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PostPosted: August 18, 2010, 10:13 am 
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horizenjob wrote:
Perhaps those are tie-rod adapter fittings, to go from a tie rod thread to a ball joint?

I think your diff needs mounts on the front. See if you can look at your friends Westfield. The engine torque will try to rotate the diff instead of the wheels.


I'll check if they thread into the tie rod...thanks for the idea!

The front of the diff will be mounted - I just need to cut off that portion of the diff to get it into position. (both the front of the diff and rear of the tranny will be mounted to the chassis...somewhat simulating the PPF)

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PostPosted: August 18, 2010, 11:38 pm 
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first350 wrote:
The front of the diff will be mounted - I just need to cut off that portion of the diff to get it into position. (both the front of the diff and rear of the tranny will be mounted to the chassis...somewhat simulating the PPF)

I'm not sure that this is a good idea.
Hard mounting the diff is just fine but the trans is bolted to the motor, and unless you're hard mounting the motor as well I think that something will have to give eventually.
You can probably brace the motor or install really stiff motor mount to reduce the chance for failure if you really want to run things that way.

Moti

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PostPosted: August 19, 2010, 10:23 am 
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Blackbird wrote:
I'm not sure that this is a good idea.
Hard mounting the diff is just fine but the trans is bolted to the motor, and unless you're hard mounting the motor as well I think that something will have to give eventually.
You can probably brace the motor or install really stiff motor mount to reduce the chance for failure if you really want to run things that way.

Moti


thanks for the info - I found an extra engine mount in the kit last night...I assume it's for the Tranny.

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PostPosted: August 19, 2010, 10:29 am 
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first350 wrote:
got the LSD in...a bit of an issue actually fitting it into place. This kit is for the 1.6L miata...even though just about everything from the 1.8L will bolt into a 1.6L, some of the sizes are slightly increased - the 1.8L Torsen nose is much larger than the 1.6L viscous...I think that's where the interference is coming from. I was able to make a small cut to the Diff's arm to get it into place, but there's still interference that's preventing the nose of the diff from pointing high enough. I may need to modify the chassis a bit...I'd really prefer not to run the smaller 1.6L diff.


You may or may not like this answer, but I had one hell of a hard time mounting the 1.8 LSD Miata diff in my chassis, the longer nose just would not clear. I ended up grinding down a bit off the bottom of the diff nose and have a good amount of space now.

Careful though, don't make the incredibly frustrating mistake I did and grind so much you create another drain plug :oops:

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PostPosted: August 19, 2010, 3:44 pm 
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217 Racing wrote:
You may or may not like this answer, but I had one hell of a hard time mounting the 1.8 LSD Miata diff in my chassis, the longer nose just would not clear. I ended up grinding down a bit off the bottom of the diff nose and have a good amount of space now.

Careful though, don't make the incredibly frustrating mistake I did and grind so much you create another drain plug :oops:


how thick is the front nose casing? I have 2 clearance issues, one is the side mounting tab which should be easy to grind off, the other is the top...my current thought it to notch the chassis to clear the top of the diff...if I hard mount the front of the diff, I will only need a small amount of clearance.

*if I grind off too much, I'll make it another vent :lol:

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PostPosted: August 19, 2010, 3:55 pm 
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Location: St.Thomas Ontario
first350 wrote:
217 Racing wrote:
You may or may not like this answer, but I had one hell of a hard time mounting the 1.8 LSD Miata diff in my chassis, the longer nose just would not clear. I ended up grinding down a bit off the bottom of the diff nose and have a good amount of space now.

Careful though, don't make the incredibly frustrating mistake I did and grind so much you create another drain plug :oops:


how thick is the front nose casing? I have 2 clearance issues, one is the side mounting tab which should be easy to grind off, the other is the top...my current thought it to notch the chassis to clear the top of the diff...if I hard mount the front of the diff, I will only need a small amount of clearance.

*if I grind off too much, I'll make it another vent :lol:


Don't hard mount the front of the diff, and leave the ears with bushings. All of the force will be put on the solid mount vs being spread between the three mounts. You need to pick hard or soft mounted.


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PostPosted: August 20, 2010, 10:38 am 
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dilbert wrote:
Don't hard mount the front of the diff, and leave the ears with bushings. All of the force will be put on the solid mount vs being spread between the three mounts. You need to pick hard or soft mounted.


makes sense - thanks for the info!

