V8 Miata Wiring - It's easy to be brave from a safe distance…

For the last 4 months it has been easy to say “I’m not worried about the wiring”. Truth to be told the day I laid out the entire Camaro harness in the living room I began to feel a bit uneasy about it. If you missed that adventure CLICK ME.

It would have been easy to put this off and do fun things like weld up the transmission mount but I resisted the burning desire to weld more knowing the plumbing and electrical should get done before the engine is in the way.  I did the plumbing first because I thought that would be quick and easy.  Key word there is thought! 

I had an adjustable proportioning valve on the Camaro I wanted to use but the valve has 5/16s ASE fittings on it and the Miata brake lines are 8mm metric. Like everything in the build the easy answer is to send Flyin Miata a small fortune for custom adaptors. But I did what any cheapskate would do and eyeballed the 8mm brake line to figure out it is just a hair bigger than 5/16s, then lopped off the commie metric fitting and put a proper made in the USA 5/16s on them. 

My cheap and exceedingly brilliant solution was foiled because the Miata brake line is made from some funky hard material that splits when double flared.  After 3 failed attempts I ran around ripping off all Mazda emblems from the car in a tirade then replaced the entire rear brake line with NAPA brake line that flared like a dream. This is why we own American muscle cars people!

So with my warm fuzzy feelings about Mazda I faced the giant and opened up the Miata wiring harness. 

I quickly discovered 2 things that made me look for more Mazda emblems to rip off!  First there is a couple of weird data link connectors with useless wires that run all over the place and second the factory wiring diagrams are just marginally better than nothing.  At least nothing would be accurate! 

 To give you an idea of the scope of this the GM engine computer has 128 wires that need to find a home and the Mazda computer had 54 most of which need to be safely abandoned.  The 96 instrument cluster has 27 wires on 2 plugs that need to be completely rewired to 30 wires on 3 plugs for the 99 cluster, plus a speedo calibrator box with another 5 wires.  Ah but that’s just playing follow the string on 200 wires and doing a little soldering.  No biggie there. 

  What gets cute is all the little details like Mazda triggers most of their relays by supplying ground while GM triggers their relays by supplying power.  Then there is the Camaro anti-theft system that won’t let the car start unless the body computer (that I am not using) gives the OK to do so. Oh and there is no help on how to do any this because Flyin Miatas solution is a $1800 plug and play wiring harness.

Galatians 6:9
And let us not lose heart for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.
And with that good word if you don’t see another post for a month you know where I am!