What did you do to your FB today?
I replaced the o-rings on my beehive oil-cooler, along with changing the oil. I actually just finished today, I started on Monday after work. Getting the banjo bolt off and on is extremely tedious. I think it probably took at least 30 minutes to get the banjo bolt back on and tightened. Oil pressure and temperatures seem good, and no leaks so far.
carb whisperer
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,485
Likes: 4
From: Greenfield, Ohio
Old [Sch|F]ool
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 12,862
Likes: 568
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Finally! A plan has come together.
What this is, is a Ford 9" pinion gear (5.43:1) in a Yukon aluminum pinion support, with a solid bearing spacer. Because the pinion support is Daytona style, the standard solid spacer kits don't come with enough shim and much finagling had to be done to get preload right.
The star of the show is the pinion flange. Yes, a flange on a 9". Its original application was for a Thunderbird/Mark IV. You can find them on eBay every now and then. The flange was modified severely by being first recentered, face machined flat, and an internal register bored to coincide with a Series 3 RX-7 driveshaft flange. And drilled to the Mazda bolt pattern. Then, because the Daytona pinion support is longer than normal, .375" of length was cut from the flange and a corresponding amount was cut from the seal area.
The third member is barely .5" longer than a stock Mazda 7". With certain geometry changes that will add grip and coincidentally reduce the amount of forward excursion at full suspension compression, I am going to be able to put a Ford 9" in my RX-7 without a special driveshaft.
I can't stress enough how good this makes me feel. I've been dreading this point in my car for, literally, years. The driveshaft problem has been the #1 reason why I have been putting off going with a better rearend than the flimsy, fragile RX-7 unit.
Commonly available consumables is awesome. Make the permanent parts work with off the shelf consumables, not the other way around!
Rest of centersection. That's a Detroit Locker with some special super-light springs so the ratcheting mechanism will break away easily, perfect for turn-in in low grip conditions, the #1 thing I hated about limited slip diffs, they don't let you TURN!
Case is through bolted, is ready for a 35 spline spool if I break 31 spline axles, and is allegedly good for 1200hp on slicks. So probably overkill enough
What this is, is a Ford 9" pinion gear (5.43:1) in a Yukon aluminum pinion support, with a solid bearing spacer. Because the pinion support is Daytona style, the standard solid spacer kits don't come with enough shim and much finagling had to be done to get preload right.
The star of the show is the pinion flange. Yes, a flange on a 9". Its original application was for a Thunderbird/Mark IV. You can find them on eBay every now and then. The flange was modified severely by being first recentered, face machined flat, and an internal register bored to coincide with a Series 3 RX-7 driveshaft flange. And drilled to the Mazda bolt pattern. Then, because the Daytona pinion support is longer than normal, .375" of length was cut from the flange and a corresponding amount was cut from the seal area.
The third member is barely .5" longer than a stock Mazda 7". With certain geometry changes that will add grip and coincidentally reduce the amount of forward excursion at full suspension compression, I am going to be able to put a Ford 9" in my RX-7 without a special driveshaft.
I can't stress enough how good this makes me feel. I've been dreading this point in my car for, literally, years. The driveshaft problem has been the #1 reason why I have been putting off going with a better rearend than the flimsy, fragile RX-7 unit.
Commonly available consumables is awesome. Make the permanent parts work with off the shelf consumables, not the other way around!
Rest of centersection. That's a Detroit Locker with some special super-light springs so the ratcheting mechanism will break away easily, perfect for turn-in in low grip conditions, the #1 thing I hated about limited slip diffs, they don't let you TURN!
Case is through bolted, is ready for a 35 spline spool if I break 31 spline axles, and is allegedly good for 1200hp on slicks. So probably overkill enough
Last edited by peejay; May 5, 2016 at 07:58 PM.
Finally! A plan has come together.
What this is, is a Ford 9" pinion gear (5.43:1) in a Yukon aluminum pinion support, with a solid bearing spacer. Because the pinion support is Daytona style, the standard solid spacer kits don't come with enough shim and much finagling had to be done to get preload right.
The star of the show is the pinion flange. Yes, a flange on a 9". Its original application was for a Thunderbird/Mark IV. You can find them on eBay every now and then. The flange was modified severely by being first recentered, face machined flat, and an internal register bored to coincide with a Series 3 RX-7 driveshaft flange. And drilled to the Mazda bolt pattern. Then, because the Daytona pinion support is longer than normal, .375" of length was cut from the flange and a corresponding amount was cut from the seal area.
The third member is barely .5" longer than a stock Mazda 7". With certain geometry changes that will add grip and coincidentally reduce the amount of forward excursion at full suspension compression, I am going to be able to put a Ford 9" in my RX-7 without a special driveshaft.
