I used the standard steering column support rails (SW1-3), and mounted them in roughly the standard position. I did however trim them so the top sat slightly lower.
I did away with the two angled strips from the book as they were no use for the MX5 steering column and replaced them with a small plate with two holes in to bolt the column to.
At the bulkhead, the footwell panel is book spec, but without the three plates that make up the bush support - these were replaced with a bearing (UCFL205-14 22mm).
Initially I left a gap of about 5mm between the column and BR9 (or is it 10?). Because the MX5 column is much chunkier than the Ford one, this left the steering wheel rather too high.
The steering rack in the photos is a brand new semi-quick rack for a Mk2 Escort.
It is usually available in quick (2.4 ratio), and semi-quick (2.9 ratio). Initially I wanted a 2.4, however I managed to pick up this one fairly cheap from a failed build.
The rack mounts are solid aluminium ones I bought from ebay.
The reason the Mk2 Escort rack is used is that the MX5 one is too wide, and also powered, which is not required and involves far more work and weight. The chassis is designed around the escort rack so it makes sense to use it.
As I'm not happy with the height of the wheel I plan to rework it in the near future. I had a couple of ideas, but needed to check for clearance through the engine bay, which leads me onto my next post, and a bit of a diversion...
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