Doesn't look like much but all of this small stuff is time consuming!
Applied some sound/heat insulation to the interior floor and firewall. Hopefully to keep some of the heat from the engine and exhaust under control, not really concerned about making it quiet!
Also finally got some new suspension parts and started to install them...woo-hoo! New ball joints, tie rod ends, end links, and a set of polyurethane bushings for the front and rear control arms.
You can see here the state of the high mileage suspension versus new and why I went ahead and replaced them while it was apart! This is a picture of the front upper ball joint. Unlike the lower ball joints, the uppers are part of the upper control arm (Mazda built it that way for some reason) so you must replace the whole A-arm as one unit. The upper ball joints were not too loose but the boots were torn and worn out. Replacement rubber boots are available from Mazda so I just replaced them with new boots. Simply popped the old ones off with a tap from a hammer and chisel and pressed the new ones on using a 1 1/8 " socket.
Next is to start installing the new bushings. That will be the job for this weekend.
