Kev's JDM 1997 Protege

[mx-3_4evr]

Oh wow! That’s crazy! No thread lock used during assembly?

[irishkev90]

Red threadlocker was used, I found remnants of it on every bolt and a few of the holes in the diff flange, but it must have failed somehow. It went at least five years with no issues and just suddenly things went bad. Could have been much worse, so I'm weirdly thankful that this is all that happened. I got the case cleaned up and my dad is going to have one of his coworkers weld up the hole. He's also going to see if they have a rivet that will work for the reverse lockout spring on the shift gate. If not I'll have to see if I can find a bolt and spacer the right size.

I also cleaned the gearsets and every other piece inside and inspected everything for additional damage, which I'm happy to say I found none. Synchros look good, as well. I was worried I might need to replace them. I have new lock nuts and a shift rod boot on order and I have to find a bearing and seal set to finish it off.

Oh, and I have a new set of diff bolts from Mfactory on the way.

[mx-3_4evr]

That’s good to hear. Try using Loctite primer before installing the new hardware. Also, there are different types of red loctite, make sure you go with the appropriate one made for oil submerged resistant.

[irishkev90]

Didn't realize there were different types of Red, I thought it was just categorized by color and that was it. I think I still have the tube I used for this so I'll have to check what it says.

Anyway, I've gotten things cleaned up and no additional damage.



My dad's coworker was able to weld up the hole and did a good job cleaning it up. I bolted the ring gear back to the diff and set it inside and spun it and nothing was hitting, so we're good to go there.



He probably didn't have to grind away everything on the clutch side since no moving parts are going in that recess, but it looks good as new so I'm not complaining.



They also tapped the hole for the rivet in the shift gate and found a bolt to hold the reverse lockout spring, but I still need to find/make a spacer to hold the spring in it's proper place. I'm not sure they completely understood how that spring needed to function, but it's a good start and even though the bolt sits a little taller than the original rivet, it doesn't interfere with the ring gear.

All in all, we're well on the way to getting the car back on the road.

Oh, and I have some new steering rack bushings ordered and I'm going to inspect the motor mounts and the clutch to see if anything else needs to be replaced while the transmission is out. Also considering an oil filter relocation kit because the DIY intermediate shaft bracket is in the way of reaching the oil filter and ends up causing a mess.

[farcryNZ]

Great work there mate. I enjoy reading about your project so keep it up[emoji41]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[FE3-323]

nice work repairing the case. oddity about the bolts. I wish i had more G series parts id mail you the shift gate pieces if i did.

[irishkev90]

Appreciate the thought. Luckily the shift gate just needed to be bent back into place. Still needs a little more adjusting, but it'll be fine. Then I just need to find a spacer, maybe some washers, that will fit around the bolt and inside the spring and everything will be hunkydory. Still waiting on parts to arrive so I can start reassembly, though. Probably won't be ready until the end of the month, but my boss is letting me borrow the work truck so I can at least get back and forth to work without having to borrow one of my parents' cars or having them drop me off.

I also ordered a 1.6 header since my current manifold is cracked and needs to be replaced. Same bolt pattern as the Z5, but the ZM(?) has oval ports compared to the Z5's round ports. Judging by a super high-tech and perfectly accurate manifold gasket comparison the Z5 ports will fit within the ZM runners. I might leave it like that or I might port match, depends on how ambitious I'm feeling when install time comes.

And the steering rack bushings are some sort of Kevlar-reinforced polyurethane. Found a couple high-end car forums (Porsche, Lexus, etc) that spoke pretty highly of this brand (Ricochet Polyurethane Technologies) and they're the only poly steering rack bushings I could find for a BH so I thought I'd give them a shot. Just to try to tighten things up a bit because it felt a little sloppy lately.

[FE3-323]

are they the blue rack bushings?? got a link where you got them?

[irishkev90]

Yeah, the blue ones. Got them off eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/112345296568

They're estimated to arrive on Saturday assuming USPS doesn't screw up. I'll update when they get here and let you know what I think.

[irishkev90]

Bearing and seal kit was delivered today. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.

[FE3-323]

ah!! i ordered some of those too! let me know what you think of them

[irishkev90]

Just arrived today. They feel almost like a hard plastic/HDPE, but still flexible enough to install without fear of tearing. There is a little bit of squish to them, but probably not as much as the stock rubber bushings. They did not come with any sort of lubricant (like some poly bushing kits come with) or instructions. I'll try to get them installed this weekend and get a better side-by-side comparison.

Bearings and seals will be going into the transmission this weekend, as well.



The header should be here Monday. Lock nuts and shift rod boot should be here tomorrow (though USPS's last update was yesterday saying it was still in Washington state). And ring gear bolts are still in Taiwan as of January 17. If they don't update soon, I might just try to find identical bolts elsewhere so I can get this thing back together.

[irishkev90]

So bearings are on the diff and gear shafts. One of the old gear shaft bearings decided to fall apart while pulling it off and I ended up having to take a cut off wheel to it to get the inner race off. Fun fun. Then I went to drive one of the outer races into the case and it went in a little too easy and ended up spinning in the case. I thought I remembered reading that someone here had the same issue and they welded a nubbin onto the side of the race and grinded a groove in the case to keep the race from spinning. My dad also suggested taking a punch and making a bunch of divots in the case that should force enough material out to tighten up the race. Or locktite. Any of these sound like a viable solution?

I didn't get around to doing the steering rack bushings yet, but hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to do that.

[FE3-323]

that was me. i used to weld nubs to the race and match the case so it stopped spinning. not sure it really matters in the end

[irishkev90]

Got some goodies a few days ago. OBX 1.6L header, New lock nuts for the transmission gearshafts, and new shift rod boot because the old one was torn in half and why not.



The header looks good at first glance, but a couple spots I'm not 100% happy with.





Hopefully they don't cause any issues down the road, but yay for warranty.

Got it installed, but the header flange is a bit thinner than the manifold flange. I found some washer to make up the difference because I'd rather not risk driving the stud too deep or stripping the threads trying to tighten them down all the way. Still need to find some more washers for the middle 4 studs. The EGR pipe connection to the header is also different. The Z5 pipe uses a male fitting and it looks like the ZM pipe uses a female fitting. I think it also might be sitting in a different location so I might need to frankenstein something to make it work. The second cat pipe is also different. The flange on the header sits at a different angle than the flange on my current pipe and my current pipe is also 2 or 3 inches too short.



And here's a shot of the difference between the ports/runners with a Z5 gasket taped to the ZM header.



As for transmission work, I got the bearing races installed using the punch method to mar up the mating surface and tighten the race in place so they (hopefully) don't spin. The originals I could spin by hand before pulling them out and I can't spin these new ones at all. I also got all the new seals in place, including that little one on the shift rod. That and the new dust boot seem to have tightened up that rod a little bit so I'm looking forward to seeing how it feels once it's back in the car because the shifting was a teensy bit loose at certain points before. And the shift gate is now fully functional. I had to find a washer to go under one side because bending it wasn't getting anywhere and I found and old spacer from the airbox or something that was a perfect fit for the reverse lockout lever. Just needed to shave it and the bolt down so they didn't interfere with the diff bolts, but I think we're good to go now. Still waiting on the diff bolts, but it looks like USPS finally got an update that they arrived in NYC this morning. I think that's all I need to finish the transmission, besides fluid.

I haven't gotten to the steering rack bushings yet, but I'll try to get them next weekend. I also still need to remove and check the clutch and possibly get a replacement as well as the motor mounts because might as well while everything is out.