make sure you pay attention to pinion angle when you install it... I almost shook my car apart on my maiden voyage with my "it's probably fine" outlook...

 

I've been paranoid about every other step so far, so I'll continue that trend haha

 

Comparing new to old.






I think the RX7 diff might end up going in my Locost.

 

Ronin added some reinforcement to the rear mount, nice.

I used an angled solid front spacer on my diff to set the pinion angle. It has worked great.

 

Have any more of those?

 

Actually, yea, I had 3 made each within .5 degrees of each other to get the angle perfect. You could easily mod this and space it up and down as necessary.

 

 

Everybody had to come out of the shop so I could have access with the tractor.





The tractor was needed to move this thing, which weighs a metric *** ton.





Brotaries





Started the process to make a mold of the slick top so I can make carbon fiber skins. The Hillclimb car is a sunroof model (GXL) so I need a nice way to fill the hole.

 

All done. Fresh CVs, fresh wheel bearings, fresh wheel studs and ready to help me make use of the Ford diff.

 

Knock off those seal covers on the inner CVs. They will interfere with the newer axle seals on the Explorer diff. There was a TSB and a change in design early in the run and those covers are not needed.

 

Good call, forgot to peel them off after paint

 

I finally understand what you were describing when we were talking about your wifi woes. Somehow, I had imagined the house -> barn -> shop layout completely wrong. If you're still looking for a good minimal-impact network layout, I'll head down soon and help plan it out.

 

I'm always looking for networking help, and beer consumption.

 

Big moment tonight. Diff met car for the first time. The delrin mounts are seriously stiff.

 

This quote is almost sig-worthy

 

The rear diff is not playing nice with the rear sway bar. Has anybody else had this issue? It's a suspension techniques setup.

 

Sort of a known issue. I *believe* a stock rear bar fits with no interference, but I am not sure.

There are very few of us with 8.8s that run rear sway bars.

 

Car is for sale. Running and driving once the transmission is replaced.

FOR SALE

 

Rely :'(

 

RX7 is off the market. My crisis of confidence has passed.

 

This makes me happy.

 

Geez Dave what have you been up to?

A LOT!

I decided to not sell the RX7. She's not done with me yet, but that meant I needed to do some work. Oh yeah, I also separated from my lady friend of 5 years so I needed to find a new place to live and a new shop as well.

Fun times have been had I tells ya.

Miraculously, I found a shop space in Greater Boston that doesn't cost more than my rent. I can thank my racing network entirely for this luck. I share the space with a fellow racer who competes in NASA with his Spec E46 BMW. A good match I feel. It's even a quick 10 minute drive from my new apartment. I can't be mad about that.

So I've started moving into the space and making it both my own and useful for my various projects. First up is a new workbench and storage space. More shelves will be needed, but this is a start.



The work bench is 8' long and 3' deep constructed from 2x6's set 12" on center, a sheet of 1/2" OSB and then a sheet of 13gauge cold rolled steel that didn't do anything kind to my back while moving it around. I also reinforced the corners of the bench for solid vise mounting.

The top shelf is all 2x4's and is a full 4'x8' for lightish storage of tools etc. Next up will be constructing drop-down storage trays that will nest in the bottom of the top shelf. I'll document this of course. After that I'll be putting up some shelving along the long side of the shop before moving all my tools in. Will it all fit? Likely not, so I'll be selling some gear.

Meanwhile the RX7.... Well that transmission is hooped, so I pulled it out to replace it. The verdict? A circlip on the u-joint disappeared, allowing the bearing cup to come out, hitting the shifter turret and breaking it all off. This not along hooped the transmission, but also caused a deep abrasion on the driveshaft, which is carbon fiber. This of course renders the $700 driveshaft unusable.

Feeling great about life, I just ordered a new aluminum driveshaft for $250. I can't justify another carbon fiber model right now.

Once the car is fully mobile it will be making the trip to the new shop space.

 

That sucks

which circlip was lost? the 1310 or the 7260?

did you lose the aluminum lip holding the circlip in?

 

The 1310 end of things. The circlip lip looks OK, so maybe it just wasn't seated all the way.

 

We're back in action