- My model of MX-5 is: __NA
- I’m based near: ULSTER__
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __STEERING COLUMN
THINGS you wish that you’d left alone?? no… i had an idea to put separate guages in the eye ball vents in the top run of the dashboard and one of them isn’t just 2 slim wires its a capillary mercury or alcohol tubed affair similar to those in old race cars or MG’s , that and the fact that i couldn’t see any alternative than pulling the dash out and remove whatever constrictions were involved, it would aslo let me see easily how to remove the cabin part of the aircon and clean and tidy up any wiring and remove the wad of carpet still affixed under the central tower thing… do you ever wish you had not began a plan, picture this, open air surgery, roof up and down like a wh#res drawers, 30 years of neglect , a light surface rusted covered central strengthening bar, a steerer. column that hadn’t really a good strong fix on this cross bar… my question is is this steering column adjustable as the fancy washers, slotted are obviously that way to allow inward or outward movement, what i wanted was to lower the column maybe 30mm allowing the wheel closer to my legs as i find the driving postion while low the column seems too high… so everything is now de rusted, painted, and ready for insertion when i get my carpet fitter harnessed he wants to work without the dash… w
Post-96 and airbagged Mk1s had a thick spacer on the column (post96 cars have steering wheels with an offset boss).
LHD Airbag car with the spacer sitting on top
Spacer removed
The spacer on my car, looking up under the steering column
And I removed this
Standard RHD car showing no spacer
thx, good pics . methinks someone has been in there in the distant past, who knows my gearbox change guy had the column down he said when fitting the clutch pedal and sawing off the left side of the brake pedal…and hadn’t really imo put it back correctly… knowing i would be in there … i’ll ask him about spacers, last nite when i was sanding and cleaning the cross bar on the bench i noticed that the left side of the place where the column meets the crossover bar was collapsed some what so i straightend / levelled it out again, i think i knew that at some time in the past a smack had happened, the front bumper had been replaced as the date on the plastic panel was 04 from memory and this on a 93 machine, so that had perhaps an effect , but there was not any sign of spacers as that would be exactly what i am looking for now… thanks for the pics, anybody got any spacers i could buy ?? w
my email is cherrycycle2@protonmail.com if anyone wants to send pics or do biz… will
Use thick washers as shims. From memory though, there is a loom that runs under the steering column that will limit how much the column can be dripped.
ok thx some pics of the prep for the reinstallation of dash and subsequent trim new carpet etc. i managed to refit the two dash parts together today, the cross bar and the plastics and have it installed, some of it rubber washer mounted. the hardset piece was the 10mm bolt centre top of the dash getting a spanner shaped to get it threaded and tightened was like threading a needle in pitch dark… some pics before with rubber underlay instead of felt… water doesn’t mind rubber and note temporary perhaps permanent place for the ECU and a reposition sorted in my head for the awkward inside drivers leg fuse box to the front of the dash above the bonnet handle with a hole proposed and 2 bolts fastening it…
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getting on famously, really?? all so far really loose laid as i had some mods to do and holes to cut. final fit monday and tuesday and then see if she fires up… theres more loom plugs than things to plug into!!!w
today until disturbed by paying guest, i sorted my only real bugbear with any NA vehicle… that inaccessible right knee sited behind the dash side of the inner guard,…so who in their tiny right thinking engineer led mind would have sensibly installed a necessary fuse box in such an awkward position ??? i’m a big shouldered chested man … not given to panic or of nervous disposition, but here and i’m reverting to pigeon local ulsterism ‘‘i got laired in there sir’’
Last autumn i become lodged between the seat and the steering wheel and then my neck gave a crack and i was in agony until i trailed myself out trying to replace a fuse … i swore loudly and for some time… and allowed that when i was in better form i would sort its position…pics later.w
I fully intend to place a strip of steel or good composite along the cut edge next the steering column under cover plate part…I probably should have sourced another dash, and a fusebox and did all this on the bench, I could have made a bit neater aperture, however as only my knee will be adjacent and a man on a galloping horse won’t see it and it looks ok from getting out and in and is so much handier to access… jobs a good un… will
When i eventually hooked up the dash instruments i had zero info , nothing , i checked as best i could and everything was correctly clicked in, no obvious breaks in the copper films…the only thing that lit up was the bulb telling me the trafficators were flashing… have asked a local mx5 breaker if he has any answers or another set of clocks…w