I spent a night at the shop with one of my friends and upgraded the differential bushings, swapped in the tranny I rebuilt, replaced the clutch, and replaced the flywheel, and installed a short shifter.


First off the diff bushings -

These are the differential bushings rx7store sells. I guess they're solid rubber replacements instead of the OEM liquid filled ones. I needed a press to get the stock ones out but the new ones went in with a hammer. Holy crap there is so much less play in the shifter. Aside from getting rid of the clunk whenever I shifted hard, now the shifter sits almost still as I give it gas and let off. The car also doesnt kick anywhere near as badly as it used to when Im at a high rpm and let off the throttle. They dont make any noise or vibrations either.

The clutch was a Spec stage 3

This is a 4puck sprung hub with a cooper ceramic race disc. Everyone kept telling me this wasnt gonna be streetable, especially with my lightweight flywheel. This isnt the case at all. In fact, its easier to drive than my friends 6puck unsprung ACT clutch. There's enough slippage to creep it real easy. Its a bit deceiving though, because it'll slip for a little bit, you'll let the pedal up another inch and BAM! Its engaged. Takes a couple minutes to get used to it, but after you do its not difficult. You wont have any issues stalling it. Driving through subdivisions isnt that fun cause its a bit rough coming out of 1st (which is unavoidable) but its not unbearably jerky. I bet with time I'll get more used to it and make it a lot more smooth. As for power, I havent gotten it to slip so far (havent done any high rpm launches though), but my car puts down somewhere towards 280lb/ft and this this is rated at 520lb/ft. The pedal pressure is nearly half what my stock one was. I love it. This is identical to what my integras clutch pressure was. Im not sure, though, if putting in a new slave cylinder had anything to do with the pedal becoming lighter. Whichever it is, its better than any FDs Ive sat in so far.

The flywheel was an Aluminum Racing Beat one

The car revs substantially quicker and accelerates somewhat faster in 1st and 2nd gear. More noticeably is the fact that no longer does the car feel powerful and beasty, now it feels twitchy and fast. Like its waiting to wind up. Especially first gear. I have trouble keeping traction. And the replaceable friction pads - I can already tell its gonna be a total bitch getting those 20something screws out.

The shifter is the Mazdaspeed replica one rx7store sells

I like the clunk into gear feel. Makes it feel more like a race car. It does take some effort to get it to go into gear though. The only complaint I have is it wont let my momo shift **** sit all the way down on it. The shifter is thin where the threads are then gets fat about 1/4 the way down. Its so fat that the chrome trim piece that covers up the alen screws on the shifter cant slide past it, preventing me from mounting the shift **** as low as possible. Right now I just have the **** on there without the trim piece. It still runs into the wide part on the shifter. Plus why is this thing 2 piece? I guess to reduce vibration? Whatever it is, it results in the shift **** being able to rotate and I cant seem to get it tight. I think I've already stripped the plastic threads out. I dont know why the hell its made like that.



And after doing all that **** at once, its like driving a totaly different car now. Feels weird.