5th gen 626 steering wheel and int. wiper swap?

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The steering wheel/clockspring/intermittent wiper assembly/steering column cover(not shown) came from a 1999 Mazda 626 that's in the junk yard! for 20$, even if I can only use the steering wheel, it would be worth it, but I really want to make the wipers and turn signal switch work too.

I for one really like this steering wheel, the weight and feel give it more of a comfortable feel while your steering, unlike lightweight aftermarket steering wheels, and I'm hoping with any luck I can keep a functional airbag! Saftey First! Call me weird, but I like 4 spoke steering wheels more than the 3 spoke racing types, it lets you do the whole 2 finger (left thumb and pointer) steering with a spoke to hold onto when your cruising.

I was looking at the pix in the how to over on the old Aspire site, and this looks to be similar except for the top mounted hazard switch on the Aspire, and what I think is the box for intermittent relay in place of the hazards, which Aaron (nerdracing) had already warned me about! If that turns into more trouble than it's worth I may wire the hazards into a defroster switch.

If you look at the steering wheel you can see the buttons on the side?! Those were for cruise control (which the 626 didn't have anyway) so it's just extra wires and new buttons I get to make do something! Maybe one for the sub on/off? One for door locks? Two for keyless start/ignition delete??! Who knows!

The next step in this process is finding the 99 626 wiring diagrams, I've been looking on mazda626.net, but they only have the 4th gen diagrams as far as I can see. I hope I don't have to buy a 626 evtm manual, but if I do I could still use it for my other car...if you guys know where these diagrams can be found please let me know!

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Just opened up the steering wheel buttons, it might be tricky, but I believe I can have 3 momentary switches there, at the very least, 2, depending on what I use them for.. hopefully the spline count is right for the steering wheel, it's what I'm worried about right now..and figuring out the turn signal wires lol..

[25Horseplay]

If you remove the switch and arm from the unit it might install in the Festiva one. It would be easier to tell you if it worked if you had a pic of the back.

[Safety Guy]

What Brian said.

As for the airbags, you'd need to add the front bumper sensors and a computer control, methinks. The bag in the wheel ain't enough. Also, don't blow yourself away messing with it!

I'm thinking about putting a Kleenex holder in a hollowed out airbag wheel for Luxstiva.

Karl

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This one is of the back, the front is the clockspring. I just got home so I doubt I'm goin out to mess with my Aspire.. but we'll see what happens..

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I figured for the airbag I could just splice it into the aspire's airbag?

Sorry if I wasn't clear on the car lol, I don't have a festiva!

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LOLLLOLOLLMFAO...

OK, since I was feeling good and everyone for the last since i brought it up has been like no nononononono... I went out and ripped the steering wheel and wiper assembly and clock spring out of my aspire, and the mazda one fit right in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's gonna work, the sockets for the wiring are identical for the airbag and horn, I just need to work out some technical difficulties with the turn signals/headlights! I'm gonna attempt to swap the pinouts into the aspire male connector to hook right into the female end, I'm not sure what exactly i'm doing with the hazard, my old switch was buggy anyway and I had to "tap"it just right, so I'm thinking delete and either hook into the on/off unused defroster switch in the dash...? maybe, we'll see!

the point is, IT'S BOLT ON AND JUST A FEW WIRES NEED MOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so excited right now..

[Safety Guy]

Sorry I got it wrong! "Aspire" not "Festiva."

Sounds good.

Ah, I finally see the wheel. Looks real nice!

Karl

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the "few wires" that just need moved... lol, they're kicking my butt, I've got the EVTM Manual for a 95 aspire, and it has been identical for everything else I've had to use it for (instrument cluster/hooking up rpm tach/stereo wiring/...) but now I'm either not looking at it right, or these wires just aren't the same in my 94.

The hazard switch, for example, in the book, is a black and an orange wire. The hazard switch on MY car is a black wire and a yellow/red wire?!

NOT including the hazard switch, horn wire, or airbag wires, there are 18 wires comming from the Mazda assembly, and 16 on the Aspire assembly.

You would think it would have something to do with the extra intermittent part of the wiper side, but no, there's 6 wires comming from each of the wiper sides on the mazda and the aspire assemblies..

One extra feature on the Mazda assembly on the headlight/turn signal switch is the pull foward to temporarily flash headlights. So far that's the only difference I can see.

