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gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - unlowering the green machine


gm

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with the loom being fairly exposed, I'm not sure fabric is the best choice - I bought a roll of decent quality 3m tape from screwfix which seemed to be working well when I wrapped a small test section. on the bright side, there's not that much left to wrap now I've chopped it all to bits :) 

I nipped into the garage for a quick tinker tonight and (drum roll please) it started first turn of the key - mega sigh of relief 

note also the conspicuous absence of a wiper stalk on the column, no need for that anymore 

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I've ordered up a bunch of multi plugs off eBay to make it pretty and we'll see about getting this new immobiliser fitted

it would appear that the 'genuine cobra' kit that I bought is made by vodafone in Italy - the wiring set up is the same as the one I took out so should be fairly straightforward, I ticked off a nice easy job and fitted the receiver :) 

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It's been a busy week at work so not much has happened in the garage, I managed a couple of hours yesterday but fancied a bit of an easy job.

before I finalise the wiring loom, I need to sort out the lighting circuits ( I chopped them away to simplify the rest of the loom) 

not much point in using the original Mazda lights, lets have a look at the ones that came with the kit

oh dear, they're just a little bit fugly :( 

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easy enough to fit though

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they are designed to attach to the mudguards and the fuel tank cover, both of which are still cluttering up the spare room - time for a bit of improvisation then

an offcut from the scrap wood pile and more of those terminal blocks and we have a sort of trailer board

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neat wiring 

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how's it look from the other side ?

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hmm, those lights will need some sort of tint if I keep them, still not pretty :( 

let's hang it off the back of the car and see if that helps

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add some juice

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ooh, bonny :) 

but how about moving them up here

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that looks suitably mental, shame I won't be keeping it like that

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the number plate is the one off the donor mx5, I'll have to surrender that and will be issued one of the same year - not sure why but thems the rules

 

the postie also dropped this bag of delights on my doormat - should keep me busy for a while

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - lights and a camera but not much action
  • 2 weeks later...

I took this week off work so I could get loads done - job number one, sort out the ridiculous ride height of the mx5

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the problem here is that I've fitted uk spec mk1 suspension and those pesky pedestrian safety regs mean it sits up high like a 4x4

but I happened across someone who has upgraded their suspension and was about to chuck out the old stuff - i nipped round with a case of beers and came away with this set of mk2 shocks

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will hopefully improve the jelly like handling and restore the ride height closer to normal

i had the rears swapped over in record time (half an hour each side) but the front put up a bit* of a fight - a good 2.5 hours later, I removed the jacks and let it settle to its new improved stance

exactly the fucking same as before :( 

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it does handle a whole lot better so was not totally pointless :) 

 

 

now, onto the exo - I'm at the point where the wiring loom is sapping my will to live so chose to do a nice easy job using proper tools

let's get those seats fitted

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the standard mx5 runners needed a bit of fettling but once I'd got that sorted, the seats bolted straight in :) 

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yes, they are about as comfy as they look !

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a common mod is to fit foam cushions designed for canoes, I'll be ebaying a set of those asap - this sort of thing should do the trick

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If this thing is ever ever going to hit the road, I'd better sort out some brakes - these are what came off the donor - pretty manky but they did work

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a bit of whizzy wheel action and they're looking better already

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I then applied the worlds shittest calliper paint

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they don't look too bad in the pics but the finish is dreadful - won't matter once they've got a good coating of dust on them but I wish I'd not chosen such a bold colour

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the pile of receipts is growing steadily - I'm deliberately not adding them up, I'd rather not know just yet :) 

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And that's a weeks work - how have I managed to get so little done ? 

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4 minutes ago, hairnet said:

anything neoprene would do if it fits innit?

the lights only need to stay for the test........riiight?

it get rereg as youre not using enuff of the donor i think

or did they change the rules re chassis again?

I'll do the lights properly and see if they grow on me, if not, I can change them post iva. It will get a new K reg number plate, or I may splash out and buy a cheap K...EXO plate if there's anything left in the kitty.

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - seats installed, comfy not !

Back to the wiring again today - I kicked off with the immobiliser that I'd fitted yesterday that was doing its job rather too effectively - the bugger wouldn't start at all :( 

It is a dual circuit system that cuts the feed to both the injector relay and the starter motor - as soon as I reconnected those circuits, it fired no problem. Maybe it is a duff unit ? I set the multimeter up and tested the isolation circuits, which behaved perfectly - as soon as I touched the fob to the receiver, both circuits closed as expected. Confusing stuff. 

