Mk1 steering wheel change

Technical Area Body, Interior & Styling
1
  1. My model of MX-5 is: __NA
  2. I’m based near: __Barmouth
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Changing steering wheel

Hi all, has anyone else come across this issue? I want to change the steering wheel on my mk1, (non-airbag), and bought a wooden-rimmed one from MX-5 Parts. This comes without a central boss and MX-5 Parts do not supply one so I had to source one from the interweb.

On trying to fit all this together it turned out that the boss didn’t fit because the holes for the indicator-cancelling studs weren’t big enough, so the boss didn’t sit far enough down on the splines, and the horn push on the new wheel has two terminal connectors on it whereas my original wheel only has one, (see pic.).

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I don’t understand why MX-5 Parts only provide half the parts needed to do a job either. Their battery clamp and tie-down strut comes without a nut and washer to hold it together, so if you don’t have one in your toolkit already you have to drive down to the hardware store with your battery rattling around in the boot. OK, you can tell I’m fed up now, I wasted a whole afternoon on this.

So before I give up completely, is this a problem anyone else has come across? And if so how did you resolve it?
Cheers,
Paul

2

I think you need to supply details of the boss your purchased. Your horn push would have live and earth connectors. Usually the earth just runs to the boss.

The picture you posted tells me nothing.

3

Does this help at all? Maybe not with the fact that the indicator ring doesn’t line up but maybe with the horn wiring.

4

Many thanks for that, it will be useful in future. The horn push on the wheel I bought had two connectors but I could not find a way to attach the extra one to the boss. The indicator cancelling stubs would not fit into the holes in the boss, which were too small in diameter when measured with a micrometer, this stopped the boss from sitting far enough down on the splines, and I don’t have the facilities to enlarge them accurately and safely.

I’ll keep a look out for a wheel that’s been taken from a 5 so I know it will fit, rather than trust a third-party boss that claims to fit but doesn’t.

Thanks again,
Paul

5

Which boss was this, so that other forum members can avoid it?

Moss sell a genuine Momo boss:

Early Canadian Miatas had non-air bag wheels. Here is a video about replacing this:

I’m pretty sure this is a fake Momo. It looks terrible.

6

FYI, this was the one I tried.

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7

Obviously as you say it doesn’t fit your car properly, you need to send it back.

You should have this on your car already:

The back of the boss looks like this:

Just sand down the plastic tabs a bit.