build diary

February 11, 2004:
Test-fitting the throttle pedal.
entry 114

February 12, 2004:
Oooh, that was a fun evening.
I disassembled a spare Miata seat (not mine, I'll have to find another to use permanently) and wedged it into the Seven. I like the way it looks and feels, so I think this will be my seat setup. Nice and affordable, too! This allowed me to confirm that the shifter position was good. I'll need a fairly deep spacer to make that steering wheel fit, but that's quite easy. All I need to do is check measurements for brake and clutch pedals to ensure they're not going to end up in some bizarre location. It's looking like a car right now!

I also looked at my steering column a little more. I've got an extra u-joint and it looks like I'll have to use it. I might be able to avoid that but the column would sit further away from the frame. I'm not completely decided yet. I need to get a welder into my garage so I can tack these things into place. On another note, it appears the shift mechanism for my transmission is wrecked. That's too bad, as it's a fairly low-mileage tranny. There's a 200k mile one sitting around our shop right now. Hmm..
entry 115

I got ready to re-assemble my donor transmission and whoops!
Bent shaft and a broken housing. Good thing I have access to lots of dead transmission parts.
entry 116
Seat test fit! This is going to work well.
entry 117
A side view.
Obviously this car could deal with a much taller driver.
entry 118
In order to fit the seat into place, I had to remove the recline mechanism.
I'll have to make a bracket to fix the seat in place.
entry 119
Steering shaft cam!
The shaft will go from the rack at the bottom of the photo, through a rod end then on to the firewall. I'll need three u-joints.
entry 120
My new throttle body in place.
I'll have to make an adaptor to put this 1.8 piece on a 1.6 intake manifold.
entry 121

February 13, 2004:
With a bit of unexpected free time (from the amount of work I do on this car, you might think I have nothing BUT free time), I puttered around with the car a bit more.
I'm not 100% sure what (if anything) I accomplished but it was fun enough. The throttle pedal and steering column are ready to bolt into place but I'm going to hold off on the pedal until I have my other pedals in place. The motor mounts are ready to be installed and I'm making progress in hunting down some donor seats. It helps having Miata friends all over the place. Of course, if my donor car hadn't been so comprehensively stripped I wouldn't be looking. One other small problem is that the reverse switch on the transmission is going to interfere with the bodywork. Not a huge problem really - I can probably light up the reverse lights with a dash switch.

GRM has discovered a problem with their car. The diff moves under acceleration and hits the frame. It turns out that CMC has added a front mounting point for the diff on my frame and that should hopefully avoid the problem. The stiffer, Shoe-Goo'd bushings should also help.
entry 122

February 14, 2004:
The transmission is fixed up and ready to go now.
I've got a working engine ready to drop in with the tranny. It's not the "real" engine for the car but it will allow me to troubleshoot the wiring, etc. I haven't decided exactly what engine will be going in the car, but both of the likely candidates are currently powering Miatas so it'll be a little while before I pull one out.

I've managed to find a driver's seat from a 1995, so there's that problem solved. The steering column is bolted into place and the motor mounts are drilled and ready to go. The next big job will probably be the wiring while I wait for my fuel cell, tie rods and other bits to arrive.
entry 123

Found my driver's seat!
entry 124
In order to fix the transmission, I need to pull off the extension.
Interesting stuff - I've never been inside a tranny before.
entry 125
Putting some undamaged parts in the extension housing.
I have to keep the same housing because the VIN is on it, and I need a paper trail for the tranny to show it's not stolen.
entry 126
The tranmission is ready to be installed.
It took a lot of cleaning!
entry 127
The steering column is bolted into place.
I did a little cutting to let the wheel sit slightly higher. It's not enough to cause strength problems with the bracket.
entry 128
A stock-size steering wheel in the Seven cockpit.
That's a big wheel! It's originally out of a Canadian-spec 1990 Miata.
entry 129
There's going to be loads of room available to work on the engine.
I think I'll put the ECU on this shelf to keep all the wires in the engine bay. The hole is for the stock Miata wiring harness so I'll probably plug it.
entry 130
The new diff mount that was not on the GRM car.
entry 131

February 16, 2004:
I started on the wiring last night.
It turns out that my donor car was cannibalized for many useful connectors before I got it. Most of the specialised parts I wanted are AWOL. Sigh. Still, it does have a lot of what I need. I've taken the harness apart so that I can make as neat a harness as possible and to ease the conversion over to the 1.8 computer.

The GRM car does have the same diff mounts that mine does, but they might not have the bolts fully tight. They also used smaller diameter bolts than I did.
entry 132

Wiring time!
I'm starting by unwrapping the Miata harness. I'm only going to use what I need.
entry 133
Looks like mice had a little fun with my wiring.
Oh goody.
entry 134
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