DanM

Todays challenge is to start working out how to make brackets for the 2 clutch switches (Neutral and interlock I think!?) that I have to install to pass my safety inspection. To be honest, I have no idea which one is which and the LAO1 looks like it is broken!! Not that that matters because the LHD pedal box does not have any brackets (or room it appears) to install them. So, once again I went to the local hardware store to find something suitable to repurpose. I found a 5" steel mending plate for less than $2 and went to work fashioning a bracket. First I drilled a 10mm hole for the switch. Then, I bent it in the vise and rough shaped with my angle grinder, before finishing it off with a hand file. All looks good after a test fit. Tomorrow I'll paint it and figure out how to mount the other switch.....not looking promising!!

I bought the 3M nozzles (Very expensive), but as you rightly pointed out, they were too big to squeeze in the rivet holes. I ended up using the small tubes you get with WD-40,etc.. Not as long unfortunately, but it was enough to achieve my goals (You can see the difference in size in the picture). An option I considered was to drill a bigger access hole and then bung it up afterwards.

The UK forum seem to use the Dinitrol

i used this.

It was a public holiday here in Ontario today, so I managed to get a few solid hours in the garage. 😁 First, I tied up a few loose ends around the fuel tank such as the vent hose and the earth. I decided to drill and tap a new earth screw on the upper triangle brace. Accelerator cable There are no instructions in the manual for attaching the accelerator cable to the pedal box, so once again I turned to some of the LHD build threads to figure out what to do. I decided to hog out a rectangle hole in the pedal box and fit the cable connector as-is. Hogging out Shaping with a file. A quick spray of paint in the bare metal and then inserted. Happy with that!! Next, I had to adjust the pedal assembly to receive the cable. Step 1, enlarge the hole to 3/8 inch, step 2, cut a slot to slide in the cable, Step 3 quick spray of paint. Installed and connected Last job of the day...start to prep the side panels with kilmat ready for final install.

Nice looking piece of kit! Looking forward to seeing it come together.

More Steering work this week... I made progress on the steering shaft bracket. First, I used the angle grinder to cut out the piece that I needed. Then, after a lot of positioning and fettling I chose a location for the heim joint and used a step drill bit to make the 5/8 hole. (BTW Heim joint has a 5/8 bore for the Mazda steering shaft). One drilled more fitting and fettling was required before cutting off the excess material and giving it a quick squirt with some paint to protect the bare metal. Test fit After the final cut and paint I used 8mm bolts to secure it to the engine mount. Once everything was in position, I drilled the DD shaft ready to secure the U-joints. Ready for final install. Once I am ready for the final fit, I will use thread lock to keep everything tight and together. Tomorrow I'll start to look at where the steering shaft passes through the footwell. Unfortunately I didn't save the Mazda boot for this area, does anyone have photos of what they used.

Go for it! It would be great to get a bit more build activity on the forum. I'd definitely follow it!!

That makes total sense. I guess we'll know for the next one! lol

Lol no wonder it didn't fit, my kits didnt come with the part on the left (Upper spline)!!

@lg2kWow! I'm impressed that you managed to use the engine mounted steering shaft bracket! I chose to keep the Miata shaft as-is, and as a result the U-Joint would have interfered.

Thank you for the input guys. I really appreciate it. @lg2k Any pictures you can share will be great. We all seem to fly blind here. I'm trying to future proof as well and I have no idea whether my set up will interfere with a turbo in years to come!

More work on the steering shaft this week. Mainly cutting the 3/4DD shaft to length and thinking through how I will support the Mazda portion of the shaft. I am deliberately posting lots of photos for future LHD builders as this is typically a grey area for us! Using a round to test various lengths of DD shaft. Cutting to length. I marked the desired length with a marker and cut to the tape. I used the belt sander to slowly bring it to correct length. End to end test fit From above Through the footwell Now I have to figure out how to secure the Mazda portion of the shaft. I cannot weld so I am looking around to find existing brackets that I can repurpose. I found this and will prototype a bracket using one of the 90 degree supports and bolt it to the engine mount bracket with a heim joint. See mark up. Anyone have other ideas? I was also thinking of bending a 1/8 steel flat into a rectangle shape and bolting it to the fame, but wasn't sure if 1/8 would be strong enough.

