This is something I've been trying to avoid. After I tightened down the motor mounts and torque arm things moved. The torque arm hit the gas tank, and now the shifter hits the floor. I spaced up the fuel tank. But had no choice but to cut the floor, and shave the shift linkage.
Done. Washed the floor. Cut an old inner tube to cover the hole in the floor and glued it down. The shift rubber boot really stiffened up the side play on the shifter. Seat, steering column, and shifter all fit like a glove now. Pedals will need to be modified and moved left about 2" to make room for a throttle s****.
Radiator mounted. This is where ****s getting tight again. How do you guys think a pusher fan in front of the radiator will work? Realistically its only a 1.6L 4cyl Speaking of tight fit, this is how the air intake needs to be. TIGHT! It will work there though. Just need to make a heat shield so its not a hot air intake. Not sure if that's really necessary though, this is how most miatas I've seen are.
pullers work so much better than pushers when it comes to electric fans.. if you have to use a pusher, put a bit of foam between the plastic body of the fan shroud and the radiator core face. that way the air gets forced thru the core vs going out between the fan body and the core.
Faira Corp meters. Dunno if that series is still available but they are still around, more marine useage than auto. Is the ampmeter currently functional? IIRC the early 1.6 cars only used a 60A alternator. So you could still use it. Your original alternator was probably only 30A anyway, might not have shown much movement with the original stuff.
Went to the junkyard yesterday looking for electric fan options. Ended up buying a Volvo fan, prior experience tells me they are slim and insanely powerful puller fans. As I was leaving I ran into a rock crawling buddy that works there. We get to talking and he says "just go to my house and get the fan off my wall" I told him I wasn't comfortable just going to his place with no one there, I'd let him know if the volvo dont fit. Welp.... volvo fan didn't fit... Bro gave me a brand new Spal pusher fan he bought for his rock buggy not knowing it was a pusher. I cannot believe how good this thing fits! Wired up to miata harness and installed. Hides nicely.
Speaking of tight fit, this is how the air intake needs to be. TIGHT! It will work there though. Just need to make a heat shield so its not a hot air intake. Not sure if that's really necessary though, this is how most miatas I've seen are. The k&N kit I bought in 2004 came with a foil insulated metal heat shield. All though my headers are just bare metal, the filter still looks like new. Phil
1st start was a bit shaky. Just cranked and wouldn't fire. Had spark. Started second guessing my fuel line routing, took a gasoline shower. They ended up being right the first time. Put everything back the way I originally had it and she fired. Shook real bad. Had a misfire. Some jack*** (me) messed up the sparkplug wires. Smoothed right out. Exhaust note is spot on. Super quiet at idle, but barks with the throttle. Doesn't sound like a rice burner
If anyone that works on cars tries to tell you they have never crossed a couple of plug wires, they are lying. It takes a real man to own up to the dumb mistakes we have all made. Rest ***ured, it will happen again, its one of those things that keeps you humble. Probably doesn't make you feel much better, I believe crossing plug wires is sort of a right of p***age. You are officially part of the family! Welcome aboard.
Oh its not my first rodeo screwing up firing orders haha I had to mount the coil upside down and backwards to make it fit. Common sense didn't follow
As I lay here standing on my head, pondering my life choices and what led me to this uncomfortable position, I realized that I am probably the only person getting this intimate with this truck since a man in Yokohama Japan in 1959.
Wired the ignition, engine starts. White smoke under the dash... one of the factory wires got hot. Going to have to track that down another day.
Getting under the dash has to be one of the worst positions a guy has to get in, especially in a pickup cab! It gets a lot worse as we get older, less limber, a bit more round, and the eye sight isn't as good. The last 3-4 vehicles I've built, I have removed the dash, and fit' everything in there I wanted so it functioned correctly. Then I built a cover to hide it all. I'm not sure 'easy' is the correct word for that concept, but 'easier on the back' sure is. 'Easier' to get at things to do a repair is also true. A dozen Philip's head screws (screwed into replaceable spring clips) and I have access to everything under the dash, while my **** is parked on the seat! You still may have to move a bunch of stuff out of the way to get to what needs to be fixed, but you are not doing it laying on your back. This is the dash in my 49 Dodge truck, it has functioned well for over 30,000 miles (no squeaks or rattles). The dash I did in my 48 Plymouth has been been apart a couple of times in the 90,000 miles I have driven it, every time I have to do something "under" it, I am very happy I put in the effort to do it this way.
Im not changing anything in the dash other than attaching the miata wiring to the key. Atleast that was the plan until the hot wire i experienced earlier. Way back in the beginning of this thread I was informed that datsuns were positive ground... so I am most likely pushing 14.7v straight into a ground on whatever that wire is hooked to...
That was something I discovered way back when I was still climbing under dashes looking for stuff, old habits die hard. It is amazing how much easier it is to see stuff under the dash when its painted white (or a different bright color) under there. Doesn't even have to be a pretty paint job, but consistent color is very helpful.
Still fighting with wiring. Thought I was ready to tuck everything up when I learned that somehow I lost headlights and dash lights. Im thinking I clipped a shared ground under the dash somewhere. I still have tail, signals, and front marker lights... Fuel guage question. Internet says 1991 miata sending unit runs 2-4 ohms empty, 100-110 ohms full. "Early datsun" sending unit runs 80-90 ohms empty, 10-12 ohms full. Theoretically couldn't i just reverse the posts on the guage and it would work pretty close?
I lost sleep over that last night. To the point where I wanted to fix it at 3am. Another thing thats not making sense. The miata had the cooling fan Jerry rigged with a "custom" harness and relay. They pulled the stock relay from the fuse panel, then plugged spade terminals where the relay was. Ran new wires and a new relay to the fan. No idea why they did that? Im thinking they didn't want to buy the stock relay when it died, and used what they had?
I did that once, I was at an out-of-town show and the fan relay fried and I byp***ed it...wired the fan directly. When I would shut off the ignition, the fan turned into a generator, feed power back though the ignition and the car would "diesel" until the fan stopped spinning.
The Jalopy Journal
