lenny

I am having some trouble pressing my differential mounts. Can I press them out from either direction, or do they have some type of lip on them that prevents them from going out one way?

TailHappy

They should be able to be pressed out from either side. The trick was finding something the right size to push them out since there's not much room for error. And they were EXTREMELY tight. When they popped it sounded like a shotgun blast! Good luck!

3rdGen7

Damn ..that's my next project.. this Thursday ..

Any recommendations or How to's ???

lenny

I followed the mazda shop manual, but jimlab posted a message awhile ago explaining a way to take out the mount without removing the ppf and exhaust. I decided to remove everything because I think it is easier to pull everything out then try to work around it. Do a search, and you should find that message. I recommend changing the fuel filter because it is alot easier with the differntial out.

the_saint

You will have more room if you jack up carefully one of the axles. It will lower the diff another 4-5 inches, and give you much more room to work.

It took about 2 hours to change the diff mounts, according to jimlabs instructions, of which 1 1/4 hrs was spent trying to get the bushings out.

I followed the instructions, and it is NOT necessary to remove the ppf, but taking the exhaust off seemed to give a bit more room when lying under the car.

thesaint

TailHappy

Well, for what it's worth I spent an entire day on it, with about 3 hours of trying to get bolts off and about 3 hours of running around trying to find someone to remove the bushings. But it was the first thing I'd attempted to work on and I was really being careful. I didn't take the PPF or exhaust off. I also followed the jimlab instructions, which were posted about 2 months ago when I was asking the same questions. Essentially, remove the belly pans, take the two bolts out of the bushings and let the diff drop and rest on the axles, then take 4 bolts out of the top of the mount. These are a royal pain to get to and required some creative tool work. Then you have to wiggle the thing around in all sorts of directions to get it to slide out. Again, do a quick search on "diff mounts" or "differential mounts." I typed up a long post when I finished swapping mine.

And like lenny said, definitely change the fuel filter while you're in there. I think it's a lot easier of a job when the mount isn't in there.

TailHappy

I'm feeling generous today...did the search for you, here's the link....

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...rential+mounts