a manual rack? Is there an advantage to going that direction?
Also, seriously considering pulling the fenders....

 

Dude, what was the sawsall for?

 

For the manual (or de-powered) rack, there are a couple of reasons mainly I didn't want to spend (cannot afford to spend) another $700 on new lines, pump and reservoir. Also this rig will eventually see autocross and hillclimb events, maybe even track days so I figured why not? Mainly though was to get her back road worthy and not spend $700.

With regard to the fenders, be careful, fix one area at a time. On more than one occasion I've picked something apart to only get overwhelmed with the "new" scope of a project. For me I want to fix everything one shot and I don't have the budget (in both time and money) so I have to constantly remind myself to focus on the that one area that I originally went into fix (bent spindle)..... LOL and I still ended up way down the rabbit hole.

 

The sawsall was for cutting out the front subframe bushings which are pressed into the front mounts. Had to pound the breaker bar in between the lip of the bushing and the subframe. Once there is enough room, sawsall time! While trying to not damage the subframe.

 

Hey, found the top of the bolt when I took my fender off, lol. Yep, it's tack welded to the upper frame. Where did you buy the new ones, I'm sure I'll need them once I pull the old ones out?

 

Regarding the fender removal, seemed to make a lot of sense in order to get at the areas that are rusting. In fact, the head light's coming out tonite, and if I could figure out how to take out the fuse box I'd pull that also. It's not had to treat the rust, it's just hard to get to it. Since I have no need for this car for the foreseeable future, I can take my time and hopefully get most of the major issues resolved. The only wildcard I have working against me atm is the wife's patience, as I'm also supposed to be remodeling the kitchen.

Looking in the engine bay, there are a ton of little brackets that look like shit because of rust ( i swear they parked this vehicle in a pond). I'll probably pull those and treat them also before I get done.

 

Glad to see yours was tacked as well I thought I was going crazy. With the bolts, I got my set off of ebay, the dealership couldn't get any in stock. Don't forget to order the nuts and washers though, I got those through the dealership. Also might want to consider ordering new bolts for the lower control arms as well. I grabbed a set of four to be safe.

 

Yeah, I'm really wondering about all those bolts. Freaking things are so rusted, I should probably order all new. Mission creep all over the place here.

 

HAHAHAHA!!! yes this is with all speeds LOL I feel your pain man. I would just pull the trigger on the bolts along with the washers and nuts. Let me know if you need part numbers.

 

My wife has tolerated my building so far, though I have to watch the spending and my time spent with family is super important and I loose track of time trying to wrench on this thing.

I've also got that rusty bracket thing going on as well, in my mind I cuss and wish I had a 3D printer/scanner so I can replicate them in a poly/carbon material so I don't have to ever change them. I also wish that I could create that and pass the model off to the mazda community to print their own parts. baby steps...

 

Hey, where did you get the steering knuckle assembly? I can't find one specific to the Speed 6, does the regular 6 knuckle fit out cars?

 

Funny you should ask, I'm in the process of returning both the knuckles I got back to CARiD. According to them MOOG does not make spindles for our vehicles.

Wrong part numbers are these: MOOG® LK011 - Front Driver Side Steering Knuckle Assembly & MOOG® LK012 - Front Passenger Side Steering Knuckle Assembly
Again these are the wrong ones, do not buy these.

They are about 1.5 mm too small, I thought about keeping them and pressing out the bearings and hubs and get speed ones but no such luck. I'll get pics posted soon about which one are which. But looks like a no joy situation. I bought a used one from the salvage yard in Maine and it kinda sucks putting old parts on just to get her road worth only to take it all down later. I was eyeballing the ford fusion/milan/zephyr awd because you can find those new but it comes down to sizing for the hubs and bearings.