So, I'm about to put power steering back in the Miata, and for the life of me, I can't seem to find a diagram of how to route the hoses, and I haven't been able to get a close look at how it's routed on a car that has P/S. Either way, the guy I bought the setup from, said he included everything, but I can't seem to find out how this pipe/line mounts:



There are a few brackets on the thing, but I've looked all over, and I cannot see where this bugger mounts up. I'm starting to think that it is not even part of the P/S setup for my car. Other than this pipe, it's pretty easy to see where everything else goes. I'm pretty sure everything kind of routes as follows:



^^^The threaded P/S pressure line goes from the pump to the rack, the line with the bracket on it goes from the reservoir to the pump, and my assumption is that the long/metallic pipe (which I'll call a "cold pipe), has to go from the hard line on the rack to the reservoir, but I can't seem to find a pic of how the damn thing is supposed to mount/route, or holes that line up with the brackets. I'm starting to think that it's not supposed to go to my car, but I have no idea why someone would send it otherwise, especially when everything else seems to be correct.

Can someone please take a pic of how the P/S piping is routed on their Miata and post it up for me? None of the online Mazda websites have diagrams for the P/S and neither does my Haynes manual.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I would hate to waste my time trying a mount a pipe that doesn't even belong on my car.

Thanks in advance!

-Brandon

I'm not home but I'll try to get some pics of how mine looks when I get home. I'll also see if there's info on that in the Haynes manual I have.

erod550 wrote:I'm not home but I'll try to get some pics of how mine looks when I get home. I'll also see if there's info on that in the Haynes manual I have.

Thanks buddy I appreciate it! Although I didn't find anything in my Haynes manual... but maybe you'll have better luck than I did haha.

Sorry, to be honest I didn't read your whole original post cause I was at the grocery store, so I didn't see that you had already checked a Haynes manual lol. I'm home now so I'll go snap some pics from above and below and hopefully they will help.

erod550 wrote:Sorry, to be honest I didn't read your whole original post cause I was at the grocery store, so I didn't see that you had already checked a Haynes manual lol. I'm home now so I'll go snap some pics from above and below and hopefully they will help.

Thanks buddy!

After much scouring (we're talking hours here haha), I found a diagram, so the part appears to be correct, but I can't seem to see where the bugger mounts. For future reference, here's what I found:



Specifically the P/S setup:



Part looks right, just can't see where it mounts... I appreciate the help.

Don't know that I can help much, but if you need to look at my car, you can. Its a 97

mog1017 wrote:Don't know that I can help much, but if you need to look at my car, you can. Its a 97

If you can snap a pic or two of where that pipe I posted above mounts, that would be outstanding

Thanks again guys!

Well, here are the pics I got. I did not find that long cooler pipe. It's all kind of far back under the engine and blocked by the K frame most of it. So hopefully these pics are helpful. Forgive the road grime + power steering fluid + oil all over the place under there. I have a few leaks and it gets stuff pretty nasty under there, heh.

This first pic shows the orientation of the hose that comes out of the top of the PS pump. It goes down under the PS fluid reservoir and straight into the rack where the rod from the steering wheel connects. You can see it coming in from the upper right in the 2nd pic.





This pic shows the top of the PS pump and the hose that comes out the side of it and then turns and goes to the bottom of the PS fluid reservoir.


These 2 pics show the small lines that are attached directly to the rack. 7, 8, and 9 on the center diagram above.




In the last pic and the 2nd pic, you can see right next to the pinion for the steering wheel there is a hose that goes straight up. It goes behind the AC compressor and I could not see where it goes from there.

It looks like from that diagram though that the cooler line attaches to the bottom of the PS reservoir on one end and to piece #9 from the center diagram on the other end. At least that's my take on it.

Just left you a VM. Sorry I wasn't available yesterday.

If I remember right, the Miata has the PS cooler mounted under the radiator. Will have to check to confirm that.

So, I was looking all over for where to mount that bugger, and I ask Eric if he would mind crawling under the car, knowing that two sets of eyes are better than one... sure enough, Eric spots where one of the brackets used to be in under a minute, we line them up, and we're in business! For reference, the P/S cold line sits a few inches in front of the radiator, and you can actually see it from above the car. I took a few pics for reference:

This is through the hole next to the hood latch you can see it below:


Other side of the hood latch:


This is a poorly taken photo LOL, but from behind the bumper, you can clearly see the line (even though you can't see where it loops around from this photo):


Either way, Eric is The Man!! Seriously, not only is Eric a wicked cool guy, very insightful, but also has the ULTIMATE garage! I have been inspired to one day aspire to build a garage in the image of Eric's garage haha!

We stood around shooting the breeze for a while before and after, but the actual work portion took maybe somewhere in the realm of ~2 hours or so I'd say. Overall, everything went great, no leaks, and P/S is working like a champ. Big thanks again to Eric!