From the time the Miata was introduced, NA and NB owners have complained about the difficulty of doing a timing belt change and getting the cam timing right. The intake cam is under a bit of pressure from a valve spring and wants to jump over to the next tooth. Solutions have included cutting belts in half, counting teeth and thousands of forum postings.

The introduction of the FM cam belt ninja tool (for 1990-2005 Miatas only) years ago changed all that. Simply slide it into place, remove the old belt, put on the new and everything is perfectly aligned. If you're going to remove the cam gears, the locked cams make it a lot easier to loosen and tighten the bolt holding the gears to the camshafts. You can also use the holes to zip-tie the tool to the two gears, keeping them aligned when you pull them off the cams. It'll make you into a timing belt ninja, quick and smooth.

But despite all the five star reviews, the original one wasn't perfect. It could sometimes slip sideways between the gears and let them slip. So when we decided to change production methods for the second generation, we redesigned it. This new version is significantly fatter so it stays well locked into the gears. The carbon-reinforced nylon construction is immune to all the various fluids it'll come across in the line of duty, but also will not mar your cam gears. Slides in smooooooooth as butter. It's also strong enough to allow you to torque the cam gear bolts to factory spec without needing to hold the cams stationary with a goofy combination of crescent wrenches and C-clamps.

Bear in mind that the tool will hold to factory spec, not necessarily more - if you get it "good and snug" but accidentally go over factory torque spec, the tool could fail through no fault of its own. If you use it to loosen the bolts, which were over-torqued initially or are currently seized, the tool could fail through no fault of its own (we don't recommend using it to loosen bolts, just in case). Use it as instructed and it'll work great for years.

We're now on the fourth generation of this tool. This includes the third gen update where we added timing marks to the tool that line up with the marks on the cam gears, so it's nearly impossible to get the timing wrong, and we've also increased the length of the upper arms and added in horizontal supports to make the tool even stronger. We also gave it a true ninja appearance because we felt it should look the part.

Please note that the tool is very precisely made so there's no slop - if the cam gears aren't perfectly aligned, it will seem like it's the wrong size. Tweak the gears' rotations until it slides in smoothly as opposed to modifying the tool.

They're produced in-house on our high-end Markforged printers. This has allowed us to drop the price while shortening our supply chain.

Exclusive to Flyin' Miata!

Note: the image showing the tool and the video above shows the 3rd generation tool.

NA (1990-97) : Maintenance : Tools

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