I've got at least one here, the one with the relocated shifter. Not sure if that would be useful or not.
I've got at least one here, the one with the relocated shifter. Not sure if that would be useful or not.
In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :
Useful for the RX-3. not this.
Speaking of which....
Yuuup.
The seized shift rod and tower i pulled from this tailhousing are on top. FC stuff.
Oh WOW it is quiet again for the first time since 2012 or so.
Didn't have much time to add pics or notes. Very very busy leading up to the event this weekend. If not for the last minute, nothing would get done!
Trans got pulled back out, tailhousing swapped again.
Muffler swapped with the one I repacked. Car is crazy quiet now, even inside a steel building. Noticed that my Watts arm is, in fact, smashing the floor. May need to invest in bump stops after all.
Ball joints replaced without removing the wheels., because I didn't have the spline socket with me.
Doing the ball joints only took fifteen minutes, they slipped right out!
Next is alignment and verify no drivetrain vibration issues, and then it's ready.
Argh!!!
Driver side UMI joint is loose again.
The set screw for the adjuster is seized, too.
This makes the fourth time I have had to tighten it. Right side? Never.
First overall, fastest run of day. Pete and Randy in the Sentra SE-R Vspec Type Nür were on those Indysport mud tires built like dirt bike knobbies made out of pencil erasers.
I was on 20 year old Dunlop mud and ice tires, the "Secret Weapons" that I acquired from Chris Hastings, who IIRC acquired them from Chris Greenhouse, and had never been used ever and carefully shepherded all these years.
Before the event started, I decided to lap the site for the hell of it.
Did I mention MUDDY? Some pics from the event.
Indy Sports leave tracks like this...
While chadly old Dunlops (and Michelin L clone Black Rockets) leave tracks like this
The device.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Glad they worked out for you, finally :)
I bought them off somebody in CA via special stage.com classifieds. There were 6 and Zb & Paktinat each took a pair. I bought Pak's back and sold them to somebody running a crx with the Indy group. I used them with my zx2 one afternoon at Roos, once at crystal (best showing ever for the zx2), and once on Evans Miata.
Thanks again! I forgot the exact provenance. Somehow I thought there were more of them, too.
Today's episode. Autopsy of Racky McPoppouterson, the transmission I ran in the September event. It shifted fine, it made no ugly noises, but there was a ton of axial play as evidenced by the shifter waggling back and forth a lot.
Pop tailhousing off and here's a clue by four:
Something chewed on it, too. Normally that results in some stripped gears.
The bolt used to live here, holding the main bearing retainer plate:
There are five bolts on the retainer plate. Three form a more or less equilateral triangle around the main shaft, two are on the bottom. Near as I can figure, the bevel direction of the gears forces the countershaft forward, into a C clip, and the mainshaft backward, into this retainer plate.
What do the other ones look like? The unstressed bottom two were tight. The other two...
Oh that isn't good.
That's not good at all!
Even the Transmission Spider disapproves.
I bet I could replace the damaged bolt, Loctiting all five of them, and it'd be good. But the fluid that came out put the ass in nasty. That cannot have been good for the bearings, or anything else in there really. But bearing replacement requires a bunch of tools I do not have yet, and there are like three different flavors of main bearing and you don't know what you have until you disassemble it.
My plan forward was to replace all five of the bolts, flush all of the old fluid out, and slap it together. I bought a gallon of WD-40 for $20 and a spray bottle for $2 for the flushing operation.
Five bolts replaced with 10.9 hardware, Loctited, and serrated lock washers.
Was most of the way through the "flush" equation when I noted that the input bearing, once flushed of gear oil. was rough. Really rough.
So. Options. Looks like the two different species are 20.5mm double row and 15mm single row, on the front countershaft bearing. Somehow I'd thought the difference was in the "main" bearing. Trans has 15mm unit, can get a full bearing set for $100ish.
Looks like I get to make tools.
Meanwhile, at the Batcave...
The process of cleaning and cleaning and cleaning 12A parts begins.