Its been a snowy couple of weeks in Ottawa and now the temps are about to drop to about -29C over the weekend. Now that my replacement u-joint has arrived I am back on the steering shaft. The 5/8 - 36 spline I had ordered was a really tight/impossible fit, so much so that I destroyed it by exerting too much force trying to push it on. After searching the internet I found a 16mm - 36 spline equivalent made by "woodward machine" and had it shipped. This is an example of how we get stung here in Canada....the part was $85USD, plus $40USD shipping then $66CAD brokerage fees and tax. All in it cost me about $200 Canadian, for a u-joint!! 🤬 Anyway, swiftly moving on..... To my delight the 16mm fitted perfectly to the Mazda shaft. Next I secured the bracket near the steering rack. It needed a new 8mm hole drilled through so it could connect to the air filter bracket. I used a bunch of washers and a zip tie to keep it all in place while I drilled. Drilled Painted and secured with an 8mm bolt and washers for spacers. Bracket from the side. It connects to the front lower control arm bolt. Now its time to figure out the angles before I cut the DD shaft and fabricate a bracket to hold it all together. Any tips on U-joint angles?

Today I spent some more time on the fuel system. First, I modified the fuel pick up as per the instructions in the manual. As it came out As it went back in Then I turned my attention to connecting the fuel hoses. This is where I started to lose concentration a little. I couldn't visualize how the hoses would route themselves around the chassis, differential and control arms. The angles, just seemed awkward and clumsy and didn't seem optimal at all. I think if I built another Westfield I would angle the fuel hard lines differently and perhaps reposition the fuel pump and/or filter. Anyway, I got so distracted by this that I completely missed the directional aspect of the fuel filter and plumbed it back to front, wasting a length of fuel line. Eventually after many hours of pondering I gave it another go and after moving the fuel pump a little in the bracket I managed to get the hoses in position. Not sure if its the perfectionist in me, but I'm still uncomfortable with the routes and radius', but it all seems to connect together so I'll leave at that for now.

So I had a little trouble fitting the 3/4 DD x 5/8 u-joint on the Mazda steering shaft, so I ordered the 16mm equivalent to see if that gives me the extra wiggle room to fit it on. In the mean time I turned my attention to wrapping the rear harness so I can install the fuel tank. After discussing some options I opted for convoluted tube wrapped in Tesa tape. First I taped all the joints to keep the harness shape, then I removed the harness and fitted the convoluted tubing (in the comfort of my living room.) Once I was happy with the fit, I started to wrap with the Tesa tape. I have ever seen or used Tesa tape before, and my first impressions are what an amazing product! It looks good, it feels quality and its very easy to handle and apply. I chose the high temp tape 51036. The finished loom looks factory quality...well almost! 😜. The only downside I found was that it takes away some of the flex in the wiring so fitting it back on the car took some fettling, especially in the rear near the fuel filter where the loom splits and feeds into the diff area. For my grounds I used a dremel to clear away the powder coat and installed a washer to provide more surface area contact. (Picture shows it not fully screwed in). Fuel tank With the rear harness in place, I turned my focus on the fuel tank. My plan was to install the hose connectors and hoses before installing the tank, however both the 12mm hose and one of the connectors were missing from the kit. Instead, I fitted what I had and then installed the tank on the car. Time to order more parts....

Steering column This evening I made a start laying out a route for the steering shaft. I think I mentioned before, Wesfield do not have a LHD build manual. All they provide is a 15 years out of date and incomplete RHD manual. As a result one of the key parts of the build (the steering) is left to us to figure out for ourselves. To make it even more fun, they provide some LHD specific steering parts that don't really fit anywhere! Thankfully I'm not the first LH builder and I managed to find some old threads and conversations on the UK forum that were quite useful. I also spoke to some LHD builders who shared some photos to help. From what I can tell I'm trying to run the shaft under the coolant hoses, around the engine mounts, over the exhaust and then up through the footwell. Easy right!? lol Starting at the bottom, I have a ford connection to the rack which is held in place by the Westfield provided support bracket. The bracket doesn't fit the frame very well, but I think its still usable if I fill the obvious gap with some washers. From here I connect the first U-joint adaptor (9/16" - 36 spline to 3/4" DD) to the 3/4" DD universal shaft. At some point along the length I will cut the DD shaft and attach the second U-joint adaptor (3/4" DD to 5/8" - 36 Spline). This will join the DD shaft with the lower Mazda steering column which passes through the footwell and connects to the Mazda upper steering column. Just got to figure out where to poke it through the foot well and how far along the shaft to cut! I'll leave that one for tomorrow! 🙂

