TRX wrote:
What rim width and backspace are you planning to use?
It might be worth your time to count your splines and diameters and give one of the CV shaft rebuilders a call. Some OEMs maintain some parts commonality between FWD and RWD as well as different car models; if you have to have shorter axles, there might already be something out there.
The old paper Hollander Interchange manuals used to have useful data of that sort too; they were intended to identify unknown parts as well as interchanges.
This is a case of the horse or the cart needing to be first.. The Miata rear hubs can be broached to accept the T-Bird axles (stubs), but it still leaves me with a 4x100 pattern (factory five sells cheap axles that will work in place of the too-long T-Bird bits).. The Miata hub doesn't have enough meat on it to redrill the 5x4.5 pattern, so many guys use T-Bird hubs and avoid the need to have the hubs broached.. trouble is, the T-Bird hubs need to be machined down to fit in the Miata bearings, and the T-Bird pattern is 5x4.25 and needs to be re-drilled to 5x4.5..
Sooo.. machine the T-Bird hubs in 2 different ways to use the Factory Five axles (which in reality are too wide for my application), or, try the following....
You're right TRX- lots of interchanges, especially within make (in this case Mazda).. Others have already discovered that 2002/2003 Mazda Protege 5 front wheel drive hubs will press into Miata rear uprights with no mods.. axle stub splines are the same, same bearing, and they provide the needed 5x4.5 lug pattern.. the only detail remaining is reworking the Miata rear brakes, but I'll be taking this opportunity to run larger (OEM something) discs and calipers (both front and rear) anyway...
So what's left is to run custom axles.. not cheap, but maybe the lesser of all evils.. Finally, the rims I plan to use are 16x7 with 4" backspace (ideally not too big, not too small).. Tires will be 225/50/16 all around..
When I get to the front of the car in a few months, I plan to rework the Miata spindles and use some spacers (as others have done) so that I can run RX7 hubs (don't know the donor year yet) to get the 5x4.5 pattern up there.. This will of course result in a brake re-work up front too..
--ccrunner
_________________
Dean
1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"
1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=163091959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com
Login
Register
FAQ
Members
) 
