Broken eccentric shaft (?)
 

I have been messing with and racing rotaries for a while now, and never heard of this before. Last weekend I missed an upshift (on the track) and had to dip the clutch while searching for third and popped it out pretty hard when it finally went into gear. I immediately felt a vibration that quickly turned into an undercar oil fire and the car pretty much grinding to a halt.

I pulled the engine tonight and pulled off the transmission figuring I had had lost a main seal. Went to rotate the flywheel and it came off in my hand, the eccentric shaft was severed about midway into the rear bearing. I am assuming it is a total fluke, bad casting or whatever, but just thought it was interesting enough to share and maybe solicit whether anyone has heard of such a thing. Car is a stock drivetrain RX-8.

Steven

WHAT!!?! NO WAI!!! never could've imagined that would happen.

we needs pics of a broken eshaft.

I will definitely get pics tomorrow. It's way cool (in a very expensive sort of way).

This might be a first ever!

Hurry up with the pics.

Anthony

Uhh Ohh! Now one must question the integrity of the Renesis e-shaft. I heard it was slightly lighter. Maybe it's casting now has some weak points with it's weight savings?

You've got the Silver -8, correct?

the last thing the rx8 needs is a shoddy e shaft.

http://fc3spro.com/TECH/HOF/hof.html

The second entry is a pic of a sheared e-shaft.


-Ted

So, what sort of "racing" were you doing? Road course? Drag?

Pics & stuff
 

Steven was road racing with SCCA in MAM. Yes, he is the silver RX-8.

http://www.tuxedoparkracing.com/rx-8...ft/RX8EccShaft

Sheila (Steven's wife)

That explains it, Silvers are cursed (seriously).

Wow and on a NA! I could see this from some big boosted monster, but damn. What are your plans with the motor?

I'm hoping that it is rebuildable. It'll be a couple of weeks until I have time to tear it down and see, but it still turns free, makes audible compression and doesn't have any unusual slop or freeplay, so hopefully the housings and rotors are okay. Only has 6000 miles on it, but half of those are race miles.

Steven

Wow, that is gnarly!

Have you called Motorsports yet? I wonder if they or Mazda USA would be willing to help you out on this...

Steve, that thing must be under warranty still right? Your car is basically stock besides that jungle gym you have in there so I wouldn't expect them to give you a hard time.

Well, now you can finally do the secret porting that we were talking about :)

what tires are you running in the rear? size and compound?

What was your belt tension set at?

the only time I have ever seen an E-Shaft shear was due to belts being way too tight.

That's how Ralph Friend broke the eshaft in his FD.

Dam. Never seen or heard of it that. that sucks

Lol