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Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:49 pm
by Steve500
Searched the forums, but have not found a definite answer.

Will a electric NA8 aerial fit a NA6?
Is it plug and play?
I see there is a 4 terminal plug not being used near the standard non electric aerial in the boot.
Is this for the electric aerial?

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:23 pm
by Steve500
Anyone???????

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:50 am
by GTR4N
If you can mount it

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:11 am
by Okibi
My NA6 has an electric aerial but I think it's an aftermarket unit (fitted in Japan).

I'd think an NA8 one would fit an NA6, you'd just need to wire it up.

Might still be one for sale here
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=63267

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:05 pm
by 93_Clubman
The possibility of it being PnP depends on the year of the NA6, & yours given it has wiring, sounds like a late model NA6, or one retro fitted. At least 1992 & 1993 ADM NA6 came fitted for, but not necessarily with, a power aeriel as it was an option at the time:
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=50272&p=631072

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=60480&p=775065&hilit=antenna#p775065

Meanmx tried fitting a used & a new NA8 power aeriel to a 1990 NA6, but had issues:
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=25885&hilit=raise+antenna

My thinking is that given turning on the NA8 radio also raises the aeriel, which doesn't happen on the early NA6s, there may be a slight difference between the early NA6 radio & the later NA6 & NA8 radio to activate the aeriel. So basically yours might work if it's a later NA6.

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:18 pm
by KevGoat
IIRC the early NA6's required some metal bracketing removed to fit an electric aerial.

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 1:07 pm
by Steve500
Mine is a 11/91 build. Malibu Gold NA6.
Has a 4 pin connector.
Black/yellow
Blue/black
Green/yellow
Red/black

From what I've researched a na8 aerial should work.

Re: Will a NA8 electric aerial fit a NA6?

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 7:51 pm
by meanmx
This is my write up from my cardomain page. This information is very, very old now so I can't really answer any technical questions but hopefully it helps. I got it working superbly and I used a brand new NA8 antenna from Mazda. This write up refers to some pictures which I don't have but you should be fine.

How to install an electric aerial into a NA6 MX5 This is what the manual aerial should look like before anything is touched. Note the bracket holding the aerial in place at the bottom. This picture is looking up at the second skin just underneath the outside skin on the top of the boot. It will need to be enlarged to fit the electric aerial in. You will need to cut around the bottom of the bracket and take the whole thing off. How you do this is up to you but I bodged mine up a little as can be seen in the pic below. It should look something like this. Next you will have to enlarge the inner hole in the top for the aerial to go through. The outside hole is fine but the inner hole has to be enlarged to accomodate the electric motor and the antenna plug. Again use whatever you feel comfortable with and once again I managed to bodge mine up but it does the job. It should look something like this. Drill a hole in the bottom of the bracket that you just cut off so that you can screw the bottom of the aerial in there to support it then whack it in and see how it fits. If all is good fitment wise then it is time to move onto the wiring section. NA8 aerials are needlessly complicated in my opinion and it took me a while to suss out the wiring but it is relatively simple once you know what hooks up to what. Here goes.... Looking at the plug coming off the aerial you will see a connector with 4 wires going in to it. Green/White, Blue/White, Blue/Red, and Black/Yellow. The Green/White wire connects up to the radio signal wire. Looking behind your stereo you should see a blue wire coming out of it labled radio/amplifier trigger wire. Sometimes these are seperate, sometimes they are the one wire. Hook it up to this. If you have a factory system still installed then I don't believe they have this wire in which case you can hook it up to your cigarette lighter power wire to trigger the aerial. The Blue/White wire connects up to the cigar fuse which is basically 12v power when the key is in the acc position. This is reasonably easy to find behind the stereo or the cigarette lighter. The Blue/Red wire connects up to permanent 12v power. So in other words straight to the battery. Easy this one but it is recommended to use a fuse inline with this connection. The Black/Yellow wire connects up to the meter fuse which is basically 12v power when the key is in the on position. This one is a little tricky and I got the feed for this straight from after the fuse box. Use the wire coming from the meter fuse. This involves alot of sticking your head under the dashboard with a torch in your mouth so have fun. I think it was a Yellow/Black wire or a Black/Yellow wire but please please double check this as it was a while ago and I can't remember. That should complete your wiring. The aerial is grounded through the body of the aerial and the screw you have holding it in the bottom so please make sure this is forming a good ground. Run all your wires neatly into the back of the boot, hook it all up, and Bob's your Uncle. No more looking like a radio controlled car. The aerial is factory so it doesn't look out of place, is retracted out of harms way when not in use, and isn't too long when it is in use. Beautiful!!!