Here are all the bottom mount welds for better or worse. Some clearly are better passes than others. Other ones I didn't deem good enough I went over again hence the wide weld pattern. The good news is they're all solid with good penetration. and after it cools down I'm going to remove the jig and do the inside of the mounts also. Either way it should be more than plenty for a million burnouts.
Think I'm going to wait and do the top mounts tomorrow, I'm running out of steam.
Finished with the bottom mounts. Test fitted the spare control arm, tight but has full range of movement easily. I'm almost out of stargon too. Going to finish up the upper mounts this week.
Alright! Got a new sheet of 1/8" steel (scrap piece from CDA metals) and a fresh bottle of Stargon as I was pretty sure I was going to run out during the last little bit. Going to make some breakfast and head out to the garage. Hopefully today will go smoothly and the axle will end up being installed. Wish me luck!
And finished! I still need to weld a diff breather. I filled the one in on the axle as it interferes with the shock on the wagon. need to clean these out a little bit and then throw some paint in them and I'm calling it good. I have a couple of spots that have more weld than I would like so they don't look pretty but it's a couple of cleanup passes over some other passes. either way I'm 100% confident I won't be able to break these welds off even with 500 horsepower. Of course we'll see if I ever get to that figure right now I'll be happy just to drive the damn wagon!
And ready to go in the car! I cut a quarter inch tab actually one of the ones I used for locating the jig on the old axle and drilled it out to 7/16 then tapped it for quarter pipe. Welded that on the diff cover and then took a 1/16 drill bit with some grease on it, and drilled through the cover and enlarged it to 3/32. Not enough metal shaving to worry about and there's a magnet on the diff cover below where I drilled if the grease didn't catch it. Vacuumed the hole with the shop vac too. I found the breather that has a 5/16 hose on the axle in the stock location threads in with a giant 5/16 nipple yet it has a 3/32 hole in it. So I basically replicated that on the cover and it's a good thing I chose an easy option because I just about ran out of welding wire after I got argon the other day LOL.
Tomorrow I'll have to go get welding wire because I still need to make brackets for the small garage to load the RX7 in. Just ramp brackets with some 3/4 solid bar.
Aaaaaannnnndddddd....insert buzzkill here. The left axle tube is off. I did one more measurement and I'm glad I did. With the angle iron bolted to the rotor to approximate the wheel, at a forward position, it measures 57 3/16, with it positioned backwards, it's 57 and just a hair over 1/16. So basically I'm an 1/8" out. It looks to be the cut side. Interestingly, the weld together spot is actually straight. It looks like the tube was probably crooked before it was shortened.
So now, what to do. I checked YouTube and apparently there are inside axle jigs which would have been a good idea. The other option is using a press. Another option is heating up the tube with the oxy acetylene and then quenching it with a wet rag to shrink the tube one way or another.
Think I'm going to try heat before a hammer or other more abusive ways. Since I have it all together I think heat at the tube should be safest. It should be far enough away from the bearings.
Heat, quench, heat, quench. After much annoyance, I have it pulled in 1/16". Then I ran out of acetylene. So I decided to make the ramp 7/8" bar mounts for the front of the small garage so we can get the RX7 in. Got them made, just need to drill mounting holes for some lag screws. Meant to replace the radiator in the wife's car today too, that didn't happen. Fortunately it's just seeping from the top cap, not leaking much.
Tomorrow I'll go get some oxygen and acetylene and I'll regroup on the axle. Then I get to see how much my lower mounts are off. Oh fucking joy. The good news is the upper mounts should (*should*) be okay. If not, well then I guess I'll just do the whole damn thing over again!!! Bah. Hopefully it will work out without too much additional issue.
Got my oxy acetylene. Have some wifey stuff to do early Saturday so I'm probably going to get a late start. I found this whole axle set up tool kit on Summit. Granted I can probably make and get the stuff I need for much less. Hopefully I'll be able to get it dead nuts with the torch and some careful measuring, but this tool kit is super sweet!
So I priced a bar of 1.5" OD steel 72" long today, can get one for a little under 200 after tax. Probably can have dad machine me out some discs for the bearings and end collars. Going to try and get the axle straight without that of course, but if not, then I'll yank it all back apart and do it a third time with an axle tube straightening jig.
So yesterday I got too late a start to go work on the axle. I ended up changing out the leaking radiator on the wife's Subaru and installing the blinds in the new small garage. Got the RX7 in there this past weekend. Hmm, I should post some pictures of that! Made some sweet mounts for the ramp, worked like a charm.
So after measuring seven ways from Sunday but not making any new pieces I figured out how to go about seeing which side needed to be heated. the interesting part is if you look at the tube on the left it looks like the left needs to be heated but it doesn't it's dead nuts. The right however has the extra amount and it's hard to see in the pictures but I tried to show it anyway. So basically we'll get one more 16th out of the right side and then it should be square theoretically.
And this is most definitely not the way to do it. if I were going to do this over again which I still may because the jury is not out yet, I would get the centering bar and the corresponding bearing replacement inserts to actually get the tube straight. What's more I'd weld on the mounts after I got the tube straight and then straighten it again and then call it good. but if I'm going to do that I better start building rear ends for people to make up my parts and material cost LOL.
Bucket of water and an old t-shirt, heat red hot and quench. Repeat as necessary. Helps to have a rosebud tip, but I don't. Just requires more moving around with the torch head.
A buddy of mine also mentioned making adjustable control arms to make it easier to get the axle back in shape. I initially thought it was too much of a pain, but then I started looking at my spare control arm. I figure if I separated it with two plates in the middle, then boxed each section in, I could probably put a heim joint or something up front and weld in a sleeve on the back portion which would make for a fully adjustable rear 4 link, which would be nice.
Right now I'm waiting for the axle to cool completely, going to run some errands and come back. So far it's looking promising on initial measurements. Annoyingly, the bottom mount hole or maybe holes will need fiddling with. Hoping to enlarge a sliver on one side only, maybe throw a little weld on the other side to re-circle the mounting hole.
The Mazda definitely needs its own thread. Pretty cool car.
How sure are you that the steel tube is actually straight? I work with long metal shafts all day. If it doesnt arrive in cardboard tube in a wood box, its not straight.
Not at all sure the tube is straight, that's why I'm measuring from the wheel flange, or rather at the rotor hub. The long tube straight edge is on the pinion shaft, which is straight in relation.
Almost finished with lunch, then I'll head out and check the axle. It should be cooler off enough by now.
So the right side is dead nuts and maybe just a hair in, which is fine. I rechecked with square bar, the round tube is too hard to get an accurate 90 degree reading. Found my left side is definitely still off so going at that side now.
