this past summer i let my dad use my 85SE while he was spending time with me here in tx, one day after coming to a friends house he started to notice the clutch is starting to slip. so we take it easy on the clutch until i can get my paycheck to buy the racing beat Street/Race 4 puck sprung disc and press.plate from mazdatrix which was around $300 give or take a few bucks. me and my dads friend changed the clutch our selves without putting it in the air just 4 jack stands and did it the poor mans way. after about 20min fighting with the tranny to go in the reast was a breeze. we changed the master cylinder and new fluid and for its test drive i noticed something strange...when ever i would go in reverse or go slow in any gear while using less than 20% throttle the car shudders and clanks somewhat violently before going into smooth operation. it has been doing this since and i've put about 3k on it already. when i let my stepdad drive it around since he let me drive his pimped-out envoy and ferrari red 300hp suprecharged 1990 vw corrado g60 he said that the clanking noise was from the u-joints being wornout/out of spec. of course the shuddering calmed down after the initial break in but i always get clank-clank-clank sound as if the driveshaft has second when it doesnt see rotation then again sees rotation....thats about as good as i can describe it....thanks for help

 

get under the car and visually inspect the joints.

 

Yes,

I can post a movie or image of what worn u-joints look like if needed.

Basically, if you can move them say up and to the right then that's not good. If you press the gas when you go to shift and it clunks then your u-joints are bad.

Go for the Mazdatrix version, replacable u-joints. I havent had any problems with mine yet except for it rubbing against that damned exhaust heat shield.

* I dont mean to hijack your thread but will someone please tell me if the heat shield does any good? Can I remove it? *

Thanks,
Eric M. Pelezo

 

I would imagine that your car would get fairly hot if not for that heat shield. Don't forget that exhaust temps for the rotary are, to say the least, fawking hot.

Does your car start to vibrate at all? When my u-joints were bad, my car would start vibrating fairly bad while in fourth gear. [This is with the rear wheels off the ground, spinning freely.] Changing the u-joints got rid of any and all vibrations whatsoever for me.

If you can wiggle the driveshaft at all [at the flange, that is], then chances are, the u-joints are bad.

 

actually when i changed the clutch my friend said removing the heat shield doesn't do any harm at all, ive been running without it since the change and it actually doesn't burn or harm anything, the only thing i can think of that heat shield is used for is to make our job harder to change the clutch.
Thanks for the feedback i'll check the joints and get back to you...

 

I thought maybe it was to make sure it doesnt get hit by debris, ill probbaly remove most of it then.

 

Well, for what it's worth. I bought my SE without a heat sheid on it. Both the shifter (metal part) and the seat rails would get hot while driving. The seat rails (passenger side) got hot enough to burn you if you touched them for an extended period. Other side effect of not having the heat shields is that the transmission would leak oil out of the rear seal in slow traffic (the cat being right under the transmissions caused expansion with the heat letting fluid leak past the seal). The oil from the transmisison would then burn off the hot cat and the fumes would come into the car. I have since put heat shielding on, now the shifter and seat rails stay nice and cool and I don't have to deal with the smell of burning oil. I also have an aftermarket drive shaft (similar to mazdatrix) that did initially hit the heat shield. It just took a bit a prying and pounding of the heat shield to get the clearance needed. So in my opinion, I would keep the shields on especially if you still have the catalytic converters in place.

 

when i got my 85 SE it didn't have cats. the exhaust is a RB header, straight pipe and factory muffler. runs fine and sounds like a rotary should...loud and proud.

 

i recently replaced the driveshaft on my 85. the u-joints are not replaceable. i had a local shop make me a new shaft with larger yokes and u-joints than the stock counterpart and later i can replace the joints and also have the nipple grease fitting. cost me $200 bucks. i needed to eliminate the heat shield because it rubbed like crazy under there! i'll just bring an ice pack to put under my seat to keep my *** cool on warm days i guess!

 

You could always get a 79-82 driveshaft [replaceable u-joints] and change the flange on the axle. That would probably be an easier solution.

 

actually the best idea that im going to do is have my friend and I got to a driveshaft shop and get a new driveshaft done up.

 

cptpain, two thoughts:
1. did you resurface the flywheel when you did the clutch? If not, that could cause your clanking.
2. If it is u joints, I had mine replaced by a drive train specialist. That was on an 85 SE. Even though they are supposedly not replaceable.

 

I nvever heard of unresurfaced flywheel causing that kind of problem

 

Warping could cause shaking as could heat checks but i dunno about clanking, that sounds something more metallic to me.

 

go either this way, or have a new one built.

 

Replacments for your "Non Replacable U-Joints" are manufactured
by a company called "Rockford Driveline" and are part number
430-10A for 1984-1991 RX-7'S. I paid 19.95 plus tax here in
Oklahoma City, about 1 week ago to replace the front U-joint
in my car, as it rattled so bad the entire car shook. Use the
same part for both front and rear U-Joint.

Many places sell these replacments. do a google search
for "Staked U-joints" and you will come up with several
places that sell the same part at different prices. the
cheapest was 12.95, I believe, and the most expensive was
about 25.00. The place I got them was "Drive Train Specialists"
here in Oklahoma City.

This information has been available in this forum for quite some time
I believe if you do a search you will find several old posts with this info.

Here are links to resellers:

http://www.arizonadrivelines.com/u-j...taked_type.htm

www.shafts.com/staked_style/staked_style.html

http://www.drivetrain.net/ The OKC store I Got mine from



Chuck

 

I Just noticed you are in Texas, " Austin Drive Train" in Austin TX
is a part of "Drive Train Specialists".

They sell those U-Joints too. Here is their web page:

http://www.austindrivetrain.com/

Chuck

 

Chuck,

How do you remove the old U-joints and put the new ones in? I was under the impression that the u-joints don't even come apart. Share the removal and installation methods if you would, please. Thanks for the links too...

Jamie

 

Jamie,

Basicly you just beat them out with a hammer, then clean up the
holes with a file and some steel wool, and put the new ones in
with the same hammer. The bearing caps clip from the inside
of the u-joint instead of the top of the cap like a regular u-joint

And if you have one you can use a press, but a 3 pound sledge works just
fine.

it took about an hour to replace the U-joint, not including the
time to remove it from the car, basicly not much different than
replacing the U-Joints on an old ford

The U-Joints come with a paper that tells how to take the old ones
out and put the new ones in.

Chuck