while i was replacing the differential, i went ahead and ordered new rear wheel bearings, locking rings, and seals from the dealer yesterday. i figured that i'm just going to replace everything with new parts since i'm making this car a daily driver.

 

err this new diff is it a gsl?

 

its a newly used diff from another 85 rear end that i had laying around. drum brake of course. old one made a little noise when turned by hand. i just want to cover all bases to be on the safe side.

 

installed the new parking brake cables tonight. went well. so, when i get the bearings in and the axles back from having the new bearings put on i can take the beast out fo a drive and see what a difference the new rear bearings with the new royal purple diff oil, new rear shoes, and parking brake cables make.

 

well, got the rear end buttoned up (new rear wheel bearings, collars, and seals and replaced tth edifferential) and took it for a drive. good news and bad news. good news is that the rear end sounds good. bad news is that now i can hear how bad the front wheel bearings are and i can hear some bearing noise in teh trans in first and second gear. i'll get new front bearings on order tomorrow and look into changing the trans fluid with a better fluid in hopes to quiet the bearing noise.

here are the axles with new bearings ready to go in:


the oil that i used in the diff (def not the dr. pepper, lol):


and a pic of the new shoes installed:


here's a pic of the new parts that went in today (pedal pads, firewall grommet, and gas tank seals which will go on later):

 

rear noise is gone. now i can hear the front wheel bearings making noise.. ordered those from the dealer on saturday and will pick up and install on wednesday. and at that time i hope the rest of the small parts that i ordered will be in as well. then i'll start on the inner and outer tie rods, ball joints, and idler arm..

 

replaced the front wheel bearings and seals last night.. still getting a vibration. i'm suspecting the trans mount. changed the trans fluid over to redline today and adjusted the rear brakes. i'll keep you guys updated on how the redline works with the trans.

 

shiftes are a lot smoother since adding redline mt 90 and trans bearing noise is down marginally, as was expected. the brakes feel great now as i adjusted the rear shoes and the parking brake. my noise still persists of course and i have another thread started regarding it. at any rate, here are a few pics from tonight at the inlaws place:

 

Very cool Dave, looks nice and clean. Will be cool to see with the IMSA spoiler and, when you get some, LE wheels. That color is growing on me.

 

it'll be nice just to get all the bugs sorted out and be able to jump in and drive the car knowing that the odds of breaking down are extremely slim. its been extremely reliable for the 150+ miles that i've put on it. i just want it as perfect as it can be for a 24 year old car. the IMSA spoiler will look great on the car. i plan installing that when it sees the paint booth. not sure when that'll be though. next car that i plan on going through will be my 80 LS.

 

got the trans mount in today and one new window douch squirter. i'm going to the garage now to install the parts. will report back with pics in a little while.

 

got ordered in to work 7pm-7am tonight...so trans mount will wait until tomorrow and will follow with results and pics.

 

Damn thats one long shift! Sounds like your slowly widdling away at all the details on this car.

 

i'm really trying to make progress. i'm breaking the bank doing it..literally. but i know that when restoring an FB, you've gotta have your big girl panties on when it comes to cost because it isn't cheap..

 

Very true, I've spent more money than I ever want to know about on FB's and I don't regret it at all. I drove my T2 FB to work today and it was heavenly
I can't imagine what your wife thinks about your habit though lol

 

we argue about it all the time. she was telling me how much i've spent this last week on the RX-7 alone. and it was more than $200..man, thats my tokico blues i'm still wanting..and i did have the $150 unneeded expense of replacing the timing belt on my 95 Ranger. that wasn't fun and i would have rather put the money into the 7.

the list for replacement parts continues. i want to install tokico blues front and rear, new driveshaft, new inner and outer tie rod ends, ball joints, and idler arm. after that everything short of the rear control arms and watts links will be new..

 

mount is on and feels a lot better. as far as the vibration goes..still persists wildly. going to put the car on the lift and run it and see if i cant isolate the problem.

 

i really need to replace the trans as the bearings are pretty noisy. i have another trans..here's hoping its good. i also was able to see play in the rear u-joint and feel it as well. little bit of noise from the diff..not sure what route i'm going to take with it.

 

Damn that sucks.... I guess if we had kids and a mortgage we'd argue about it more, but my GF is pretty cool about the whole thing. My parents get on my case for having 5 cars strewn about the yard sometimes, but not very often lol.

 

well, i bought a driveshaft for the 7 today. claimed 20K miles and is a new replacement from Mazda still containing the tag for the part number on the driveshaft. i will toss up a pic once it comes in. i may replace the transmission on friday.

 

ok, as promised, here are the pics of the mount replacement. the first pic is the new mount and one of the new washer nozzles. i ordered the new nozzel because the gaskets under the nozzels are bad and you can only get a new gasket with the new nozzel. cannot be purchased seperately:



here is a pic of the old mount. you can see how it is no longer attatched to the metal. its cracked all the way through:



here is a pic of the new mount installed:

 

going to the shop to swap out the noisy transmission. hopefully the newly used trans is good. pics and analysis later tonight!

 

new trans is in!!! drives excellent with NO NOISE!! i'm extremely happy!! pics later.

 

after uploading the pics that i took of the trans swap, i realized that i didnt take any of the new trans in the car.. oh well. at any rate, here is a pic of the old trans out:



pic of the new trans(on the left) next to the SE trans. note the double vented bellhousing on the SE trans. i used the original 12A trans that came in the car. had 142K miles on it and it shifts perfectly and sounds like new:



here is a pic of the new washer nozzles installed. i replaced them because the gasket underneath each nozzel was bad and unfortunatly the gaskets can not be purchased seperatly from the nozzel. luckily still available from Mazda for around $12 each:

 

new driveshaft came today..like 5 mins ago, lol. it looks beautiful. will install and take pics and post vibration update.