build diary

June 21, 2005: The Seven is going to be ignored for the next couple of weeks.
Between building and testing the Flyin' Miata car for the Car and Driver Superfour Challenge, resurrecting my own Miata to take to Michigan (long story) and testing various chassis reinforcements on Janel's little blue car, I'm just not going to have time. I did spend a few minutes poking around the 2001 instrument cluster, though. In 1995, Mazda changed the oil pressure gauge to a simple on-off device that looks like a gauge. My fully functional 1990 pressure gauge will not bolt into the 2001 cluster. Instead of running the car with a gauge that looks like a gauge but acts like a light, I've decided to install a water temperature gauge in there instead. The stock Miata water temperature gauge has a large "sweet spot" and isn't exactly linear. I might use the driver for the fuel gauge instead, I just have to check the resistance values. I am hopeful. Some surgery of the gauge faces will be required in order to get them to fit in their new homes but that's easy to do with scissors. And the oil pressure gauge? It will be replaced with an obnoxious light set to about 7 psi. If there's an oil pressure failure, I want to know about it immediately.

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