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Rear diff trying to kill me, and questions about bracing

It'd be interesting to have a j-auto one to see.... I assume your in the bearing trade or similar it'd be good to get some of the old minatour racing /atomicrex bearings.... They seem to have the correct o.d. and just use some washers to offset the centre and a middle spindle spacer, http://www.fduk.org/forum/showpost.php?p=289122&postcount=159

Did you make any more housings?

Not in the bearing trade fella, I'm a senior design engineer working on the Dyson electric vehicle project , I've spent the past few years designing and prototyping our first electric powertrain so am used to searching around for all kinds of parts/materials/technology/etc, applying or adapting them to solve problems so we can prototype stuff quickly. Can come in handy when messing around with obscure aging Japanese sports cars.. :D

..Funny you should mention the AtomicRex/Minotaur bushes, I'd forgotten they are different from the J Auto ones. I remember I was looking into these a few years ago. Actually I did find some that looked very likely to be the same part, although the load ratings weren't particularly high (perhaps explaining the early failures!).
  • They were most likely to be GXSW-M20 or equivalent (<that is the plated steel version, a stainless-steel version is also available: GXSW-M20-SS for x4 the price, although the load rating is seemingly the same, just maybe improved corrosion resistance).

    GXSW-M20.JPG

  • Perhaps the same thing ^ with a slightly different part no. GXSW20 from a UK supplier.

There are a few other bearings I believe that work could in it's place if thicker shims were used (all with similar load ratings);
According to the FDUK link in Markr's previous post, the shims provided in the AtomicRex kit are a total of 4mm thick (2 x 2mm), this is why I believe the first bearing I mentioned (GXSW-M20) is the most likely candidate; the outer race (the bit that gets pressed into the suspension arm, shown as dimension 'H' on the attached image) on the stock Mazda Pillowball is 22-22.5mm thick, the GXSW-M20 is 18mm thick in this area.. 18 + 4mm...
That's the reason that you need more shims for the 2nd set of bearings I listed, as they are typically around 15-16mm thick..
 
Malloy mazda in USA used to do a really good package of OEM bushes. Have a search on rx7club.com to see if they still do.
 
Did you spend any time with Nick Lester ? Used to my boss, nice chap.

Haha yes I did, have had a few decent chats with Nick about manufacturing techniques and strategies..


Malloy mazda in USA used to do a really good package of OEM bushes. Have a search on rx7club.com to see if they still do.

Yes I saw Malloy pop up in a lot of threads, however it seems to be shut now? :( The Malloy website is down, and a review website says it's shut down?
Certainly makes me more interested in alternatives over the (undoubtably better) £90 Mazda items.. I'll keep digging.
 
I bought my last set from Malloy many moons ago ! Although the pound was much stronger against the dollar too.
 
So I got a quote back from RHDjapan for the OEM pillowballs, £65 each plus £17 DHL shipping (although they've quoted me for x3 Pillowballs, not sure why? maybe it's all they could get hold of?)
The duty/tax/handling fees is usually about +30%, so maybe £530ish for a set of 6, assuming the shipping is still £17 for 6 - about the same as the £90 per bush quoted earlier from a UK supplier iirc.

Still a bit of shocker from the £300 it felt like I paid a few years ago (but was really a decade :D).
Long term supply might be a concern, so it won't change my plans to keep digging
 
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So I got a quote back from RHDjapan for the OEM pillowballs, £65 each plus £17 DHL shipping (although they've quoted me for x3 Pillowballs, not sure why? maybe it's all they could get hold of?)
The duty/tax/handling fees is usually about +30%, so maybe £530ish for a set of 6, assuming the shipping is still £17 for 6 - about the same as the £90 per bush quoted earlier from a UK supplier iirc.

Still a bit of shocker from the £300 it felt like I paid a few years ago (but was really a decade :D).
Long term supply might be a concern, so it won't change my plans to keep digging

Best i have found now is torque GT as a supplier £80inc VAT each, funnily enough RHDJapan came back to me with exactly the same the day before yesterday lol.
Yeah as soon as i've got one in my hand ill take one to my local supplier hes got a yellow pages full off stuff like this easily laid out with o.d., race width, i.d. etc....
I just begrudge paying the money for what they are might have to bite the bullet soon though....
 
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