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Yeah, I’m lagging for sure. Was hoping to have the the trans in the car by lunch today so I could throw some new tires on it and take it to the track this weekend Next week will have to do.
Curly, I’m following along with you on some points, but not quite on others.
The driveshaft adapter is only installed once, the front of the driveshaft bolts to it from the other side and is installed and removed from the output flange via four bolts.
I’m sorta lost on what you’re asking about the mount bracket as well. The crossmember has a slot on the bottom that allows access to the two bolts that attach the poly mount to it. Pull those bolts and the four that attach the crossmember to the frame rails and it’s out.
Looks like I’ll be grabbing a spare selector joint and pin at some point as well then.
I should’ve read the Kswap directions. The hole saw technique would’ve saved a lot of time and headache haha. Bummed I didn’t think of that.
I’ll take more pics of the trans mount and bracket in the next couple days and post em up here.
Last edited by Z_WAAAAAZ; 04-03-2024 at 01:14 PM.
Reason: Every time I make a post on my damn phone, it does some weird sh*t with the apostrophes
Damn, I did end up ordering the exhaust with the resonator. Sounds like it might be a waste of money and weight.
I'll be interested to hear the differences in our setups. I wont have a cat, so we'll see how big of a difference that makes in the sound.
Yeah, sorry I didn't chop it out sooner and let you know lol. I'll post up a vid later this week/weekend if I get a chance. Interested to hear yours too.
Originally Posted by sixshooter
I don't know what the new driveshaft weighs. It is a smaller diameter but is still heavy.
That answers my question, then. I'll weigh mine before installing it. Was expecting it to be a decent bit lighter honestly.
I've also heard you can bypass the muffler on the Kraken setup by simply Vbanding the exhaust tip to the section that would normally enter the muffler. It looked like the hangers were attached to the muffler, so some additional mounting would probably be needed in that configuration, but I might be trying that configuration at some point as well. I'll do my best to get video of it all if/when it happens.
I think David said he spec'd that the original, larger diameter shaft hold 800ft lbs or something absurd. I'm sure my current shaft could handle 700ft lbs. If I was chasing seconds on the track I would have had it remade locally with significantly thinner wall tubing but it is fine as is. The smaller diameter really removes a lot of rotational mass by bringing it in close to the center of rotation.
I've seen dually pickup driveshafts that were less sturdy.
I've also heard you can bypass the muffler on the Kraken setup by simply Vbanding the exhaust tip to the section that would normally enter the muffler. It looked like the hangers were attached to the muffler, so some additional mounting would probably be needed in that configuration, but I might be trying that configuration at some point as well. I'll do my best to get video of it all if/when it happens.
Huh, interesting. I believe the V-bands for my muffler tips are smaller than the rest of the exhaust, but maybe that's only on the dual-tip mufflers. Definitely post up a couple clips if you configure it both ways. I think I'll probably end up driving my car to the exhaust shop with the muffler disconnected following the trans swap. Will let you know how that goes lol.
Originally Posted by sixshooter
I think David said he spec'd that the original, larger diameter shaft hold 800ft lbs or something absurd. I'm sure my current shaft could handle 700ft lbs. If I was chasing seconds on the track I would have had it remade locally with significantly thinner wall tubing but it is fine as is. The smaller diameter really removes a lot of rotational mass by bringing it in close to the center of rotation.
I've seen dually pickup driveshafts that were less sturdy.
Yeah, I can't imagine anyone needing that level of sturdiness in one of our cars, especially bolted to a BP or K series engine. Maybe for some of the guys doing Hellcat or other crazy V8 swaps, but once you're in that realm you're already going to have to fabricate way crazier things than a driveshaft.
20.4 lbs. Yeah I'll definitely be getting a lighter one made when my to-do list on this car tapers down a bit.
Started the party early today. Old trans is out. Got the adapter plate, flywheel and clutch installed. The top right hole in the adapter plate was drilled a bit too high and had to be mitered out a bit for the bolt to thread into the block. Otherwise no drama so far.
I got the old clutch hydraulics removed too and mounted the new Wilwood MC up. That thing is beefy. Looks sick next to the Wilwood brake MC. More to come tomorrow.
She is in! Exhaust needs to be completely rerouted as expected but that’s a next week problem. Otherwise the install went pretty smoothly. More details on the install later or tomorrow.
Dude you weren’t joking. The shifter feels so damn good! Such a satisfying clunk sound as it goes into gear as well. The bolt-action rifle comparison was spot on hah.
Been too busy (lazy) this weekend to go into further detail on the tranny swap. Yesterday seriously smoked me out. I worked on the car from 7:15am until 3:30 with only a couple ten minute breaks to eat and hydrate. Then my buddy met me at my work and we went for an hour and a half mountain bike ride. I slept well last night lol.
