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Mostly Orange Wagon


JohnnyBlu

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Hey Guys,

I introduced myself a few months back after getting this orange wagon.

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I have gotten a lot of work done since I picked it up in december, trying to make it a happy daily driver. I have picked up a lot from this forum so I thought I should share what have done. Most recent accomplishment is that I am just finishing up rewiring the whole car. Inspired me to start a build thread for this car. Part of this electrical project was installing a saturn alternator and ended up doing new Hellas up front (H1/H4). All that's left is to aim the headlights so I can put my grill back on.

 

New fusebox with relays for lights and ignitions switches.

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took the ratusn turnbuckle method for the alternator belt tension

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Used a little distribution block for mechanical oil pressure gauge and idiot light. Used a 18" grease gun hose for the win ($3)

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Routed wires for lights and coil under the fender, comes up with the fuel line and then under the radiator

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Made a new center dash piece that holds gauges and some small speakers. LEDs are idiot lights for oil pressure and Alt

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Feels so good to have all this stuff working in the car. Blinkers, high/low beams, etc. Even have reverse lights now!

 

 

 

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Car wont start... So, is it the white wire.. or the white-white wire?

Probably the white one. Hehe its looks confusing being all one color wire but it actually made it fairly easy. Just picked up a spool of wire and used electrician's little number stickers. I had made up a wiring diagram for this project. As I made the harness, I simply stuck number stickers on each end and wrote that number on my schematic. worked pretty well. And really, it's not to hard to figure out whats what with a multi-meter checking for continuity.

 

One issue I do have now is that my mechanical temp probe won't seat in the lower thermostat housing. The threads seat before the seating surface on the probe hits home. I am going to check out the junk yard for early 90s miata thermostat housing covers. I read somewhere (here maybe) that they match up and have an extra port.   thoughts?

 

 

 

At some point I'll spend some time and show more build/maintenance tasks I have gone through over the last 6 months as I chip away at everything. gotta take more pics

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One issue I do have now is that my mechanical temp probe won't seat in the lower thermostat housing. The threads seat before the seating surface on the probe hits home. I am going to check out the junk yard for early 90s miata thermostat housing covers. I read somewhere (here maybe) that they match up and have an extra port. thoughts?

If it's an aftermarket probe, good chance the threads are flared outward like a cone as they get closer to the base of the sensor. That's so the brass alone will make a seal, and no extra teflon tape/paste will be needed. Electrical grounding probes are like that too.

 

If it doesn't leak, I wouldn't worry about it.

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If it's an aftermarket probe, good chance the threads are flared outward like a cone as they get closer to the base of the sensor. That's so the brass alone will make a seal, and no extra teflon tape/paste will be needed. Electrical grounding probes are like that too.

 

If it doesn't leak, I wouldn't worry about it.

It is aftermarket mechanical probe.

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Sealing surface is that small tapered lip at the top of the probe. Threaded portion provides the clamping force to seal. The issue I ran into is that the thermostat housing has no seating surface for the probe. Only tapered threads. these match the threads on the probe, but the hole that the poebe passes through is left ope, so no good.

 

I picked up a miata housing from the JY today, but same issue. 

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for reference, here is a adapter form the kit that shows the necessary seat for the aftermarket probe

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Anyone have any advice on how to make all this work?

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Now I see what your problem is.

 

Even if you were to use the Miata housing after drilling/tapping to the correct size for the adapter, I think the probe will make contact with the thermostat, so the sealing surfaces won't mate. You might have to modify the lower portion of the t-stat housing. I don't think there's enough material to be drilling out the original probe hole without having the housing crack as you tighten the adapter. You may have to take the bottom housing off and have a new bung added for the gauge probe. If that's an option for you, then the best spot would be on the right side of the housing (flat spot facing fender) so it's as far as possible away from exhaust heat. Then you could carefully bend the capillary tube and run it along the valve cover and into the cabin. I say be careful with the "wire" because there is capillaries in there that are easy to break; so bend slowly and don't make too tight of a bend.

 

Are you keeping the factory gauge working? If not, then you can have a bung welded there so it looks almost factory.

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I ordered a 3/-18 NPT tap to fit the gauge adapter into the miata T housing. Looking like it will work well. Have tapped threads but haven't had a chance to put it in the car yet.

 

Not too long ago I installed flex form lowering springs in the rear and trimmed down my bump stops. Before I had 3" blocks and was effectively driving on the bump stops all the time. Over the weekend I installed some monroe air shocks in the back to finish up the job. Not sure why I let myself take so long to get to this. They make such a difference over the factory original stuff that I pulled out. Before was i getting quite a bit of tail wag syndrome over bumps while turning or on the freeway. 

 

The bushing that came in the new shocks were too small to bolt up to the lower mount in the wagon, so I had to re use the originals. Captain Hindsight says I should have measured those while everything was apart so I could find new bushings that could work. oh well.

 

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