With my 90' mtx out of the car I decided I should replace the front cover housing & seal like Mazdatrix catalog suggest. It came with the seal installed, but in the FSM a shim is shown in conflicting locations.

FSM Section-page J1-41shows a cover-shim-seal
FSM Section-page J1-11 shows a cover-seal-then shim

Do I even need to worry about this 'shim' if Im just replacing the cover???
Thanks

 

Just put it back together the way it came apart, and everything will be ok. It looks as if the shim doesn't conflict with the seal anyways. Look at the 3rd pic (inside the circle) on page j1-41.

 

Still looks confusing to me, but I guess I'm over complicating things. Thanks AGreen.

 

Just in case someone else has a question of the 'shim', I took photos of the front cover replacement in sequence. The shim was on the transmission side. For the last picture I didn't have moly grease for the throwout, or shift fort, so I used Amzoil Synthetic grease. I'm thinking that's ok?

 

Are you sure that's not a bearing shim? That third pic really looks like it's the diameter of the outer race of the input bearing.

 

OK. I think I'm right on this. Look at the FSM page J1-18, bottom illustration, item 7.

It appears to be the shim for the main shaft front bearing.

 

Yeah, it was a shim around the bearing. It also seats right inside the front cover.

 

Where can you purchase that type shims?

 

This thread is 11 years old.
17-287J Shim, Adjust (w/o Turbo)
9996-36-310, T = 0.1mm
9996-36-315, T = 0.15mm
9996-36-330, T = 0.3mm
Try Mazda dealer, if they're still available.