Thanks @MV8. I will definitely take your advice on this one re: dimples, loctite and painting. Not sure exactly what they are going to propose for the driveshaft, we discussed some options and they are going to put together a plan for me. 2.25" and dodge joints does sound very familiar though!! BTW that's a very tidy looking Miata there! It looks mint!!

Took a visit to "Ottawa Driveshaft and Steering" today to talk about shortening or fabbing up a driveshaft for me. Turns out that my U-Joints have seen better days so I'll be getting one fabricated. I have a 1990 1.6L engine and gearbox with a 99-05 differential and driveshaft from a 1.8L. Rather than give them the dimensions from the manual I took some measurements from the car instead and gave them that. They're going to make one up with a thinner shaft so I can get a better clearance in the tunnel. Next task for me is figuring out the LHD steering set up to navigate the exhaust, etc. Here's my collection of new parts to play with. I'm hoping to join the Ford parts that connect to the rack to the MX5 upper column parts with these U- joint adaptors and universal centre 3/4 DD shaft that will be cut to length. The heim joint will hold it in place on a bracket that I will have to make. Fingers crossed it'll work out!!

Thanks for the kind words @JohnCh. You're absolutely right about the anxiety! One thing is for sure, you definitely learn a lot about yourself doing a build, what ever it is!! lol

So, I'm writing this to try and convince myself that I'm actually making progress. I'm guessing that if people give up on a build its around this time, when they have wiring fatigue and they have reached a point where everything they think about doing, has an impact to some other part of the build. Being such a pensive guy, it takes all my effort not to overthink things and just freeze up....and when I do make a decision I realize I'm missing some hardware and it has to go on hold again. On top of that Winter has finally set in were back to regular snow storms and frigid temperatures. To help get some motivation back, I decided to go on a spending spree to make sure I had things when I needed them. Seeing lots of boxes of parts coming through the door has certainly lifted my spirits a bit, although my wife has started making comments about Amazon blowing up her inbox with notifications!! 😏. The list included: Silicone hoses and intake parts. Windscreen Washer kit Momo Steering wheel Tesa tape Convoluted tubing Interior LED lights Borgeson Steering parts (U-Joints and DD shaft) Oddessy battery Caterham push button switches ....... Hopefully this will keep me going and help get me over the hump. So what have I been doing? Well, the only visible changes since the last update are the completion of my relay trays and installation of my washer bottle. Washer bottle For some reason my Miata bottle was completely different to the one in the build manual and completely unusable in the Westfield. I opted for this universal bottle. Looks compact and tidy! Relay Trays The relay brackets & trays were made from scratch. They're not much to look at but I'm really proud of myself for taking the time to put them together. Bent into shape and sprayed (The small one is a modified piece from the donor) JB Welded to the aluminium tray All sprayed up with relays positioned. Time for install. Two trays in place! There is still plenty of electrical to do, but I think I'm going to take a break for my sanity. Now I have my steering column parts I think I'll tackle that next.

Started focusing on the dash panel wiring today. My centre dash panel will have switches for the Horn, Demister and Hazards and I will also add future proof wiring for AFR and Boost gauges. I made a quick mock up of the dash panel to help me get some spatial awareness. From the back I have finally reinstated a bunch of the ground wires that I had removed to help untangle the illumination wire birds nest that I caused. I may install a ground bar to help tidy these up. Anyone else done this? My inline fuse holders for the AFR/Boost Gauges and USB ports.

That’s exactly how I’m doing mine. I really want to see a good crimp before I cover it.

For sure! It’s sooo easy to use and seal! …..just gotta remember to put it on before you crimp!!! 🤣

Awesome!!! Thank you guys, this is very helpful!!! 🍻