For the past 9 months, the Miata has been in a sorry state of hibernation. An advanced-timing code, followed by a growing hesitation on start-up and eventual complete loss of power. The primary suspects are a stretched timing belt or sheared keyway (please god no.) This leads us to the first major mistake in my Miata ownership journey - creating a maintanence plan in a paper notebook and then forgetting it existed. As I dug back through the history of receipts from pervious owners, I found zero evidence of a single timing belt change in the car's history. We're north of 150,000 miles.. yikes.

> FIG 02: Eventual complete loss of power means a ride of shame.

> FIG 03: Harmonic balancer removed, inspecting the crank gear.

A few hundred dollars later, I've got a new timing belt, water pump and associated goodies. With some help from a buddy, we've got the harmonic balancer off and discovered a broken but somehow still in place crank key + mildly rounded keyway on the crank. We've got the old broken key out and a new key that fits snug. This is where the Miata currently sits.

> FIG 04: The physical damage discovered. A beat up, sheared keyway.

With a still-healing and non-functional dominant hand, the yata will have to wait just a little while longer. Once I'm healed, the plan is -

1. Finish the timing belt job
2. Replace or remove power steering pump
3. Finalize and launch digital dash mount
4. Corner balancing/alignment
5. First Track day
6. Profit???

> FIG 05: A sneak preview of the digital dash mount progress. Coming soon!