OEM Nardi Wheels for Dummies
 

The purpose of this thread is to consolidate all information pertaining to Nardi OEM steering wheels (that retain the airbag) to include, but not limited to, places to purchase, current price, all Mazda steering wheels that interchange with the FD, and installation. This thread is meant for information purposes only. If you mess up your steering wheel or the, God forbid, the airbag deploys, that’s on you. This is simply my experience. Feel free to add your experience or ask questions. Just passing it along.

Reference: http://www.silverbulletrx7.com/StWheel/StWheel.html
-Several threads on the forum.
-Herblenny, who owns prob. Every single FD wheel and airbag.

First, current places to purchase OEM Nardi Wheels that I know of are:

www.fdnewbieimports.com Ramy is a standup guy and is great asset to the community and comes highly recommended by forum members. Check the website for pricing. If you purchase from him, you will have piece of mind.

www.rhdjapan.com Ordered all kinds of parts from them and never had a problem. Send an email to them with what you are looking for and they will give you a quote

www.ebay.com The most regular distributor on eBay that I have seen is the RPM Garage. They are pretty average when it comes to the price, but they did sell a 99spec Nardi wheel today for $130shipped (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...195081707&rd=1)
Ebay is also the best place that I have found to purchase 99+ Miata/02-03 Protégé Steering wheels and air bags. Miata/Protégé wheels range from $50 to $150(special edition Miata or Protégé 5 wheel) and airbags range from as low as $80shipped on a really good day to as much as you want to pay.

www.miata.net Classified section has steering wheels and airbags on a regular basis. Prices vary.

Here is a picture of the 99 Nardi Steering wheel, GoodfellasFD3S and RX7 Rage have this wheel:
Attachment 704575
Here is a picture of the 00+ Nardi Torino Steering Wheel:
Attachment 704576
Here is a picture of a protégé 5 Steering wheel in an FD(courtesy of the silver bullet website linked above and further down in this post. Notice he fabricated a bracket from resin to retain his cruise control:
Attachment 704577
Here is a picture of one of my FD’s with a 03 protégé wheel and an 02 Miata Airbag. As you can see the texture on the side is a little different than the later model FD's and mine does not have the Nardi logo on the actual steering wheel. All in what you want I guess. Total cost to me was ~$130 so I didn't mind. I will prob. eventually replace my wheel with one with the logo eventually.:
Attachment 704578
Here is a picture of the 99 Miata Wheel:
Attachment 704579

The airbags and steering wheels that I have listed, as far as my experience, are all interchangeable(you will have to wire up the airbag). Also know that the Miata and Protégé will require slight modification. Read on…

Installation:

A GREAT reference for this is http://www.silverbulletrx7.com/StWheel/StWheel.html

1. Buy a new wheel and airbag
2. Disconnect the battery.
3. Remove the steering column surround by taking out the 3 phillips head screws and snaping the top and bottom apart carefully. Remove the three rubber plugs on the rear of the steering wheel and remove the 3 10mm bolts that hold the Air Bag in. Use common sense, if you can’t get to one of the bolts, turn the wheel where that bolt is facing the 6 o’clock position(Just make sure you turn it back straight when you are finished) You can see 2 of the 3 holes in the picture below, one is to the left of the GFDO1 stamp just for your reference:
Attachment 704580
4. Slowly pull the airbag away from the wheel to expose the connectors. Disconnect the connectors. The Large Blue one is the airbag intermixed with the cruise control. The orange connector is the horn.
5. Make SURE that the wheel is perfectly straight when you remove it. This will ensure that the new wheel is put on perfectly straight. Remove the large nut in the center of the wheel. Make sure you have a long enough extension for you socket that it does not scratch the wheel as you are loosening it. In order to remove the steering wheel, I use an actual steering wheel removal tool that can be purchased at pretty much any parts store. It is pretty self explanatory how to use so I won’t go into details. Some have had success simply wiggling the wheel from side to side and pulling it away as well. Here is a pic of what the tool looks like that I use:
Attachment 704581
6. Now, the old wheel is out. Time to prep the new wheel for installation. In order to do so, you will need to drill two holes for the clock springs. You can reference the size of hole you need to drill by placing your drill bit in the holes of the stock FD wheel and getting a snug fit. Here is what the stock FD holes look like:
Attachment 704580
And here is what the Miata/Protégé Steering wheel looks like before modification:
Attachment 704583
I did not snap any pictures of mine, but here is the picture of what the holes should look like after the drilling from the silver bullet write up:
Attachment 704584

7. Place the new wheel straight on the shaft. Push on firmly and put the large nut back on and tighten it down making sure it goes back.

8. Now comes the fun part. Connecting all the wires. On the airbag, there should be 2 wires. You can connect these 2 wires to the 2 airbag wires in the car in any order… it does not matter. I will caution you to be careful with this portion, you never know when something might malfunction. If you have both sides of the connector from your new airbag, I would suggest using it. You can solder the connector onto where the old airbag harness use to be. Otherwise, you will either need to solder the wires with the airbag hanging nearby or use some type of electrical connectors to crimp the wires. Make sure you put some type of insulator around the exposed wires.

