A while back I bought a 1999 Mazda Miata for my youngest as their first car. It rough and that's ok because it IS a first car. The only thing I knew I had to fix was the convertible top and to find the parasitic draw on the battery.
Let's start with the top. Here's a picture of what I was starting with:
This makes the fourth Miata top I've done and as a buddy of mine said, "The good news is that you're getting good with Miatas. The bad news is that you're getting good with Miatas." He's right on both accounts. Being the fourth one done did NOT make it any less of a pain in the ass. I'm a big fella and those are small, scratch that, tiny cars. First order of business was to gut the interior, so I could move around in there a little, and I mean little, easier.
All things considered, there are much harder convertible tops to install. Many of them have vary intricate steps to make sure they don't leak and so on. The Miata is relatively straightforward. That being said, these little foam bastards right here pushed me to almost hitting the "Fuck It" button.
These push onto the studs that the top mounts to in the back of the car. There's one that goes behind the top and one that goes on the inside. The inside ones will not stay in place. The rain rail on the top keeps expending and pushing them off before you can get the retaining bar in place and bolted on. I went to bed about 35 seconds before I was ready to set the car on fire.
As I lay there drifting between sleep and the waking world I had a thought, and I put it to the test the next day.
Worked like a champ, and now it looks like this.
Lastly I needed to find the parasitic draw on the battery. My dad had a Miata that had a similar problem. My brother traced it down to a shit alarm that was installed in a shitty manner.
The last time I drove this car there was a weird sound from the front that kinda sounded like a wounded cow. My first thought was a moan in the brakes, but it went away and didn't happen all the time.
I opened the hood and found the siren horn mounted to the firewall. Guess what I found under the dash? Yup. A shit alarm that was installed in a shitty manner. They also for some reason installed a door lock actuator, but only on the driver's side.
Once I got that all removed and the hack job on the wiring straightened out the moan of the wounded cow went away. Go figure.
While I was there I also removed the aftermarket stereo that was installed equally as badly. I'm waiting on the install kit from Crutchfield to put in the replacement. The car has a Bose amplifier and speakers, so I'm just doing the head unit.
I reconnected the battery and nothing caught on fire. The car even started, so I must have gotten the wiring right. Now I just need to wait a day or two and see if the battery stays fully charged.
Fun weekend. Now I just have about 6 more broken...project cars to sort out and get out of my driveway and/or yard.
Pray for me, and in the meantime be good, but if you can't be good be sneaky.
Wayne