I can't stress enough how good this makes me feel. I've been dreading this point in my car for, literally, years. The driveshaft problem has been the #1 reason why I have been putting off going with a better rearend than the flimsy, fragile RX-7 unit.
Commonly available consumables is awesome. Make the permanent parts work with off the shelf consumables, not the other way around!
Rest of centersection. That's a Detroit Locker with some special super-light springs so the ratcheting mechanism will break away easily, perfect for turn-in in low grip conditions, the #1 thing I hated about limited slip diffs, they don't let you TURN!
Case is through bolted, is ready for a 35 spline spool if I break 31 spline axles, and is allegedly good for 1200hp on slicks. So probably overkill enough
What this is, is a Ford 9" pinion gear (5.43:1) in a Yukon aluminum pinion support, with a solid bearing spacer. Because the pinion support is Daytona style, the standard solid spacer kits don't come with enough shim and much finagling had to be done to get preload right.
The star of the show is the pinion flange. Yes, a flange on a 9". Its original application was for a Thunderbird/Mark IV. You can find them on eBay every now and then. The flange was modified severely by being first recentered, face machined flat, and an internal register bored to coincide with a Series 3 RX-7 driveshaft flange. And drilled to the Mazda bolt pattern. Then, because the Daytona pinion support is longer than normal, .375" of length was cut from the flange and a corresponding amount was cut from the seal area.
The third member is barely .5" longer than a stock Mazda 7". With certain geometry changes that will add grip and coincidentally reduce the amount of forward excursion at full suspension compression, I am going to be able to put a Ford 9" in my RX-7 without a special driveshaft.
I can't stress enough how good this makes me feel. I've been dreading this point in my car for, literally, years. The driveshaft problem has been the #1 reason why I have been putting off going with a better rearend than the flimsy, fragile RX-7 unit.
Commonly available consumables is awesome. Make the permanent parts work with off the shelf consumables, not the other way around!
Rest of centersection. That's a Detroit Locker with some special super-light springs so the ratcheting mechanism will break away easily, perfect for turn-in in low grip conditions, the #1 thing I hated about limited slip diffs, they don't let you TURN!
Case is through bolted, is ready for a 35 spline spool if I break 31 spline axles, and is allegedly good for 1200hp on slicks. So probably overkill enough
Old [Sch|F]ool
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 12,862
Likes: 568
From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Not as bad as it could have been. I found an eBay retailer selling the centersection with pinion support and some of the bearings for $430. The rest of the bearings were $50-ish, needed to adapt my standard carrier to the 3.25" bore case. The gears and diff came with a circle track rearend I bought for $450 that turned out to be heavily roached - twisted axles, wrecked bearings everywhere, just a mess. Then $500 to a place (Dutchman) to have axles made to my specs - the rearend will have the pinion shifted an inch to the left (more tunnel/exhaust clearance) and an inch wider track (my tires rub inner fenders), with the GSL-SE bolt pattern. Add $100 worth of housing ends and a $100 alighment kit for welding it all up. THEN I had some adaptor rings machined up to put Volvo S40 rear rotors on it, which mate up with aluminum VW rear calipers, which should work with the Mazda e-brake cables.
Add up everything else like the new UMI joints and threaded rods and suspension brackets and stiffening brace and other miscellany and it is a ittle over $2k.
Oh well, how much are GSL-SE rearends worth nowadays and how often am I twisting/breaking axles and splitting housings open? It should be cheaper in the end... I hope...
Add up everything else like the new UMI joints and threaded rods and suspension brackets and stiffening brace and other miscellany and it is a ittle over $2k.
Oh well, how much are GSL-SE rearends worth nowadays and how often am I twisting/breaking axles and splitting housings open? It should be cheaper in the end... I hope...
Car looks fantastic! Love the paint, is that a stock color? Matching waffles look awesome as well.
Original Leather
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 109
Likes: 32
From: PA
Yes the color is stock for the LS model. Color code is M4 Solar Gold. The car is all stock (except for the tires) as the date I drove it off the lot in 1980. The LS models came standard with the gold waffle wheels.
Originally Posted by peejay
Well, maybe. No guarantees on that front. May have to go to 35 spline axles, which are a full 1.5" in diameter.
Well, again fantastic looking car, and I'm in love with the color and matching wheels. My FB is Maya Gold, which is much lighter and has more silver in it (I think, I'm colorblind).
I took pretty much the whole front suspension off. I got new OEM control arms, removed the stock rubber bushings to replace with polyurethane. Removed the stock front sway bar, and replaced with the RB front bar. Polyurethane replaced the tension rod bushings as well. Unfortunately I was only able to get one side put together, so it will be some time before I get the rest of the car together and get to go for a drive.
