OEM Seat Belt Tower Brace installation

Gilly · Postby **Gilly** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 9:59 am

Hi all,

I bought an NA8 OEM Seat Belt Tower Brace (complete with bolts/nuts/washers) the other day to fit it to my 1990 NA6. I have read the various posts on the miata.net forum and have discovered it is not as simple as I first thought. There seems to be various methods, all of which involve some trimming of the plastic trim around the mounting area. I can't seem to find much info on this forum.
I'm wondering if there is anyone who has fitted this item is willing to share their thoughts on the best way to go about it.
Thanks in advance.

David

Muzdaman · Postby **Muzdaman** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 12:49 pm

This can be a bit tricky if you do not want to hack up your plastics surrounding the seatbelt tower. The problem is that you need to remove the plastic cover and seatbelt to get access to underneath the tower to hold a nut there but once you tighten the nut up there is now no way to get the plastic back on in one piece.

I used some cloth tape to hold the nut in place, replaced the plastics and seatbelt and then carefully threaded the bolt onto the nut. its frustrating and it may move or drop off and you start again but the end result is worth it. you will also need to drill a hole in the plastic cover and if you are using the original bolts that came with the brace the opening in the tower is not quite big enough. a small amount of filing will fix that.

Here is the thread that helped me when i did mine.
I hope it helps.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=197722

Good luck. let us know how you go.

Gilly · Postby **Gilly** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:07 am

Thanks for the reply. The link is also very helpful.
I'm going to have a crack during the next week.
I'll let you know how I go. Fingers crossed!

rpost77 · Postby **rpost77** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:57 pm

I have a similar 'issue'.

I have a 1990/1 NA6 and sometime ago bought an NA8 OEM brace - haven't fitted it yet (mainly due to the effort required to pull everything apart and no garage to do it in).

So it has been sitting there for a couple years on my "to do" to the MX5 list and I revisit the guides on how every now and then.

The one thing I have picked up in all the guides/threads on this is that it is likely that (unlike on the NA8's) the hole that the bolts will go into won't be threaded and may possibly need to be widened to fit the bolts through. This is along with the (as not threaded) you have to get a nut in there somehow.

One thing that may be worth considering that I came across recently - it appears that the MX5 Plus roll bars come with 2 threaded 'nuts' (actually threaded squares) that they provide with the roll bar fixings in case you have an NA6 without the threaded hole.

I am considering asking around if anyone who has one of these roll bars and did not use the 'nuts' - if they are therefore spare they may be willing to part with them and they may simplify the process of fitting the NA8 brace.

Thought I might mention it as a possibility for your install - maybe you could source these 'nuts' and see if they help - likely that you will get yours done before I will :-( .

Ralph