09/09/2024
Had to preform a rally repair on the Miata yesterday so that I could slide it around for a bit at . Unloading the car I noticed that the inner bolt of the ball joint had vanished. I looked for similar bolts I could borrow from the car or my truck. No luck. A phone search revealed that it was a M12 x 1.50 thread. Went to 2 parts stores and a Busy Beaver. No luck. I was ready to admit defeat but I thought the size seemed like a common lug nut thread…so maybe I could rig a lug stud to work as my bolt? And then I remembered that my 81 VW rabbit truck used Bolts rather than lug nuts. My phone confirmed the thread was a match but unfortunately neither parts store had inventory in this magic 40+ year old VW bolt. Big thanks to a parts counter guy who went in the back and didn’t return until he had a M12 x 1.50 lug bolt in his hand. Turns out that bmw also uses the same thread for their lug bolts. In hindsight I probably could have borrowed one from a bmw guy and fixed this at the track. The fix worked and I was able to run the rest of the day. No penalty for leaving service late.
