build diary

February 12, 2004:
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

February 18, 2004:
I've been poring over wiring diagrams and trying to decide exactly what I want to do.
The picture is becoming clearer, but there are still some grey areas. It certainly would be cheaper and easier to simply run the stock setup from the car but that wouldn't do some of the things I want to do. My 1.8 coils did arrive today so I have everything needed...
entry 135

February 22, 2004:
Wiring work has begun in earnest.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about the various buttons and lights I want to use because it's fun. I've even found an extra ignition switch and key so I could use that if I wanted. But before I do that, I have some work to do on the harness. I'll weigh the leftover wires when I'm done, but based on what I saw on our Track Dog race car there is 20 lbs of wire waiting to be removed out of the harness. It's quite entertaining once you get started but it takes a bit of nerve. I'm trying to retain the stock 1995 wiring colours whenever possible but since my donor was a 1990 it's sometimes a little tricky. I've got a notebook full of notes as well as a factory manual and wiring diagrams for both 1990 and 1995. I've found some interesting things - including what appears to be the ability for a US-model car to honk the horn by jumping the right pins in the diagnostic connector. What?

On a different note, I had the scuttle and nose in place. Turns out there is minimal (ie, no) clearance between the engine and the hood. This might be fun to work out. I'll also have to cut out the bottom of the scuttle for my legs a little, but a lower seat would avoid this.
entry 136

This is a mounting point for the shoulder harnesses.
But it's on the back of the bar on the GRM frame while it's on the bottom of mine. Hmm.
entry 137
Hmm.
There's about 3" from the top of the head to the hood. Great. But the valve cover is just a little taller at the oil filler. I might have to move the fill hole like we did on the FM Track Dog race car.
entry 138
In order to the 1.8 coils on the 1.6 engine, I can mount them in the 1.6 bracket with a bit of modification.
That will be a nice clean setup.
entry 139
More wiring.
I draped the harness over the car to help with physical layout. I know the wiring of a Miata well but not when it's curled up on a workbench!
entry 140
The Link ECU doesn't use every pin in the wiring harness - you can see how some of the pins at the top are not connected on the single-layer circuit board.
Those wires come out!
entry 141
Missing connectors? Turns out the pins are the perfect size to take ECU connectors.
A bit of heat shrink and it's ready to go.
entry 142
There's a lot of weight to be saved by thinning out the wiring harness.
This is the wiring to make the headlights pop up, not including relays and motors!
entry 143
A local parts store find - front turn indicators for $2.99 each.
Plastic and super-light too.
entry 144
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