Volvo P1800ES...kinda

petey wrote: hi.im the "minion" that will be having a chat with HR.i find that term to be derogatory,and believe that its an attempt to make fun of my single eye and large yellow head.and unless you're over 50 you cant call me "kid".and he does have a problem

Apologies, Petey, ...only 5 years shy of the kid bit. And yes, you do have a point.

tuna55 wrote: Wait a sec, how old is our OP?

about 12. ish.

Dog years, no doubt.

And now for something completely different.

Mounting the differential into the Miata subframe.

I am using guidance from this site:

http://miatav8.blogspot.ca/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=6

If you are doing a Miata V8 conversion on the cheap, this is a great resource. Also the place I bought the front K member.

I made it as far as getting the front pedestal mounts fitted. Tomorrow I will do the rear mounts. Only took about 4 hours to make these simple looking mounts!

Since I am at a standstill waiting on bushings and axles to finish the install of the 8.8 into the Miata cradle, I don't have any pictures to show from this week-end.

Instead, for those following at home,I will post a picture of the rear suspension that is going into the 48 Merc Minionmobile. This is way too cool.

So is that a three link with a Watts link on the back of the diff?

In reply to Jambo:

Wondering that too. What locates the rear end laterally?

Ian F wrote: In reply to Jambo: Wondering that too. What locates the rear end laterally?

The black bar is a panhard. No Watts link.

The mount on the axle is hidden by the frame.

Frame needs a connector between the upper shock mounts, but before you do that the rear shocks should be angled slightly

That's cool and everything, but the amount of single-shear and lack of triangulation makes me uncomfortable. I assume this is a "mock up"

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: That's cool and everything, but the amount of single-shear and lack of triangulation makes me uncomfortable. I assume this is a "mock up"

he (nohome) mentioned it was a CASCAR chassis in another thread. a quick search didn't yield any more pictures of a frame/chassis.

Independent rear suspension from the Miata, rear pumpkin doesn't move. No Watts link or panhard required. The two bolts on the orange spaces bolt the front to the frame. Rear should have 2 more bolts holding it in. Once he welds in the supports it won't be going anywhere.

Firebelly wrote: Independent rear suspension from the Miata, rear pumpkin doesn't move. No Watts link or panhard required. The two bolts on the orange spaces bolt the front to the frame. Rear should have 2 more bolts holding it in. Once he welds in the supports it won't be going anywhere.

My bad... I am mixing stuff in my thread. You are correct about the 8.8 into the Miata rear sub-frame. As soon as I get the second set of bushings in, I will post the rear view.

The pic I showed of a friend's project is what was being pondered for lateral location. I just thought that it was cool what he was doing with recycled stock car parts.

Oh, that little box with an X in it is a picture. That makes more since now. Stupid work firewall not showing all the pictures.

I am back. Since a lot of what I am doing is either details or scatered, bear with me. Stuff IS happening, just that it does not seem like it.

First order of business was to get started on the matting of the upper Miata firewall to the Volvo A-post. This is an awkward space to work in and I was very glad to have made the chassis tilter.

Close up of area on PS

Not a very good photo, what with position and lighting, but this was the result on the DS. I am happy. Less happy that I did not get the PS finished and hence have one more item on the "Half completed" list.

Put the hinges on so that someday I can check for door fit. Word on the street is that it might be fun at the best of times. Volvo guys have no words of advice ( well with a post every few weeks on the P1800 board, I guess not)

The other good thing that happened is that I received a package from Martin at Monster Miata. Hopefully this completes what I need to fully assemble the rear suspension and driveline.

And in no particular order, I will post some pics of how I am mounting the differential into the Miata cradle. Once again, a bunch of welding still needs to be done, but it is progress of a sorts. This also leaves me with a Boss Frog rear differential mount that is now surplus to requirements.

And that is all we know for now. Thanks for reading along.

Since i am all the way down to page 3, figure I better post something.

Thanks to the Minion, had this fall into my hands today. Needs maybe a bit of love but it works!

Had to operate in open-loop mode due to the dead lid, but half an hour of eating glass dust did this. No way I could do this with the wire wheel.

This was glass beads, I think I will try with some black beauty media for the next trial along with new Plexiglas and some tear-offs.

Dust shield isn't removable or did you just set it back in place for the pic?

MichaelYount wrote: Dust shield isn't removable or did you just set it back in place for the pic?

Dust shield is not removable. Good thing these are usable, I have another set of uprights where they are not.

Doing an experiment at the moment where I am soaking a part of the upright in vinegar to see if it gets rid of the last bits of rust. If so, I will immerse the entire thing for a day. Or go buy some milkstone remover at TSC.

Great day today. First off, got a response to my Kajiji add for a chunk of Miata. I needed 14 inch of Miata frame rail to graft on in order to reach the rear valance of the Volvo. I could have fabricated this out of square tube, but would rather keep with the stealth look so will use these things to extent the Miata frame rails.

So this happened in half an hour. The seller was expecting to be there for three hours or more. I like my Bosh sawzall with the demo blades

And these beautiful pieces of tin went on to become mine! Funny that the wife unit was not as excited as me, but then, women are not like real people anyways.

That all happened early in the AM so I managed to get out and finish off the welding and fabricating on the rear diff mount. Have to say I was rather happy with the results.

And then, the day went sideways. I had ASSUMED that the pinion center-line was the center of the differential. Actually spent hours obsessing over getting the diff centered over the pinion center line. Guess what...

It aint.

Back in the market for a new rear suspension cradle.

Aaaahhhrrrggghhh. There isn't much I've encountered more frustrating than spending that much time doing something to find out that it was all for naught and that it was an oversight on my part.

Bonus is needing to go buy new parts to be able to start all over again.

jfryjfry wrote: Aaaahhhrrrggghhh. There isn't much I've encountered more frustrating than spending that much time doing something to find out that it was all for naught and that it was an oversight on my part. Bonus is needing to go buy new parts to be able to start all over again.

This was such a colossal screw up that it kind of had to go in the laughter column right away. Kinda feel like Roland Deschain in the last page of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series.

Feelers are out for another rust free rear suspension cradle. Unfortunately they are not that common in Southern Ontario.

Oouucchhh.. :(

Ugh - think of how much faster the second one will be now that you have the plan worked out.

Is there really no way to fix it that doesn't save some of your work? Just seems like that might be less trouble than finding a new one and starting over if it's hard to find.

NOHOME wrote: It aint. Back in the market for a new rear suspension cradle.

I may be oversimplifying the situation, but could you make trapezoids of those two mounts to get you over to the correct alignment?

After all, it is only metal, and would be hidden under the car. I say this knowing that it probably doesn't jive with your impeccable attention to detail.

That sucks. Having not built a car like you have, it's not something I've ever thought too much about, but in hindsight, the pinion pretty much has to be off-set from the differential housing. Other than some racing specific models, I don't think I've ever seen one that wasn't offset. However, it seems fairly common for the rear axle pinion to be centered in the chassis with the axles different lengths. In a past life I replaced a lot of axle shaft bearings (non-floating; like the Dana 20 in an ES). The axles were usually different lengths.