Another related question: What if I mount the Diff about 2" lower than it's current designed location. I'm thinking I could put a 2" spacer between the chassis and the diff arm mounts...this will lower it enough that my clearance issue with the nose will go away. I assume this small change will be ok for the driveshaft angle, but what happens to the 1/2 shaft angles...will it try to pull the 1/2 shafts out of the Diff b/c the position is lower? Or is 2" a trivial amount?

thanks again for all the info guys - this forum is such a great resource!!!

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PostPosted: August 20, 2010, 11:33 am 
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first350 wrote:
how thick is the front nose casing? I have 2 clearance issues, one is the side mounting tab which should be easy to grind off, the other is the top...my current thought it to notch the chassis to clear the top of the diff...if I hard mount the front of the diff, I will only need a small amount of clearance.

*if I grind off too much, I'll make it another vent :lol:


I wish I could tell you exactly how thick it was before disaster struck, but really don't have anything close to an accurate guesstimate.

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PostPosted: August 23, 2010, 11:50 am 
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first350 wrote:
dilbert wrote:
Don't hard mount the front of the diff, and leave the ears with bushings. All of the force will be put on the solid mount vs being spread between the three mounts. You need to pick hard or soft mounted.


makes sense - thanks for the info!

Another related question: What if I mount the Diff about 2" lower than it's current designed location. I'm thinking I could put a 2" spacer between the chassis and the diff arm mounts...this will lower it enough that my clearance issue with the nose will go away. I assume this small change will be ok for the driveshaft angle, but what happens to the 1/2 shaft angles...will it try to pull the 1/2 shafts out of the Diff b/c the position is lower? Or is 2" a trivial amount?

thanks again for all the info guys - this forum is such a great resource!!!


I would lean more towards modifying the frame around the diff nose. The 1/2 shafts should be at the optimum location to start with and pushing it out 2" is probably quite a bit. If you can rework a few tubes around the nose of the diff you'll probably end up with a better result.


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PostPosted: August 24, 2010, 1:43 am 
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dilbert wrote:
I would lean more towards modifying the frame around the diff nose. The 1/2 shafts should be at the optimum location to start with and pushing it out 2" is probably quite a bit. If you can rework a few tubes around the nose of the diff you'll probably end up with a better result.


Thanks for the input...I did a few mock-ups and all I need is a 1/2" spacer to make it work...I'm waiting to hear back from MNR to see what their thoughts are.

I haven't done much work this weekend...I was out autoXing at the Canadian Kuhmo Super Challenge!! I was co-driving my old STS Miata...what a blast! They combined all the ST classes (ST, STS, STR, STX, STU)...great competition
5th in class out of 25
7th PAX overall (2 day event)
3rd in the Super Challenge!

*for those who haven't done this event, it's my most favorite! Their "shoot-out" is like a Pro-Solo shoot-out, except based only on PAX...40 cars run, the top 20 in PAX move on...then top 10, then top 5. The winner at the end gets a free set of Kuhmo tires! But there's a twist...they modify 1 element of the course between each round, so you gotta look ahead!

Best part of crossing the USA/Canadian border is when the Border Patrol asks "What are you bringing back into the US?", I get to respond "Trophies!" :D
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pic of the car:
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I did manage to paint my front spindles after I got back...they had been super rusty, so after soaking them in an Anti-Rust liquid, I painted them (I used a Rust-o-leum primer, then a final coat of black):
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final product:
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Also test fitted the bonnet/nose cone/scuttle (kinda looks like a real car...but my wife says it's closer to a "canoe"):
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PostPosted: August 27, 2010, 12:13 am 
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borrowed a friends large cut-off wheel...the suspension bolts all have the right "shank" (non-threaded portion), but the threaded portion is too long - it'll make it a jig-saw puzzle to remove anything at a later time, so I'm cutting them down. (I figure it'd be too expensive for MNR to custom order bolts, so this was the closest fit they could find). Got through the front shock bolts:

tip I got from others: put the nut on the bolt prior to cutting...then use the nut to fix the threads as you walk it off. I also chamfered (sp?) the end of the bolt - it'll help get the nut started.
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PostPosted: August 30, 2010, 1:07 pm 
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Got a lot done this weekend!!

