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The three different Miata wheels I have had did not require changing the wiring. The connectors matched up with my 99 harness without issue. Matching to earlier harness connectors may be different.
From what I have seen, Mazda switched up the entire harnesses (Dash or Instrument) to accommodate different specs. So a non-airbag car may have no redundant connectors for the airbag wiring.
The three different Miata wheels I have had did not require changing the wiring. The connectors matched up with my 99 harness without issue. Matching to earlier harness connectors may be different.
From what I have seen, Mazda switched up the entire harnesses (Dash or Instrument) to accommodate different specs. So a non-airbag car may have no redundant connectors for the airbag wiring.
It's been a few years, but I think the issue was not only the airbag connector, but also controlling the FD cruise control with the Miata steering wheel control pod. My car is a '93 with an airbag, so I'm completely out of my wheel house here (pun barely intended). .
OP, I vote either that nice looking Momo or Miata Nardi. This is one instance where keeping it stock is definitely out with that ugly looking 4-point wheel.
I'm going to keep the Momo but put it in storage until I can find the non airbag combination switch at a fair price. I bought a new Momo like the one in the photo and a works Bell for now to work with the clockspring horn. Found a photo in the steering wheel thread and liked the look of it.
I will buy the Momo four post at the right price when I find one just to have the right wheel for the car in storage.
The wiriing looks all good. They must have never bothered with the horn in Japan. Nothing is cut anywhere. Just weird there is no airbag light on. I might have to take the dash out maybe they removed the bulb
This pic is from the "final" or "Summation" parts catalogue for Version 4 cars. The pic shows the "air bag" combination switch on the left and the "no airbag" version on the "right". Your car would likely have had the "airbag" version. i think there is fine detail of the connectors you should be seeing.
Some earlier models may have had a third kind of arrangement. This may have been to accomodate a different way to have the horn working, In the upper picture you can see the more simplified clockspring.
Hold on a sec Broly. Before you start trying to rewire and adapt parts, stop, look and listen.
Nobody knows Japanese FD wiring better than I do, especially when it comes to comparing the same areas of the car between different versions. I literally wrote the book on it. And now I have to assemble it...
I just saw the Version 4 (AKA Series 7, 96-98) SRS Airbag diagrams a day or two ago, so they are fresh in mind. Before that, I went down the rabbit hole when trying to track down a Clockspring for Version 4/96-98 to verify the connectors/keyways on it.
Good news: All Pre-1999 Clocksprings are wired the same.
Bad news: The 96-98 Clockspring is discontinued and I couldn't find one in Japan or anywhere.
Interesting news: I know of a couple alternate clocksprings that MIGHT work, and are MUCH easier to obtain too.
As for what was done to "make it work" (in this case, slap the wheel on and send it out), there's no logical need to cut any wiring when swapping a steering wheel. Unplug clockspring, bolt on new wheel, go have a beer. It does present a few questions on how your car was originally equipped though. I can run a Build Sheet on it from your VIN, and remove all possible doubt about what options it came with.
I believe I have a momo four spoke wheel in storage ( I may have given it away)., I believe. I may still have the clockspring for it. I may also likely have the combination switch on the right in the pictures three posts up.
Akagi: Broly has purchased a clockspring, but i wonder if it is the 99 and later version?
Thanks Mr comet also interesting and good to know
I got lucky. The clockspring I bought is from a 97 RS from James at FD parts Australia. Very helpful fellow. Imports and wrecks jdm FDs. It fit perfect in my harness. He is probably on here somewhere but has Facebook page. Highly recommend.
Don't worry I'm not hacking into the wiring. I have bought the right boss kit and will never cut up wiring.
Let me know what you got and what you want for them. Shipping from the USA is not too bad.
Here is a photo of my vin..
I can take photos of the clockspring and connectors if you would like.
Thanks Mr comet also interesting and good to know
I got lucky. The clockspring I bought is from a 97 RS from James at FD parts Australia. Very helpful fellow. Imports and wrecks jdm FDs. It fit perfect in my harness. He is probably on here somewhere but has Facebook page. Highly recommend.
Don't worry I'm not hacking into the wiring. I have bought the right boss kit and will never cut up wiring.
Let me know what you got and what you want for them. Shipping from the USA is not too bad.
Here is a photo of my vin..
I can take photos of the clockspring and connectors if you would like.
