Wazman's NB8a

[wazman]

So here all dumbied up for a trial fit. Gear shift stick will need a "Dog leg" modification. The shifter hole in the tunnel will need about 25mm cut out of the front of it.



The Nissan s15 gearbox has BIGGER/LONGER everything! The input and output shafts are longer and 1mm bigger in diameter (thats why i cant use the mx5 clutch plate)(and why i need a custome shortened tail shaft made with nissan tail shaft end welded on at the gearbox end).



So i made up some basic boxing to weld to the tunnel so the gearbox cross member had something decent to bolt up to. I welded nuts inside the box's for ease of fitment of the crossmember.



Here you can see i have cut the power brace and made a box on the side of the tunnel to bolt the brace to, also with captive nuts (welded inside).





the boxing is all made from 3mm plate steel and high tensile M10 bolts used.





Here is the actuall cross member i made to hold up the gearbox. It has a 6mm plate steel arch on one side for the exhaust to pass under/through it.







Pull box out, wack on some paint.

[wazman]

Yay for Nissan stuff being common ! I went to See Donny at http://www.forcedmotorworx.com.au/ For all the bits and pieces that i didnt have like a shifter and "c" clip to hold it in.
Donny at Forced has a few S15 gearboxs for spares usually and rebuilds box's (new bearings etc) in house. Cant recommend them enough! The shop is at Forced Motorworx
13 Podmore street, Dandenong, VIC 3175. Telephone:0397940791

Donny put me onto the Nissan CA18 clutch from Exedy. Its the same diameter as the mazda NB clutch around $290 ish with new spigot bearing.


the part number for those interested...


Here is my new shortened tail shaft with Nissan end on it , I got it done locally in Dandenong. around $180 ish



Installed !!! yay i seem to have gotten my lengths right





Here you can see that....i have a small fetish....and that i had to make a alloy plate to cover the shifter hole and the bend in the shifter to stop me punching the dash with every shift.



I HAVE A BOSS COFFEE CAN FOR A SHIFTER! I WIN

[wazman]

And after all that it all worked great ! any questions ?

Im coming 9th in the Victorian Drift championship and love nothing more than thrashing my mx5

[wazman]

Me and my Team mate Catherine May



Little sucker is still healthy too !

[plohl]

Interesting write up man

Do you think you could get the rear end of the mx5 gearbox to mate to the s15 box? So you could keep the ppf etc? I assume you would have done that had it been easier. Hard to tell from the photos but the bolt patterns look somewhat similar.

Best of luck at the drift championships!

[AndrewJZX100]

Hi AndrewJZX100,
I modify my own knuckles. Mx5 knuckles are actually very simple, the tie rod end of the steering arm is actually on the same plane as the lower control arm ball joint....so all i did was shorten the steering arm part of the knuckle by 15mm ( be aware that wheel clearance becomes an issue very fast on mx5's with extra lock. i run 14x7.5 -19 on the front to clear lower control arms and tubs). I also have the GK tech s13 slip on spacers in my rack.

Ill post some pics of my knuckle and rod ends soon.

Is there less akerman effect with your set up too? I like the idea (and feeling) of less inner wheel drag as much as having the extra maximum lock, and I'm guessing the steering has quickened up with the shorter knuckle movement too.

Thanks for the info mate, I'm not planning to do anything drastic with my SE for the time being, but when I do - knuckles are high on my list.

[wazman]

Sorry, bad pics. The s15 gearbox output shaft is much shorter (80mm ish) than the mx5 6speed.
So you would need to have the output shaft machined down.... But I don't think there is enough length of spline to do so.
Plus as a replaceable part I didn't want to have to pull apart the whole box every time and maybe even have to get the custom shafts machined again.

The gear that I managed to melt in the pics is final drive. The strongest gear In the box. So as long as I remember to tighten the oil drain plug I shouldn't have to get a new input shaft machined.

[A.Chen89]

any other issues on the drive train? snapped any drive shafts yet?

[wazman]

I havn't had any broken drive shafts yet. (touch wood!) Ithought i had bent an axle on one once but turned out to be a loose bolt in the lower control arm. The good thing about mx5's as drift cars is that they are light and you only need 15" tyres.....so the load on the drive train is low compared to the setups that nissan owners run.



I pulled my turbo off tonight to get new bearings for it as the shaft had about .8mm fowards/backwards movment (this is a sign the end is near).
I should probably run a blow off valve of some sort to save the bearings since its a ball bearing turbo. Ill take it to Forced Motorworx in Dandenong as they rebuild them and have the rebuild kits in stock.

I got sick of blowing turbo to manifold gaskets....so i had the turbo rear housing welded to the manifold previously.

[wazman]

Not much going on with my drift sled lately. I did make a wing for it......just for aesthetics.









Just about every panel except the drivers door is bashed in thanks to my crap driving

[bruce]

Good to see you're still kickin around.

[lightyear]

You need some clear on that hardtop. Once it gets bashed up enough, you might need to do an overhaul.
Tube frame chassis with fibreglass panels.

[wazman]

Had a bit of bad luck/ too much limiter bashing+16 psi on standard bottom end.....



all the bits of metal on the edge of the guard are ment to be IN the motor You can see the bit closest to the head light is part of a rod

[wazman]

From a previous event, Drift challenge Australia. I just like it because i can barely see where im going



Look at my rear tyre.......popped and rolled off the rim..... NEVER LIFT ! (lucky they are just crappy rotor grids)