Tomorrow if I get a chance I'm going to unravel the harness on the mazda assembly all the way, and see what I can see. I think I'm going to need to buy a new multimeter (since mine died on me last month) and attempt to figure out which wire corresponds to the switch I push/pull/turn/bop/hit/kick/twist/... if anyone has any advice here it would be nice! I figure if I just set a multimeter to test for continuity it will show if it's completing a circuit.. the problem is finding the common when I don't know where to start.

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I bought a new multimeter since my old one crapped out awhile back, so far I've got a couple wires sorted out, but there's still a couple (5) wires that I don't know what they're supposed to be for on the mazda assembly, if someone has intimate knowledge of how these work it would be great if you could drop me some hints.

[TominMO]

Great project! I saw the similar arrangement in a mid or late-90s Ford at the JY quite a while ago, but I forget the year and model. Whatever was equivalent to a 626 presumably.

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The 93-97 ford probes would have a 4th gen Mazda 626 multifunction switch/clockspring, they quit producing them when 5th gen 626's came out (98 )...I don't know much about probes other than they're 626's with a ford name and different bodystyle, the 93-97 Mazda MX-6 was also the same as a 4th gen 626 and 93-97 Probe. From what I hear, the 93-97 mx-6/Probe/626 is practically the same part as the Festiva/Aspire assemblies and are easily swappable because you just unbolt the switches and bolt them in place of the festy/aspire switches. Which would eliminate all this wiring mess, unfortunately, none of those are available to me atm.

Been messing around a bit more, I'll post what I know so far about the wiper/washer side of each, and get to the other side later.

Aspire wiper/washer switch (6 wires)
+12v in run/start.............BLUE
Ground............................BLACK/WHITE
Rear Wipers....................BLUE/YELLOW
Wipers Low.....................BLUE/WHITE (the book says blue/blk, but it is in fact a blue/white wire, there is NO blue/blk wire, it also has the blue/white wire listed as an int. Wiper wire if it was factory equipped)
Wipers High/Push IN......BLUE/RED
Washer Fluid/Pull...........BLUE/ORANGE

Mazda 626 Wiper/Washer Switch (6 wires)
+12v in run/start.............BLUE
Ground............................BLACK
Intermittent Wipers........BLUE/BLACK
Wipers Low......................BLUE/WHITE
Wipers High/Push UP......BLUE/RED
Washer Fluid/pull............BLUE/ORANGE

I think the Intermittent wipers wire from the mazdas' switch needs spliced into the low wiper wire (blue/black to blue/white) before the socket to complete that circuit.

I don't know what to do with the rear wiper wire on the Aspire switch other than just leave that pinout blank. I don't think it will give me any problems, because it never has a complete circuit anyway due to no rear wipers.

Suprisingly enough, the haynes manual has been more beneficial in conjunction with a multimeter set for continuity than the EVTM manual (for the Aspire anyway) in determining which wires are which.

I'll update with my findings from the headlight/turn signal switch when I understand it a little better and get a minute. If anyone see's any descrepancies please let me know!

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I've been at it, between today and yesterday I put 8+ hours into looking at the books and testing this and that, probably shouldn't take as long as it is, I didn't think it would, but I'm not very good with electric stuff.

I've narrowed it down to a few wires, I know which ones are turn signals and twist knob wires (running lights/headlights) for both assemblies, which leaves me with 4 wires on the Aspire assembly and 6 wires on the mazda assembly.

Of those, I need to figure out which are high beams, and which are power/grounds, or at least which I need to splice before I splice to make it work on the aspire. I've had ideas and looked at another page and thrown away my old ideas over 1 wire countless times, maybe I'll get it, or maybe I won't, but you can't say I haven't tried. It's really all gonna come down to trial and error once I attempt to fit it on the spire anyway. You can look at a book and draw pictures all you want, but sometimes it's just not gonna work like you thought it would.

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I had time earlier (yesterday) to install the assembly and steering wheel, IT ALL WORKS! horn and airbag included! everything from the warning chime to the high beam indicator light in the cluster! I'll see what I can do about making a decent wiring diagram or something of the wires I spliced in the next couple days.

[lil red rocket]

So the int wipers work also?

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Yah! Everything works! At first I was flipping out cause I kept getting an airbag light, and the horn didn't work, but then I realized I didn't even plug those sockets in under the dash :homersimpsonDOH:


oh, the hazards don't work, I have to hook those up to something else, I might just mount the stock hazard switch under the dash and be done with it, or I'll put it on one of the defroster buttons.. that's the catch to this, even if you wanted to, there's just no room to mount the switch to the assembly piece that slides over the steering column, the int wiper relay is big and it covers the spot the hazard switch was in.