What have you done to your Miata today?

As expected, getting all the geometry right so that I could use the stock mounts was a massive pain in the ass. The driver's side one especially, as it had to be worked around the brake pedal.
As NOT expected (because I was a bit concerned, honestly, about having to re-engineer the lower mounts) it stiffened things up massively. Easily as stiff as stock, maybe better.

Driver's side mount in progress...




Plenty of brake-pedal clearance.




Passenger side mount. Much more room to work with there.



Motor installed. Plenty of room.
Also, check it! I can get about 1" of tilt on the column :D




Down:




Up:




I got the heavy-gauge wires for the motor installed and terminated, and installed the potentiometer in the switch box before I ran out of time.

 
Last edited:
beefcake.jpg
 
Does it count as weight gain if all the weight I gain is coming right back out? ;)

I'll wait until I have the new rack in since the power rack is a little bigger / beefier than the manual rack (as it's basically a big hydraulic cylinder, instead of a basic rack & pinion like the manual rack). Once that's done and in, the ballast gets hogged out :)
 
I got sick of the dingus-arm on the adjuster catching my pant leg or accidentally disengaging it with my shoe. I played with it some and the length and shape is 100% for clearing the dash / column shrouding, and 0% for leverage.
This is more betterer




After slapping a coat of paint on all the raw-steel brackets and re-installing everything, I had to put the new steering wheel on because LOOK AT IT :D

 
Very nice work Andrew!!!! Question, doing all this, aren't you missing some races?

Nope. Next event is October 8th, and the important bits only came apart last weekend. Everything else has been done with the car ready to go. And if I don't get it done this weekend, all the PS stuff comes out and the stock column goes back in. No biggie. Takes maybe 15 minutes to swap everything.
 
Hahaaaa! It works :D
I mean not that I ever doubted. Right? Right.

The system test was successful. Sketchy AF, but the damn thing works. Like...I could turn the steering without the wheel on the QR.
Lots of electrical tape and a small amount of "holding the ground wire onto the pin on the switch", but good enough for a test before permanent connections are made this weekend.

 

It's so rad. I had to turn it down to about 1/3 power just to have some heft in the system with the tiny steering wheel attached. It's going to be SO good with the quicker rack and / or a quickener at some point.
 
Tidied up the wiring (taped / loomed / zip tied in place), then made a mount for the tach / shift light that can be seen both from the driver's seat, and on camera. I like using it to compare speeds between different runs on video, as it makes a really good, easy visual.
After some trial and error and playing around with it some, putting it right on top of the upper steering column mount put it in exactly the right place.





 
Here's trouble... (rlaugh)





The new steering? Heh, yeah, it's f**kin' good :D

 
I think youre trouble, the kid hopefully takes after mom!

I'm not sure that's going to be much better. The only reason she hasn't been driving has been ongoing health issues (including bad shoulders...she's had 3 shoulder surgeries over the last few years). That's one of the biggest reasons I wanted to put power steering in the car. There were others of course, but this was a big one.

Nice work on the steering column!

Thanks. Here's hoping it holds up over time. Though even if I need to replace it once a year (which I doubt, but let's just hypothesize worst case), it would be a $45 consumable. Not a huge deal. And if it ever fails completely at an event (which again, I have no reason to think it will, but just in case), we'll just get a shoulder work out after we pull the fuse and disable the system. It'll still work as a normal steering column.
 
New trunk lighting.


Seems like a small thing, but as we get into the always-dark-after-work season, it'll be nice to be able to see the stuff I've put back there.


These pictures were taken in a dark garage with no flash. That is just the trunk lights!


Oh, and if you're curious about all that crap on the inside of my trunk lid, those are pieces of magnetic vinyl that I've used to make autocross numbers, and the duct tape AMG GTC "badges" I made for last month's Mercedes club autocross! ;-)


Now that I know I can successfully solder wiring to the led strips, and that they're REALLY bright on 12V, I'll be adding strips to the top of the hatch areas in our Mazda5 and Mazda3, both of which have the same trunk lighting fault that our P5 had: One tiny-ass light, set on the side of the hatch area which is immediately rendered useless when the first grocery bag (or ANYTHING else) gets set in front of it. Overhead LED strips should take good care of that!


IMG_20171022_001320-X2.jpg


IMG_20171022_001332-X2.jpg


IMG_20171022_001338-X2.jpg
 
Oh, I installed some of that LED strip lighting for interior lighting a few weeks ago, too!

It's great, but I really can't turn on the interior lights while driving or it glares off of the inside of the glass so much that I can't see!

IMG_20170926_000710-X2.jpg
IMG_20170926_000718-X2.jpg

IMG_20170926_071619-X2.jpg
 
Got me some new Spal fans, my eBay specials lasted 2.75 seasons, crapped out during my 5th run last autox. Great timing! Blade backed off and rolled into the other blade and knocked that one loose. I was able to limp home with one blade screwed back on.
 
Back