Removing an airbag from a MX5 may not render that car inton the same state as a factory non-airbagged car without further modification.
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The seatbelts maybe different; some markets use seatbelts that use tear away sections. When removing the airbag, the stituching needs to be unpicked, or the belt replaced.
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Airbagged cars have a different steering column from pre-1996 non-airbagged cars. All MX5s have a collapsible steering column. As far as I can make out, the steering column has a welded bracket that secures it to the dashboard bar, and which must break after a certain amount of movement. On airbagged cars, a pin engages with a slotted hole on a shim, which would seem to cause the dash bar to bend during an impact, causing a slight delay until the steering column support brackets break.
A Miata with the dash removed, showing the shim plate and the pin:
From 1996, non-airbagged cars incorporated the same dog-legged stalk controls as airbagged cars. These cars included the shim. Because the shim spaced the steering column down about a quarter of an inch, the steering wheels in these cars had an eccentric boss; the centre of the wheel wasn’t centred, in order to create more space between the legs and the rim of the wheel. I assume the same is true of airbagged wheels. So when you come to fit an aftermarket wheel, with a normal centred boss, the wheel can actually rub on the legs. The solution is to remove the shim plate; the pin doesn’t stop the support brackets from fitting properly against the dash bar.
What I did on my 1996 Roadster, replacing the factory Momo with a Nardi wheel fitted with a 1994 factory Nardi boss.
Eccentric factory boss
Steering column with shim in place
Shim removed