So last night I put the finishing touches in, torqued down everything, wired up the exhaust (it will be fixed later), and headed out for some wet pavement fun. Wow, what a dramatic difference! I feel MUCH more confident in wet weather now. Before, when I would accel. from every light, the rear would break loose, but it was incredibly unpredictable. Sometimes I'd end up sideways in the road, or I'd counter-steer too late, and have trouble getting control. Now it heads straight on, even if traction is lost in the rear.



I took a few corners quick, and a u-turn. When I would intentionally snap out the rear end, rather than me fighting to regain control, it would snap right back in place quite abrubtly. With the open diff, if I ever took a u-turn on wet pavement and purposely gave it more gas, I would most definitely end up spinning around 180*.



And with the new competition-stiffness front diff mount from mazdatrix, shifts are a lot more crisp, and when I get on the gas after a shift the response is immediate. Less bucking, and the acceleration *feels* quicker!



2 thumbs up https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif

Now all you need is boost...

shush!



oh, and I learned how to raise a subframe by myself without entering "hulk smash" mode https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif

What brand of LSD are you using?

It's from a GXL.

https://www.nopistons.com/forums/upl...1081343008.jpg

Cusco LSD for me...not yet, but that's what I want....if not that, then Kaaz! ^_^

Interesting. I never knew it made that much of a difference. I've never owned an non-lsd rx7..

keep in mind, this was all on a wet road. on dry, it might not be that much of a difference.

what is a competition-stiffness front diff mount and what exactly does it do?

Just a hardened rubber mount. Harder to break and keeps the rearend a little stiffer. Very expensive thought, $130ish from mazdatrix. A bumpstop should also be installed. With the comp mount I was still able to get my diff to snap against my frame... I just installed the bump stop minutes ago https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png

is it that thing with a square weight at the end of it and with bolt holes on the other end...i know someone on here has a pic of what im talking about ....

Yes thats the stock unit. The comp unit does not have that counter weight piece... Why this is i have no idea...

when i got my 7 that mount was SHOT and some ghetto ass person stuck the sole of a shoe between that crossmember and the pumpkin to keep it from sagging. what an ass! so we replaced it. i guess i should have gotten that competition one since we paid like 110 for a brnad new stock one. and that was even through our friend's shop who i believe got a little off the price.

Heheh...yeah the lsd makes a difference in predictability. I was racing a friend of mine (YEARS ago) in his '82 and got a 1st hand demonstration. We both turned off onto a side road and nailed it, gettin sideways. He was in front at the time and spun around 180. I almost hit him cuz I was still going forward! We stopped nose to nose....pretty funny and a good example of the extra control you get in a slide.

I don't think my n/a will have a problem with snapping anything https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png



the open diff that I removed had a front mount that did not have the counter weight, I wonder if it was still good https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683561.gif

If you start luanching the car alot im sure it could.

is that the same thing as the Rear Diff Mount. Its only $85 for a Mazdaspeed one from MazdaFormance.com..

oops i mean front diff mounts. whats the difference between the mazdatrix and the mazdaspeed?

my question is how did you avoid the hulk smash mode, I am going to do this very same thing to my car, umm, cough, as soon as I get it rebuilt, and it would be nice to get some info from someone who has done it already

Hulk smash mode? What are you talking about?

Cool review, thanks. I need to get one for my car. It shakes its ass too much when it gets excited.

this is what I mean

"hulk smash" mode is when I get frustrated and angry, grab a hammer, and start smashing stuff. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...#>/biggrin.png



I had removed the old diff without removing the subframe, so I thought I could get the new one in the same way. This was impossible for me to do, as I discovered after getting pretty frustrated.



So I bit the bullet and removed the subframe. This wasn't difficult at all, just loosen the bolts, let gravity to the work, and don't let it land on you. Getting it back up on the car was the hard part.



One problem was the flexibility of the entire subframe. When you lift up at one point, that end lifts, but the other ends just scoot around. That's when I decided to put the whole thing on boards (see pic posted earlier in thread). I was working with 3 scissor jacks (the kind that come with your car), so maneuvarability was very difficult. I would start to raise it, then realize I didn't have it lined up. If I tried scooting the jacks, it would all topple down.



So I put everything on the moving rollers (see above pic again). Then instead of using a jack, I just would lift one corner, put a board under it, do that to every corner, and keep adding boards until everything was approaching its mount point. When everything was 1/16" away, and perfectly lined up, I jacked up each end, a little on each corner at a time, and screwed the bolts on. (4 bolts, 2 for the subframe and 2 for the differential...then the sway bar end links and rear shocks to hold up the control hubs).



If you want more pics of the process, just let me know.