Time to have a look back at the (rather basic) installation guide - the unit has two grounds and two switched lives, the instructions say to connect these to separate circuits, presumeably to make wire tracing a bigger headache for the crims. For ease of testing, I had both switched lives coming off the same circuit, logically it shouldn't have made a sod of difference but, as soon as I moved one of them, normal behaviour was restored. 

Funny stuff, this electricity - has a bit of a mind of its own at times :) 

Feeling motivated by this sucess, I thought I'd have a go at the rest of the harness. Remember it currently looks like this

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All of those choccy blocs will need to make come out which was a perfect time for my soldering iron to run out of gas :( 

Five different shops had to be visited to find one that sells lighter gas, I was so pleased I bought two :) 

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Several hours later, we have this

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which is a deliberately misleadingly framed shot of this

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about half way there but progress has been satisfying, and most importantly, it still runs :) 

tomorrows task : sort this lot into something similar

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Getting there, slowly but surely 

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I've been doing a bit of homework on batterys

this is what came out of the donor - a bit of a chunky old feller

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which will be replaced at some point by a much neater solution - I'll sneak one onto my Christmas list and be extra good this year :) 

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3 minutes ago, sickboy said:

Wow impressive work! You're a braver man than me getting that into the nitty gritty of a *modern car's loom

I'm following your Falcon thread with great interest, I wouldn't know where to start with all of the fabrication you have been doing - impressive stuff - this is just big meccano that I'm doing :) 

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - seats installed, comfy not ! plus lots of wiring stuff

 a few more hours were spent doing battle with the wiring monster

this mess on the right hand side

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now looks a lot tidier

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the choc blocs will be eventually replaced with multiplugs 

the layout had to be taken into three dimensions (a handy jump lead hanging from the ceiling to hold stuff out of the way)

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reinstall the dash and give it a test

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100%* working :) engine, lights, hazards, indicators, reverse and fog lights, even brake lights. pushing the horn button made the indicators light up but that was deliberate - I didn't want to be testing the horn late on at night. the immobiliser is integrated into the harness fully and works as it should, I'm pretty pleased with that job.

I needed to sort out a fog light switch - will this pass Iva ? I see no reason why not, although I may relocate it somewhere less exposed

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I'm not planning to wrap the loom until I'm sure I'm happy with everything - I'd hate to have to undo any of this

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looks like my hazard / foglight bodge might not be needed - I'd ordered these off eBay before noticing they were from china and wouldn't be delivered until mid December - turned up yesterday :) 

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they should fit neatly in the corners of the dash pod

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my mirrors also turned up - looking suspiciously like they belong on a moped, they have funky built in indicators

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on the mirror side too

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pretty neat

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - wiring is finished* plus exciting news about wing mirrors
  • 2 weeks later...

a bit of a conundrum on the rear fog light - its currently wired so that it will only come on if dipped beam is on (used to work on the sidelight circuit but apparently that is wrong for the Iva) but, as I discovered last night, switching to full beam knocks the dipped beam and therefore the fog light off :( some sort of diode required ? 

anyway, a bit of progress in the wiring department

this

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now looks like this

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much better - took bloody ages though

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remember when this happened back in September ?

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when I fitted the replacement radiator, I had no coolant handy so just used tap water (belated thanks to my assistants who made multiple trips to the gents to fill volvic bottles for me)

so, being as winter is on it's way, I though it might be wise to get some real coolant in there so I don't twat another radiator

hmm, clear as the day it went in

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I took the thermostat out and gave it a good flush with the garden hose, seemed to clear out a fair bit of gunk

the overflow tank was a bit manky too

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but how the hell do you clean that ?

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aha, needs a quick tickle with the hacksaw

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and refill with lucazade

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of course, my 'funnel' fell over and spilled all over the shiny*, clean* paint :( 

 

I used top value eBay coolant - four x 5l premixed for £30 delivered, way cheaper than I could find locally

 

 

 

 

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  • gm changed the title to gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - brakes, brackets and (of course) more wiring
20 hours ago, gm said:

a bit of a conundrum on the rear fog light - its currently wired so that it will only come on if dipped beam is on (used to work on the sidelight circuit but apparently that is wrong for the Iva) 

Have MoT regs changed too? Most things seem to be wired so fogs come on with sidelights, although on my VW the switch physically won't allow rear fogs until the headlights are on

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3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Have MoT regs changed too? Most things seem to be wired so fogs come on with sidelights, although on my VW the switch physically won't allow rear fogs until the headlights are on

on my mx5 (a Japanese import which didn't have a factory fog light)  the rear fog is set up so it can be used when on side, dip or beam - and has never been an issue for a normal mot. 

reading the IVA manual though, things appear to be different - see point number 4 here :

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and note 4 here :

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clear as mud then 

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