My Build Thread

[kellen302]

Everything except the axles, mounts and exhaust is unhooked. the bugs have begun their evening assault so I'll let the exhaust studs between the flexpipe and the rest of it soak in liquid wrench for the night. I will also use this time to search out all the fun ways to pull axles, with limited tools. I don't think anything is going to grow under where the mazda is for the next 50 years. Antifreeze, PS fluid, oil, AC refrigerant, tranny fluid, clutch fluid, penetrating oil, and gas.

[kellen302]

It only took an hour but I got the exhaust detatched. Also got one of those nuts jammed in my 18mm socket because the nut was too corroded to have the correct 17mm fit over it. Now I am waiting on getting a big socket and breaker bar from a friend to undo the axle nuts.

[leapin]

Moving right along!

[kellen302]

Monsoon like weather today. The idea is to get it done before school starts in Sept. or shortly thereafter. Can't be riding to school with mom for my Senior year!

[kellen302]

Alrighty, back outside, the drivers axle nut s buggered and won't come off, I have it loose and it spins but won't come off the axle. And I hate dissassembling half of the front end to attempt to pull axles that I don't need. And I can't reach around the axles at the transmission to do the tapping thing. Has anyone just cut the axles short enough to come out, and then pulled them when the whole shebang is out of the car? if so, what did you cut them with?

[Advancedynamix]

You can use a hacksaw, but it's a workout. A cutoff wheel on a 4.5" grinder works good, but be careful because your working in a pretty tight area. Hope your having better luck now with your build.

[kellen302]

'spose I should update this, I got the axles cut and picked up an engine hoist on CL for 50$ just needs a new ram, then left the bolts at the guys house. Only got the 2 bolts on the tranny/crossmember mount in the back to go then the protege motor comes out. Then I teach my best mate how to drive stick and pull the stock motor and tranny out of the festy.

[kellen302]

ram should be here any day now. Quick question for anyone reading, the build date on the Protege places it as one of the early ones so it possibly has a small nose crank. Does this mean that I could theoretically put the small nose single groove pulley from my 1991 festy on the BP? This would save me time and trouble considerably.

[kellen302]

Attempted to pull the BP out of the protege today. No luck, due to the collision there's about a half inch of subframe hanging over the 5th gear cover and I can't fit the cutoff wheel down there to open it up. My friend's coming back tomorrow with a compressor and an air chisel...
And does anybody know the answer to my question in the previous post?

[kellen302]

FINALLY Got the Protege BP out, it took some beatin', cussin' and cuttin'. My friend came over with a compressor and am air chisel. We had to cut some of the subframe out of the way so the 5th gear case would clear on the pullout. then because it's on a slight hill I had to throw a tow strap around the hoist and give it a little tow with the festy to get it clear of the protege.
In other news... the festy has this issue where on some startups it has a clicking seizure when I turn the key, sounds like a solenoid or relay? once I hold it for a few seconds it starts, but the radio resets so I think it might be a short somewhere? it was too dark to look at it tonight. Any thoughts?
Thanks heaps

[zoom zoom]

IF it's a small nose and IF your festy pulley is small nose, yea it'll swap. Keep in mind your timing marks might not be the same.

Sounds like a good start, keep it up!

[kellen302]

It IS a small nose on the Protege, and I don't think the engine has been swapped in the festy. so it SHOULD have a small nose too, this is good news. Finally catching a break. BTW, when I say "cut the subframe" I mean mutilate, because I don't have a torch and we couldn't fit the cutoff wheel down most of the way, so we used an air chisel. It worked, ugly and loud, but it worked.

[zoom zoom]

you might want to keep that air gun around to beat out your festy frame rails if your swapping in a g series too lol, that takes forever with a hammer and elbow grease!

[zoom zoom]

So as I'm readying myself for the BP swap, I read conflicting info on gear ratios in the G-25MR from a 90-94 Protege LX with the BP. I have read everything from a 3.62 FDR to a 3.85 , what is it actually and how much higher would cruising RPM be at say 60mph with a BP G-series compared to the stock B3 E-series (I don't have a tach). Thanks heaps bros

I've never heard of a 3.62 in a g series...totally possible but I've not heard of it before now. I think* the festy e series is 3.85, and I know for a fact cable clutch xr2 trannys are 3.85, I think hydro trannys were 4.10? The only way to really know is to take it apart and count the teeth on the ring gear until somebody with that transmission apart confirms it....

[kellen302]

Interesting about the gear ratios, I guess I'm stuck with a fuel sucking 4.10. If I come across some 14" wheels with the 4x114.3 pattern I'll throw the Federal Formozas that are on the Protege on the festy because they have super low wear on them. So with the speedo gear, I need to get a Capri Xr2 or 323 GT speedo gear to connect the festy cable to? I might swap in a 323 cluster if I can't find a cheap white face tach cluster. Especially if I find a digital one, that would be so awesome!
Today I replaced the VC gasket on the BP, started pulling the injector harness out of it. How hard are Crank pulleys to unbolt, do I need to have the pulley braced against something? or will the compression of the engine hold it enough?