Autocross/Street Handling '72 510 Wagon

[bonvo]

talk to me about these miata studs is the knurling the right size?

[Josh K.]

I believe the knurl is slightly larger but I pressed them into my hubs no problem. The hard part is keeping them straight when pressing. I actually machine a solid round bar slightly larger than the stud and used that to press against and align... overkill but worked.

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

On 7/14/2018 at 12:05 AM, Tedman said:

 

Cool to see that they are still autocrossing at Santa Maria airport! I used to run there with the Cal Poly Sports Car Club back in the '90s. No one ran wagons back then, well, except for the few times this beast showed up.

 

No competition for your Wagon, that's for sure!  Usually there was only 1 or 2 510s there, but one time we managed to get a whole gang to show up. I think it was during the annual Norcal SoCal UFO meetup weekend.  

 

The fastest 510 out there at the time, and most often TTOD was Gian Bowles who went to Nationals for a couple years:

 

Your Wagon looks great on those new wheels, BTW.  Best of luck as you continue to evolve your car!

Thanks! Larry Butler still runs down there with his little green monster (now with new aero, which some other Datsun head deemed the "Superbrick"). He still takes top time of day fairly often, and that's at a PCA autocross full of crazy modern monsters. 

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

On 7/15/2018 at 7:30 PM, bonvo said:

talk to me about these miata studs is the knurling the right size?

Yeah the knurling isn't exact, but it's close enough. If you put the studs in a freezer overnight they shrink just a touch and you can get them in using a (significant) vise. I used a Harbor Freight mega socket on the front of the hub and pressed the stud in through the deep well of the socket. Josh is right, keeping them straight is the key. 

You'll also probably need a pipe to extend the lever of the vise arm. I used about 2' of extra pipe and all of my body weight (only like 180lbs... I'm 6'6" and built like a stickbug).