I stumbled across a consortium of what I believe to be misinformation. The topic in question is the subject line here. I do recall a 1983 flange change and I think the earlier models had serviceable u joints.... but I never remember reading anything that stated the SE had a unique drive shaft compared to any other manual ‘83 on up driveshaft.

 

Assuming you’re asking about serviceable U joints in SE shaft. They are,sort of, If you look closely you’ll see the joints are staked in. You need to grind this area away to be able to press u joints out.
U joints to replace them are available,advise to get 3 u joints as easy to either lose parts or find that the u joints are not that well made. They don’t cost that much but have had a couple fail prematurely and one that was made a little off causing a vibration.
I tend to drive my car in a spirited manner and in the end bought an aftermarket driveshaft with larger greasable u joints.
I had it checked for balance before installing,it was off enough to need rebalancing. Car is smoother especially at high speed than it ever was with oe driveshaft.

 

The question was about the actual flange. Some dude on Facebook asked about parts interchange 12a/13b driveshaft. The first 3 or 4 responses was “No, they are different “ which seemed wrong to me. I did look up the parts number and would you know it, it is the same part. Seems people are getting dumber with first gen facts as time goes by.

 

Yes all driveshafts same on big bearing axle that appeared from 1983 on. The prior years small bearing axle flange and attaching hardware is completely different. Small bearing axle rears had bolts that threaded into companion flange on 3rd member.
All big bearing axles driveshaft is retained by bolts,locwashers and nuts. Real easy to tell difference.

Beware all the internet experts,lol.

 

Richard, I follow that same FB 1st gen group and man I can't believe the stoopid I see posted there. I rarely say anything cause I'm not a big fan of FB in general but I use it to follow my interests, especially car events and such.

 

that facebook group is pretty bad, its a bad format too, the forum works better for this kind of thing.

attached is the parts catalog, clearly GSL-SE uses the same shaft as all the other 84-85 manual cars

 

Quick question; on the forward end of the DS (*the transmission tailshaft end), there's a shield there with sections punched out that would appear to work as a fan to bring air onto the tailshaft bushing area.

Is that shield needed? My Mazdatrix aftermarket DS with conventional replaceable spiders doesn't have that. No ill effects, just curious what Mazda was thinking, as everything else is designed for purpose. TIA,

 

Many OE driveshafts have (had) that "shield". It was just to help keep road grime off the slip yoke and seal. It doesn't fan or cool the tailshaft.

 

That is not 100% correct. The flange change happened for the 1983 model year, but the switch to big bearing happened for 1984 model year. 1983 had small bearing rears with the "square" bolt pattern. Incidentally it is the same flange as NA6 Miata, Kia Sportage, probably others.

 

You just need to change the base on the 3rd member to match the one on the driveshaft you want to use....easy....