Thanks for the offer on the clockspring pictures. Most Version 4 cars could be ordered with or without airbags (special order required for without airbag). Yours had the 4-spoke wheel and airbag shared with a later NA Miata (N034-32-049A steering wheel, N034-57-K00B is the airbag). Description says "Leather Momo.". The Miata catalog is August 1994 through August 1995, VIN# NA8C-3xxxxx. A little digging and it should find you pretty easily.
Just arrived by mail today, bought on Buyee/YAJ: This mag has great full colour write ups on kiting FD, circa 1998. They have pages detailing all the FD types for 1998. Below are the type RZ pages. The issue also has a section on converting a type RZ to a Mazdaspeed A-spec with 99 steps shown in pictures.
Also in today's shipment from Buyee. A combination switch with the simple clockspring. Part Number starts with F100. Can you see where an important tab is broken off the purple pedestal? This is a common problem. with used switches.
Nice magazine. Awesome to see it new and the steering wheel. Those bbs wheels all new and shiney look amazing. I'll get my restored. It's not impossible that its my car.
That's reminded me i bought the 98 RZ Japanese sales booklet thing from eBay a while ago but it hasn't arrived in the post yet
Yeah I see the broken part. One of my two is broken the one that came with the car. Both my combination switch and the one from the 97 RS have the same part numbers.
Here's my clockspring from the 97 rs that fits if anyone ever wanted to see it. I cant find a part number on it.
I know the rz sticker is in the wrong place. It's how it came. I have replacement stickers but see no real reason to ruin those ones just to move it to the right location.
Your Vin starts with "42" not "40".. I think this designates the switch from the AEfini Branding to the Mazda Branding. My research show perhaps only 2090 of the "42" vin cars were made (as the last VIN number I have found is 422090). Only 1431 FD were made in Calendar 1998, of which 1388 were the "42" vin cars. The remainder were 1999 spec cars.
Mazda's marketing was in flux during the Version 4 production run. At least 4 different sales brochures were produced (one because of the switch to airbag steering wheel). Another rare issue was recalled due to miss-naming different versions.
My friend with a 1996 RZ repainted his silver BBS wheels to black spokes in his driveway. They turned out alright.
Sets of those BBS wheels can be picked up for about C$1000 on Buyee.
It's been a few years, but I think the issue was not only the airbag connector, but also controlling the FD cruise control with the Miata steering wheel control pod. My car is a '93 with an airbag, so I'm completely out of my wheel house here (pun barely intended). .
OP, I vote either that nice looking Momo or Miata Nardi. This is one instance where keeping it stock is definitely out with that ugly looking 4-point wheel.
The horn and airbag connector changed in 99 from orange / blue to white / yellow, same goes for all Mazda vehicle, not just the FD. So if you have a 99+ FD you'll have the right horn and airbag connector for the latest model 3 spoke wheel, no rewire is needed. I believe we can use the S8 clockspring on our USDM FDs with 99+ steering wheel for the one without cruise control, instead of rewiring the horn and airbag. Adopting the cruise control switch is a bit more involve, you'll have to strip the circuit board and modify it to work with the FD.
Here is the series 6 (Version 1~3) non-airbag wheel stock on RHD up to mid-1995. Some consider this an attractive replacement wheel for USDM or later FD. They often attract high bids on YAJ.
Looking at the pictures we might assume that this steering wheel would work with the "simple" clockspring pictured above.
(You have to be careful when bidding, because this wheel also came in a budget all vinyl version,)
I found a airbag momo online at the right price and my brother lives over there and can get it for me ad bring it home when he visits. Its a MX5 wheel, and is identical to the buyee one from what I can see. Just doesn't have the FD tax on it, if your mx5 wheel fits this one should too right? If you think so too ill get this one to keep for posterity
I don't suppose you might know what my boost issue might be? I haven't driven this car much yet but it was disapointingly slow, so I put a boost gauge in and its only showing 3-4psi decreasing, feels like its NA. BUT it makes full 10psi in 4th at about 3500rpm, so I assume its not a leak? I don't want to hold 4th until redline on a public road to check transition & that it holds all the way, it starts to get very illegal quickly. I have searched this website but no one seems to have this particular issue, which is unlikely. A lot of turbo problem threads reference http://www.autosportracetech.com/RX-7/rx7stuff.htm which is very disappointingly closed (edit, found it saved on http://fd3s.net/boost_problems.htmlhooray). It doesn't matter too much as I had it booked in at the specialists for suspension work so rather than get into testing everything myself I have asked them to take a look so i wont start a thread on it. Just interesting I cant find anyone on here previously with this exact problem. Im reading the manual now.
01-18-24, 01:45 PM
