Bilbo's Scrapeyard Spec Eunos

Thanks, after some more reading earlier I found a thread on miata.net with someone asking the same thing. So I came to the conclusion that the bearing on there must have been the original Kia one.

I've now bought the correct bearing and it should arrive in the next couple of days. Getting the existing one off is a nightmare though, I've cut the outer off but the inner is so difficult to remove as I don't want to damage the pinion gear haha. Hopefully get it off soon, awkward one!

Animal.

I'd have used WeLd

Rich.

So, it was an ordeal, but the new diff is now in.

After fully disassembling the new diff, we pressed the new bearing on the Kia pinion, all went on fine with a little heat and some janky press tool we made out of 6 large spanners. Mekanik.

Tapped out the old bearing outer race and fitted the new one, all seated perfectly. Also fitted the new ring gear onto the welded diff unit and got it lightly seated in the housing.



The backlash we set by feel, I know there is a tolerance, but I think we've done a damn good job of it. We got the backlash so it has the tiniest amount possible while not being fully tight, and tightened the pinion nut down, then we used a little bit of paint to mark the pinion and the gear engagement looked ideal, nice and central, not too deep, not too shallow. So we bolted everything down properly, rechecked, then assembled and sealed the housing on.

Getting the old diff out was a bit of a pain, I had a mushroomed PPF bolt, so I spent a good half hour with a file and it is now a 6 sided bolt head again, so I managed to get it undone, got the old diff out and took it apart for the damage report me and my friends have been looking forward to.

Goodness me, it was destroyed haha. The ring gear is practically unscathed, but the poor pinion took a real beating and has smashed several teeth off:



Anyway, got the old shafts out, fitted the new diff, fitted new prop and driveshafts, and got everything bolted in. Unfortunately I overlooked the diff pinion seal, and frustratingly it leaks pretty badly, so I'll be sorting that this week. Other than that it seems all happy, which is good news.

I finished everything off this afternoon after a 4am finish last night, and took it for a test drive. Crap video but you get the idea:

(Click image for video)


Honestly, what a difference. Not even just the diff ratio, but everything else. The old diff was clearly on its way out for a while, what I assumed was PPF alignment issues turned out to all be diff related. My heavy overrun noise is gone completely, no overrun noise from the drivetrain now. The diff skip is much smoother and less clunky. The horrible screech in reverse is gone. It's fantastic, even cruising there is noticeably less noise.

Overall horrible experience but glad it's (almost) sorted, and the 4.625 ratio should be great fun once I've sorted out the seal.

So, just been driving the 5 for a bit and enjoying it. Parked up at Sainsbury's Local yesterday, went in to get pizza for dinner. Came out, turned key and instantly could tell, no fuel pump noise. Great.

Tried the f/p and GND bypass in diagnostic box and nothing. Checked the fuses in the engine bay, all good. Assumed it must be pump, had to leave it there overnight. Very frustrating.

Went back this eve and after taking the fuel tank cover off and checking the plug, decided to unplug and totally bypass the fuel pump relay just to be sure it wasn't that before getting the pump out.

Didn't have any suitable wire for the 2 pins that needed bridging, so:



10amp fuse worked a treat haha. Pump fired right up, and got the car home. Just need a new relay now, easy fix.

Note: if you ever need to do this, it's perfectly safe (well maybe with thick wire and not a fuse lol), but just remember that the relay is not in the circuit, so when your key is on Ignition, the fuel pump is on, if you stall it, the fuel pump is on. Don't let it sit pumping with the car not running for long, it's not ideal.

Haha thanks, they were lovely once but are now the battered Vans I wear when working on the car 😂 they were once a lovely red and white.

So not too much going on with the 5. Blew another fuel pump relay within a few days, so I'm back to the fuse bypass method for now haha. Pump may be drawing too much, maybe the sock is clogged causing the pump to need to work harder. Will pull it apart soon and have a look.

Other than that I mounted my seatbelt guides which I had somehow overlooked for an entire year haha, plus drained the diff just to make sure there was nothing nasty looking in it. Few little shavings on the magnetic plug, but other than that it looked good, oil was a good colour, so just re-filled. The 4.6 is fantastic and I'm so glad I put the effort in to get it done now.

I updated TunerStudio and my Speeduino a couple of months ago when I was trying to get my bluetooth module to work. There was no warning given, but it turns out the Rev Limiter setting was removed and replaced with an expanded Engine Protection menu with more options. Anyway, my rev limiter settings were transferred over to this new menu, however the engine protection minimum RPM default value was set to around 14,200rpm, meaning below this no settings were activated. So essentially I've been running with no ECU enforced rev limiter for over 2 months! Luckily I haven't been hanging off the limiter so no damage has occurred, and have now implemented a 7,300 hard cut which I have tested and it works perfectly as it did before. Got lucky on that one.

Also the car hit a milestone this weekend!



300,000km (186411 miles), and still on the original engine which is still running really well! Oh and before anyone says anything, my phone was mounted there while driving, and no I wasn't doing almost 90mph, on GPS that is only 71mph haha. The OEM speedo over-read and the diff have really thrown the speedo off big time!

Here's the car, paint still looking beautiful



Though note the little mark at the front of the wing, big chip caused by something, will get that touched up soon!


Next up I need to get a new clutch master as it appears to be weeping, a new front sidelight loom, and some new front tyres. I think I'll go with TR1s again, I liked them, massive improvement over the discontinued T1Rs.