I have been doing some more research on my rear axle swap and I have come across something interesting: it appears the RX2, RX3, 808, Mizer and rear wheel drive GLC might have a short enough housing to work under a Jensen Healey. I think the RX7 diff will work in that housing. Anybody out there willing to measure their axle from wheel flange to wheel flange for me? I can't find one here in Chucktown.
What length are you looking for?
It needs to be in the 51 to 54 inch area measured from flange to flange, including the drum faces but not the wheel locating 'snout'. 52 inches would be perfect. According to the different web sites those vehicles used an axle about that length and allegedly a 1st gen RX7 limited slip diff is a bolt in on those cars.
RX3 is offset quite a lot, not a great set up in my humble opinion. I used a Alfa Romeo 67 GTV 2000 diff the older style body pre transaxle, in my RX3, if you like this route use a 2000 as the bearings and axles are bigger.
This housing is aluminum with sheet metal tubes, very light, worm drive, very strong, and can have the axles housings bent to gain camber as I did. the ratio is 4.11, you can add clutches to increase the LSD and has 11" solid discs, one downside the calipers are tiny, I changed mine to RX5 calipers (I had them so I used them)
Hmmm. Haven't seen an RX3 axle in person. The offset shouldn't be that big of a deal, though. The big thing with my project is the axle housing overall length and to be able to use the readily available RX7 R&P, etc.
It is quite a large offset, all the race cars changed to RX7 or something else as it causes significant issues in tuning the rear. Why not just use an RX7 GSL-SE diff with the common 4.5 lugs, larger discs, 4.1 LSD etc.
I have a GSL rear axle that I have shortened the housing on. The axles went to Dutchman Motorsports for shortening, resplining and redrilling the bolt circle for 4x100.
I got a phone call telling me basically that 1) he doesn't have a jig for 4x100 so I have to pay them to make the tooling to redrill the axle flanges for 4x100, he admits it's probably the planet's most common bolt circle and yes he'll get lots of use from it after I pay for it 2) that they have so much of their 'bread and butter work' (his words) that he really didn't know just when he would get to it 3) he also claims there is a 'red coloration' which indicates that water was trapped under the bearings. My eyesight may suck but it ain't THAT damn bad, I would never have sent an axle with a bad journal.
In short, he doesn't want to mess with my piddly little project.
All this after a few phone calls back and forth with dimensions etc outlining what I wanted before I shipped them. Oh yeah, we can do that. Nothing on the Web site about no tooling for 4x100 bolt circle.
That pissed me off and I told him to just ship my axles back. It's costing me frickin' $80 UPS both ways and i still have to get them done. >:-(
I guess I'll send them to Moser or maybe Currie Enterprises, maybe they want my business. In the meantime, I am exploring other options 'just in case'. I would like to be able to build a bolt together type of setup if I can't get this thing finished the way I intended when I started out.
I found an online pic of an RX3 wagon rear axle, it uses the long pinion but that's not a problem, i should be able to bolt my 'chunk' in and the pic shows a reasonable amount of offset. http://rotaryresponse.com/4sale/rx3/rx3rear.jpg
I'm posting a link because it's a big ol' hi res picture.
Maybe the sedans were different, I dunno.
It seems like an RX3 axle would be really really hard to find. I have only seen of them ever (totally rusted out wagon with a toyota engine swapped in that the owner was going to restore someday). From what i hear they are worth $$$$$ though.
Yeah, I thought they might be a bit pricey.
From what I have found, the RX2/RX3/808/Mizer/RWD GLC all used the same basic rear axle housing. The RX3, for whatever reason, used a long nose diff and all the others were short nose but the whole diff carrier can be swapped. The first gen RX7 uses the same R&P, wheel bearings etc but the axle housing is longer. The wheel bearings and seals are all the same, I need to confirm the spline count and diameter and also the complete axle length end to end. I have seen a pic of an RX3 axle shaft which shows to be 25" long, my completed shafts would be 25 3/8", damn close.
Hey Keith,
Any luck digging through the FM dumpsters? 
Well, other than a few MG parts that have mysteriously shown up there recently, if it's not from a Miata it's not in the dumpster 
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