Swapping ABS rings from 1.6 axles to 1.8
 

Hi everyone!

I bought a torsen swap with non-abs axles and since I didn't find 1.8 axles with abs rings on them conveniently, I swapped my abs rings from the 1.6 to the 1.8.

Hopefully someone will find this useful.

Start with this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835

Here is a shot comparing the axles:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835
Left to right - 1.6 axle with ring removed, 1.6 with ring on, 1.8 axle w/o abs.

To remove the rings, i used a flat head and a hammer to chisel them out, was pretty easy.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835

The 1.8 axles I had were slightly larger in diameter than the 1.6, so here's where it gets "tricky". I believe i bored my rings out to 72 mm with my lathe, I measured initially but then adjusted it to make it fit properly. Bore the whole ring out to the same inner diameter and it'll seat itself properly on the axle. Here are some photos.

untouched abs ring
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835

started working on it...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835

Silly me, i forgot to take a picture of the final product, but it basically looks like above but with the same I.D. throughout.

Here is the 1.8 axle with the modified ring on it.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329544835
Again, the ring will seat onto the axle at the proper offset.

That's pretty much it. On one of them I took too much off and it slid on without much resistance so I added a touch of jb-weld. These things aren't bearing any loads and are just spinning with the axles so I didn't find it a big deal. It still fit snug.

LMK if you have any questions or whatnot but it was pretty straight forward. With the axles already off the car I probably spent 2 hours at a leisurely pace.

;)

Nice.
This is something I will have to do in the not too distant future but will have to farm out the machine work.
Thanks for the pictures.

Yea, it would've been easiest just to buy the right axles in the first place....but the non-abs were all together in the subframe so I didn't want to go through the hassle of buying abs ones, then selling non-abs ones.

I also didn't want to accidently flat spot my tires on the track, you never know how poorly you may respond to braking during a panic situation?

If you don't want to farm out the machine work, you *could* probably dremel it, though, depending on how careful/skillful you are - results may vary =D