So, long story shortened.. Bought this for our SCCA Miata beater, it was supposed to be a 1.8L Miata LSD.. Shows up at my dad's house and about a month later he calls me to come take a look. I do and instantly know it is not a miata rear but an RX7 rear.. So it sits in the garage for 2.5 years untouched and we just buy a 1.8L rear from a miata. Anyway my parents are moving and are trying to clean their garage out so the house can go on the market, so I decide to sell the Rear end.. Sell it on here for a huge loss and get ready to ship it today, upon packing it up I notice that 7 of the rear bolts that hold the actual diff to the cover are gone.. I get a little suspicious and decide to turn the yoke, the yoke gets a little tough every 1.5 turns to rotate. I took it apart and found it as pictured below. The weird thing is that it looks like brand new inside except for the metal to metal contact on the tips of the main gear and the shaft gear. I don't know much about rear ends, but it looks like it may have been rebuilt or something. The main gear has some paint writing on it (either a 55 or an ss)..

Now for the diagnosis, based on the picture what is causing the touch spot on turning it? Also can you tell if it has been rebuilt? Also can anyone verify from the picture that it is an LSD? I used the rear cover to identify it, but at this point I don't know what to believe.

 

SO from the pictures I have seen online this looks like an open differential anyway.... Geez.

 

Yeah, I'm not seeing clutch packs.

BTW, the "main gear" is called the Ring. The "shaft" gear is called the Pinion.

I'd need to see a little closer on the pinion to see why it's tough to turn... It seems very odd that it's hard to turn every 1.5 turns.

 

Yeah, it actually technically would be every 1 full turn of the pinion or two full turns of my wrist... Regardless I guess at this point it is a paperweight as I don't know who would want an open diff for anything anyway.