Noticed that the input shaft I'd removed from a dead transmission had a sealed bearing. Hmm. Well, let's see what the bearing set I'd ordered comes with.
Why not order the bearings from an industrial bearing dealer by the part number stamped on them? You can specify rubber, metal, or no seal on either or both sides.
I don't know if you're still looking for housings and stuff, but somebody in town has this: https://cincinnati.craigslist.org/pts/d/west-chester-mazda-rx7-12a-engine-cases/7210189093.html
TurnerX19 said:Why not order the bearings from an industrial bearing dealer by the part number stamped on them? You can specify rubber, metal, or no seal on either or both sides.
I may do that in the future, but right now I need to concentrate a pile of parts into a transmission, and a kit gets me gaskets, shims, one time use nuts, all in one go without disassembly and waiting two weeks for parts to come in from three different suppliers.
equipment needed to make a Mazda bearing puller. One Pittsburgh bearing puller set (not big enough for Ford 9" bits), four 3/8" coupler nuts, one length of 3/8" allthread, two candy bars.
Chinesium bearing puller uses SAE threads, which is nice.
Cut allthread to 12" lengths, assemble, and voila:
Remove circlips holding on the bits before the bearing.... and find that the bearing was actually loose on the shaft. Oop. Well, I have a tool now.
Bearing puller is a slight interference fit when trying to remove countershaft bearing.
And... AH YES. I'd forgotten this part. Now I need a 16" deep 40mm socket. I actually made one years ago, and it was stolen from my car years ago.
Time to get fabby.
Get the funk out.
EvanB (Forum Supporter) said:Get the funk out.
I was thinking some video game music, but we can split the difference.
....if that doesn't sound familiar, it's because you have a life and don't have all of my rallycross videos memorized,
(pete says a swear in this one)
The S40 was the best car ever. It had fuel economy like the Golf but was moderately faster. And it had the neat little wing, which I have come to realize is fairly rare.
Hopefully we have some events there next year, it looks like fun.
In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :
What was really fun was the single track goat trails that my GPS sent me down, that made Bitzer's driveway look like I-70.
The event was really laid back, and more of a hangout where we occasionally went out and ran laps. Reminded me of the old days of running at Greene County Fairgrounds, or the really early days at Smoke and Mirrors when it was still mostly woods.
Monday night was busy. First we take one 1 5/8" socket, and one MG driveshaft:
Cut the socket in half, grind the chrome off, realize that it is now too small to fit inside the driveshaft tube, acquire a length of 2 1/4" exhaust pipe, grind a bevel on the socket halves to make the press fit easier, hammer together, eyeball align, and weld up:
And zap off the nut like it was nothing.
Lift off the hub and 5th driven gear, knock out the roll pins on the shift forks...
Tap tap tap with an air hammer (the press fit was very light) and it explodes all over the bench because the shift forks were gummed to the shafts.
Now. I did not want to mess with synchronizer keys and springs and whatnot because the less you disassemble, the lower the chance of screwing something up. But, eeeeeew:
And so...
And so.
Unbolting the retainer plate, found that all of the star washers were completely flattened.
And down the the smallest components. Bearings tapped out with a hammer.
Enter the Mystery Box of Parts. All bearings made in Japan, or at least the boxes are.
Now... remember that the mainshaft bearing was free to move back and forth? And remember that the oil was 60 grit? Look at the state of the bearing land and the shim that goes between the bearing and the land...
Removed all particles, and soldiering on...
EVERYthing is getting disassembled, supercleaned, dried, and glopped with Ford high moly grease.
1st gear rides on a needle bearing over a slip on hardened collar, all other bearinfs are direct on shaft. Some day I'll work out the relative RPM differences in various gears.
And this is where we are for now! Next is assembling the mess into the main bearing plate, but first I need to get new star washers so I can bolt the bearing retainer in place.
Not pictured: Found that my high speed fan relay corroded itself to death. That will be replaced shortly.
Also not pictured: Removed the headlight switch assembly to clean the contacts so the high beams work again.
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