Tossed a ton of garbage away, literally!!! (dumped 2 truck loads of: Donor Miata parts, wood from the kit car crate, and a whole bunch of random stuff we've had laying around the garage…this was a huge help in getting the garage more organized for this build!!)
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Taped, then painted the cage red (Rustoleum rattle can "sunrise red"). This turned out exactly how I was hoping - FTW! I rubbed the cage portion down w/ a 500 grit sand paper, wiped it clean w/ a moist towel, and then went to town spraying it. This was my biggest paint job thus far…I knew enough to wear a filtered mask, but I should've worn a complete painting suit…my arms, legs, and hair all had a nice hue of red by the end! (I taped off most of the garage and painted inside w/ the door open…outside was a bit too windy and I didn't want dust getting on the paint)
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Removed the LSD and ground off a portion of the front mounting area…this was interfering w/ the chassis (the chassis was designed for the 1.6L vLSD, which has a smaller nose)
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Finally finished cutting all the suspension bolts…they were just a tad bit too long, making installation tight in some areas. Now I need to reinstall everything and make cardboard cut-outs as a template for cutting the body.
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Reinstalled the front left suspension and test fit one of my rims…the top A-arm bolt that will hold the fender bracket is super close to the rim - I assume once I TQ everything down, it'll clear; but I'll need to keep an eye on it. This also means I may be limited on running a smaller rim and need to careful watch my offset. (the rim was a 15x7 +35ish)
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PostPosted: September 7, 2010, 10:49 am 
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Hurray for 3-day weekends…got to see lots of friends, played a round of golf, did my honey-do's…and got a solid amount done on the car!

LSD Bushings are finally out…I've done this before on another Miata and had no issue removing those, but these were stuck! The donor had massive amounts of rust, so I guess I should've expected this. Had a friend cut out the inner rubber portion, then I used his saw-saz to cut the metal sleeve and then pliers/hammer/screw-drivers to get it out!
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Oh yeah…my first thought was to burn out the bushings…but I stopped after I had concerns that the heat could mess w/ the Aluminum LSD carrier (I assume when other ppl do this, it's w/ a steel unit??). Good thing I stopped too…my wife wasn't all too happy w/ the burning rubber fumes migrating into our bedroom. :oops:
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Mounted the brake and clutch master cylinders, attached them to the pedal, and then covered the pedal surfaces w/ non-slip tape. (the pedals are a pretty gold color, so I felt bad covering them up…but they're way too smooth for any kind of grip when your shoes are damp.)

MNR supplied the brake master cylinder, and I'm using the OEM clutch cylinder…I had to tilt is slightly inward b/c the outlet is rotated outward and would make clearance w/ the body work a little tight.
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1 pedal w/ non-slip, 1 w/out.
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With the pedals and tranny in place, I went for my first "drive" to check out the layout - so far, so good. My wife wanted in on the action, so she climbed in too! :D
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Another friend came over and while I messed w/ the tranny, he made the rear bulkhead panel out of cardboard, then cut the actual one to match…worked like a charm! (I've since removed it and will reinstall once the car is farther along…I'll still need to notch it for the E-brake cables and a few of the rear control arm bolts that can only be accessed from the interior)
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I had tried to drop in the engine/tranny as 1 unit, but it just didn't seem like it would fit. So I removed the tranny and just test fit that…with the odd angles I had to use to shoe-horn the tranny into place, I don't know if it's possible to drop the engine/tranny in at the same time. I'm still waiting for the LSD bushings from MMR (not to be confused w/ MNR), then I can permanently mount the LSD, which will allow me to properly drill the tranny mount, and then engine mounts…it's like 1 big jig-saw puzzle!

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Last pic…finally got a larger fire extinguisher for the garage - hope to never need it, but thought it'd be prudent :)
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PostPosted: September 7, 2010, 12:02 pm 
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I'm luv'n what I'm seeing so far! Great work!!


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PostPosted: September 7, 2010, 12:27 pm 
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Location: Columbia SC
That Vortx frame is really nice, lots of triangulation and those front A-arms are nice and long
I was going to re-engineer the book frame for longer arms but never did. I did optimize the
geometry a bit. I built mine more for the street, but do have another project in the works
for the track.

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