Rode my bike to work today and drove the car home. It was loud with the exhaust disconnected at the cat outlet but not unbearable. First impressions of everything are very positive:
-The shifter feels incredible. There’s about zero play in it and shifts are crisp and positive. Not a hint of mushiness or slop
-The six-puck ACT clutch is infinitely more streetable than my previous four-puck. Feels like an OEM clutch in comparison. Zero chatter compared to… lots of chatter with the previous clutch
-The shifter doesn’t move around under load AT ALL. Very excited for what this means on track
Next I gotta figure out a solution for the speedometer since there’s nothing on the ZF to drive the speedo cable. I think I’m gonna swap in an NB instrument cluster and run a converter box/wheel speed sensor off one of my new axles since they came with tone rings installed.
Also gotta lengthen the wiring on my trans temp sensor so I can mount it on the ZF. Already got it set up, might as well use it, right? Luckily the Miata and ZF drain plugs are the same thread pitch and diameter so I can swap in my drain plug that’s already tapped for the sensor.
@sixshooter What did you do for the speedo solution on your car?
I just mounted a NB cam sensor to my rear knuckle, wired it to a spare digital input. With 44 teeth, it’s amazingly accurate. I read it with my CAN gauge, but with a little ingenuity, I’m sure you could figure something out.
I'm gonna try to iterate all of my hiccups during the project this weekend while they're still fresh in my mind. Hopefully they might help someone doing this project down the line. The Kmiata kit is kick *** and I don't want it to sound like I'm throwing any shade in their direction. Honestly, mad shoutout to them for producing this kit. There is a zero percent chance I'd take on a project like this without a bolt-in kit like theirs. I'm just going to list everything I think would be helpful to know/plan for beforehand as someone who has never done this swap before.
-The top two transmission to adapter plate bolts are pretty rough to get to. The front of the bellhousing is beefier than a stock Miata trans and getting an allen bit to fit between the trans and top of the tunnel was pretty challenging. With the trans mounted and a wooden block pushing the front of the engine back, I still couldn't get my allen bits on a universal joint to fit in the space. I ended up having a second set of hands pull down on the tailshaft so I could get just enough clearance to get an allen bit to seat on it with a bunch of extensions. Not looking forward to these bolts if I ever have to pull this trans out lol.
-Unless you have a downpipe that sits SUPER low, your 3" exhaust will not clear the transmission crossmember brace in the position it was meant to be installed in. I'm going to have mine modified to sit a couple inches lower so it clears the brace. This will likely place my exhaust below the frame rails once it's done.
-Your exhaust will almost certainly have to be modified to fit the PPF delete brace, Kmiata makes this part pretty clear. If you have an NA with stub shaft axles, you will want to swap to non-stub axles for additional exhaust clearance with the PPF delete brace. Fitting a 3" exhaust around the stub shaft is probably possible, but will require a more aggressive kink and still leave you with very little clearance. I got some NB axles to make routing easier on the exhaust shop.
-If you're doing this swap, mount the starter and steel shield that normally goes between the engine and trans to the adapter plate BEFORE installing it. I opted to install the shield and adapter plate first then pop the starter in. Wasn't thinking very hard at the moment. The bolts thread in from the front of the vehicle to the rear now, opposite of OEM, and the bolt closest to the block is a bitch to get to. I had to finish it off by disconnecting most of my engine harness next to the firewall and rotating a box wrench in between the firewall and intake manifold an eighth of a turn at a time. Very uncomfortable lol.
-The outermost bolt hole on the adapter plate for the starter did not line up with my NB starter. I had to bore the hole out a tiny bit on the starter to get all three bolts to fit. The adapter plate is drilled for an NB starter, not an NA.
-Tip of the output shaft on the trans had to be shaved down a few mm to allow the driveshaft to fully seat. I think Kmiata mentioned in the instructions that this is present in about 1/2 of the transmissions out there.
-The rearmost mounting point on my PPF delete brace didn't line up with the threads in my subframe and had to be mitered out a bit. This probably isn't an issue with the part, I'm sure this has to do with my car being tweaked in some way.
-The top right bolt hole on my adapter plate was slightly too high and had to be mitered out to allow the bolt to seat.
-A few of the threads on my adapter plate were not fully tapped through.
-The adapter plate to transmission dowels dropped loosely into the adapter plate, but were a tight fit in the transmission. I should've pressed them into the transmission before install instead of dropping them into the adapter plate. The way I did it made seating the transmission a little more difficult.
-Probably one or two other hiccups I'm forgetting at the moment. Nothing else massive though.
Current exhaust clearance situation. Got the midpipe ziptied up temporarily. Normally it sits an inch or so lower.
04-03-2024, 12:24 AM
Next week will have to do.
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