9. You will also need to connect the horn wire in the car to the wire to the red wire pictured. Note, on this wheel the cruise control and horn are located on the same harness. If your new wheel does not have cruise, this won’t be an issue. Cut the wire from the harness and connect it the same way you connected the airbag wires.
Attachment 704585

10. Cruise Control(if you have it… and if you want to keep it): I purchased the protégé wheel with cruise control in the hopes that it might operate the same way as the FD’s system. No such luck. The protégé has 3 wires and the FD has 2. I plan on taking them both to a friend of mine that is an electrical engineer and see what he can do with them, but in the meantime, you can make your own bracket to hold the cruise control or relocate somewhere off of the steering wheel. Here is a picture from the silver bullet website. He used resin to fabricate his bracket.
Attachment 704577

11. Replace the bolts on the back of the wheel to secure the airbag.

12. Reconnect battery.

13. Get in car and turn key to on position. I always am very cautious during this portion. If all is well, start the car and make sure the air bag light is not on. If it is not on, you are finished… enjoy.
Attachment 704578

Brent

Now, I have a couple of questions for Ramy/Herblenny or whoever.

The steering wheels that came directly out of a later model FD(99+), I have always heard that you do not have to drill the holes for the clock springs. However, I pulled this picture from one of RPM garages auctions on ebay. They have 4 auctions currently for late model FD steering wheels... none of which have the holes at the twelve and six position:
Attachment 704588

Just wanted to verify that the auctual late model FD ones do have the holes at the 12 and 6.

Nice reference, thank you!

Does anyone happen to know if 99 spec/Nardi FD wheels can be bought with cruise control pods?

nice writeup :)

Yeah this is nice, and great timing, I was thinking about this.

Yeah, I just kind of threw it together yesterday. I have done 4-5 of these so far and am about to do another one in a few weeks prob. When I do, I'll make sure I take some better pictures to document everything. I also PM'd Phil about my question in post 2, so he should be chiming in anytime.

Anyone know if the steering wheel from a Mazda 3 will fit on the FD steering shaft as easily?


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-...sid=p1638.m118

I'm really digging that one!

Bryan, I would go to a junk yard and see if you can borrow one to see if it will fit, or just buy a cheap one. That way if it doesn't work, you aren't out that much. I thought about trying some of the new wheels, but haven't got around to it yet. Not to mention, I'm not sure about the wiring on the air bags either.

It will not.

tried it before I guess? Just curious as to your background in it. I thought about looking to see if any protege guys had put Mazda3 wheels into their cars under the logic that protege fits FD, so if Mazda3 fits protege mazda3 fits FD. I didnt find anyone though. (also didnt find anyone trying it either though...)

Good write up. Book marked.

I have seen that backside of the 3 wheel. It's nothing even close to ours. Ours is a spline type, the 3's wheel is like a hexagon fit, almost like a nut.

That protege wheels looks out of place with the fd interior.

I know Ramy from FdNewbie Imports, and I like him / his service as well, but
For the Nardi (W Nardi Logo) Wheel
Price: $425 Shipped ?

Is shipping $200.00+ ???

Maybe Ramy can pipe in here... ?? What makes that wheel so expensive ?? Possible GB ? (Hint Hint ??) :D

I got mine for $300 shipped.

Try rhdjapan.com

nice write up i'll be doing it this weekend

Sorry reading over it again, I was referring to this wheel... with the Nardi Logo, not the Mazda one...

Attachment 704593

Oh... you mean this one that sold for $130shipped? haha http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...195081707&rd=1


I would purchase one out of a miata and drill 2 little holes that take all of 5 minutes and save a couple hundred bucks. If you just want to spend more money, you need to check out ebay currently... there are a couple listed just type in "nardi rx7" into search.

Are all of these replacement steering wheels the same size in diameter? If not can you tell me the sizes?

The real funny thing is that auction shows this picture of the back, which means they're either selling Miata Wheels as RX7 Wheels, or the RX-7 had at one point the spring bolts in a different location... :scratch:

http://www.rpmgarage.com/RPM/ma123-R...g/P1200826.JPG

Exactly... see post 2 in this thread... I've been trying to figure out the answer to this question.

well I guess I won my auction... @ $200 ... Not bad considering the alternative, I paid more than the guy who paid $130 but from what I could tell the wheel was PRIMO, no scratches, no blemishes... and the finish was as if it had just been manufactured... maybe just a bit of armor all, but still looked great ! We'll see when it gets here :D

I'll most likely be drilling those holes... We'll see how it goes... I'm most scared/worried about the install of the airbag.

Thats the one I was talking about the one with the nardi logo on it.

Has anyone installed the protege wheel with the cruise control? Im working on mine now and notice the protege has three wires and the rx7 has 2 wires.

Never mind I figured it out, white/blk wire goes to the blue wire, red wire goes to black wire. I have no clue what the main switch is for but the wire wire contols it.