I have an unlicensed FD I drive basically only for special occasions. I have been experiencing a lot of shifter movement up and down for quite sometime but never really had the time to investigate as I stay busy with work and the car sits for 99% of the year. I did some research on here and determined it was most likely the ppf, I picked up one from a local member and it's been awaiting install as I wasn't sure how labor intensive the swap would be. Had the chance to finally put the car on a lift yesterday and diagnose the situation. To my surprise the mounting points of the ppf were unharmed... So this led me to worry maybe it was possibly a motor mount, but I needed MORE light to investigate a little more... Well come to find out that it WAS my PPF and it was actually sheered from top to bottom thru the meaty portion opf the PPF. For reference, there is a skid plate that ends below the back end of the tranny, directly after that is where it broke clean thru from top to bottom I was amazed... I'm still on stock turbos with just a lot of bolt ons, increased boost, and PowerFC... I wish I had my camera with me to have taken a picture and shown you guys... It was a CLEAN break all the way thru. All this damage was from wheel hop... At least that's when I started noticing the problem... Hopefully now I can find time to replace it in the near future...

I've read thru some threads regarding strengthening the ppf, but is there a "best" proven way to go about doing it? I know typically the mounting point are the weak areas, but I would like to aboid any break at all.

 

Wow, must be nice to find the root of the problem finally.


While my PPF is out i think i should strengthen it as well.


+1, lets see some beefed up PPF's




You should post pictures of exactly where the break accored. Perhaps this area is prone to breaking because of wheel hop.



=Ben

 

I'm going to try and get a good shot of it when I return home in just a bit I know where to look now

 

These pictures don't do the break carnage justice... It's much more carnal than these photos show, but I don't have a lift so...

Here's a zoom in of the break, you can see where it has made contact with the car:


Here's the shot that zoom was cropped from:


This photo shows the shield on the ppf I was referring to:


Here you can see my replacement ppf and the marks where the shield was mounted to reference the area of the break:


And here is another angle of the replacement ppf:

 

All the archived threads I'm finding are packed full of text, but the pictures are no longer visible... Making it difficult to see what modifications and bracing are being welded on to strengthen the ppf. The mazdaspeed one is unGodly expensive and no stronger in the weak points... SO I would think modifying this spare I have would be the best option.

Can anyone chime in for how I could go about strengthening this beast?

 

nice carnage pics tim Now you gotta learn how to launch without hoping the tires

Do you have the hanyes manual for the car ? It should tell you what to remove to get to that somebitch. If you figure out how to remove it I would be more then willing to help with replacing it or if you are going to reinforce it I could do some welding for you. I got a ton of tools and **** at my house.

 

I used to have pics posted of a PPF I had reinforced with 1/4 steel by a local welder, but all of the all FS ads have been erased. If I can find them on my old computer I'll post them up......

 

Thanks Aaron, I had it on the lift and it looks super simple, drop the midpipe, and then two tunnel braces, and then the 5 bolts for the ppf and it's out. Pretty simple, But yeah if you wanna help with some welding on the ppf that'd be awesome. And I'm hoping to borrow the lift to do the swap as it makes it much easier to work below the car

And Rich, I appreciate it if you do have any of the photos of your old ppf... I'm just sort of curious where to apply the extra materials to increase the strength... I think I remember seeing the photos of yours... But unfortunately every thread I find the pictures no longer exist...

 

Wow.


Looks to be a combination of engine torque (to the left) and wheel hop. Perhaps the wheel hop broke the PPF and then the engine torque bent the PPF to the left side of the trany tunnel, possibly in a launch or over time.


I will definatly be renforcing my PPF!


I hope that this task goes smoothly for you. Good thing its relatively easy to take out the PPF. Just remember to properly align your differencial afterwards(relative to the PPF).



=Ben

 

thanks Ben. yeah the car has probably been driven for a total 5 weekends or so with the broken ppf. so some of that damage on the car is just from bogging and weight shifting during shifts... I hate the clunk... it looks like an easy task to install, just need to reinforce the new one since I'm running higher boost and hoping to get a new tune by Steve Kan this spring. need the ppf to hold up to the power...

 

Rich, regarding your reinforced ppf, was extra material added to both sides of the ppf? Just the inside/outside? How was it done... If there was a decent write-up in any of those threads I could make sense of it and get it done, however there are no good write-ups and no photos, which makes it difficult... And this is something that I want to make sure is done CORRECTLY the first time

 

Bump

 

Well, I had some 3/8 or so steel plates welded in where the two parts overlap. one at each end. It added enough material that it was almost touching the driveshaft.

That held up to 8500rpm clutch dumps on ET Streets and a half bridge single turbo motor.


I just had a buddy do it at work one day, It was pretty simple

 

Link to my modified one. Oh yea it's FS.


https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=682466