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............................--- More Transmission Work ---
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I took the transmission apart and checked the bearings and gears visually. Then removed the reverse idler gear and blocked the shift rail with a bushing to keep it from going to the reverse position. I liked the way Mazda set the .82 OD gears up. They are straddle mounted between bearings. Most of the OD gears I've seen are hanging out in the breeze with no end support. The syncros are pretty light looking so I'll try to keep that in mind when shifting. The box is not easily assembled and the procedure was evasive. It has all needle bearings on the main shaft except for the 5th gear which is steel to steel.
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While I had the transmission apart I adjusted the radial run out. The dowels didn't line up after all of the welding on the case and flange.The attaching bolts went through the hollow dowels. The transmission flange was tapped for threads on one side and the other side was tapped in the block, so I couldn't drill and ream for a larger dowel pin. This was a conundrum! I roughed out the dowel pin bores in the transmission flange with the die grinder until I could locate the transmission properly. I drilled a 1/16th weep hole and a 1/16th injection hole into the side of the bores from the outside. The injection hole was counter bored and tapped to 1/4-28 for a grease fitting that had the check ball removed (a female zerk?). A old grease tool was used that was designed for forcing grease through frozen fittings. The kind that you hit with a hammer. I filled it with epoxy (JB weld) and forced it through the cavity around the dowel by hand until it came out the weep hole on the other side. I waited about 3 days and removed the case. On one side the epoxy had gone down the hollow dowel and hardened around the bolt. The bolt unscrewed hard! It had left perfect threads in the dowel pin. I cleaned the excess epoxy so the bolt would install easily. The dowels fit the relocated bores perfectly. This worked better than I could have hoped for!
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Next I made a scatter shield out of 1/4 mild steel, which also went well.
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