I ended up ditching all the old stuff and just remaking it all in stainless, Took WAY longer than i expected it would but i think it turned out decent considering ive never messed with welding stainless before but sadly its probably going to have to be heat wrapped to not cook everything in the bay... All that work for a 70$ Chineasium Manifold and t3 to t25 adapter 😂... Got it 90% of the way done i think, just to install the master and bleed all that and make a clutch pedal stop if i need one and retime the car and that'll get it rolling i hope. Next would be to do the Nb cluster swap to get my speedo back.

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Well i got the car driving, not without issues though. My ppf delete setup with the heimjoint is INSANELY loud and buzzy, i cant drive it like that its almost as if something is actually vibrating, doesnt do it clutch out and sitting revving is smooth so im guessing its just nvh from being hard mounted but one joint has a tiny bit of play so hoping its that i have a new one on the way. Reverse on the tkx seems to be pretty hard to get into and grinding really bad but sometimes its also fine, maybe as if the clutch might be dragging. Might have a video in a day or two with it as soon as i get the new joint.

Did this end up causing you a TON more vibrations by chance? im tracking down a new vibration now that i got it running again that seems to be RPM tied and idk if its my poly trans mount, the clutch and flywheel setup or what it might be. Im going to first try and ditch the poly trans mount first if not ill keep digging as revving the car in neutral from the throttle body doesnt seem like THAT much more vibrations than before but in the car its a a ton more pretty much undrivable, at first i thought it was my diff its alot during decel but i push the clutch in most go away, i put the trans in neutral clutch out and free rev around 3800-4500 my interior all sounds like its gona explode. Also messing with the diff mount its a bit too ghetto to put on the internet right now might do something different with it eventually or speed up the 8.8 swap.

Yeah I had to go with a factory style rubber trans crossmember mount. Significant difference; there's no vibrations with a factory ford rubber mount. The poly mount was unbearable.

I had to adjust pinion angle to fix vibrations that were vehicle speed related (put car on stands with wheels off and adjusted pinion while the driveline was running at speed...your appendages/life may matter more) but the rubber mount fixed rpm resonances.

Once correct pinion angle was found I used an NB bumpstop cut into washers/spacers as my ppf to crossmember mount/isolator. Something like: bolt/washer/nb bumpstop foam washer/ppf/foam/crossmember/foam/washer/nut

went and got a normal rubber mount and didn’t seem to help a ton but maybe a little, I tore the drivetrain back apart to comb through it and make sure i aligned the clutch balance mark with the one on he flywheel and what not and I don’t se anything wrong really but seem to have a significant amount of vibrations when revving the car above 4500 or so maybe it’s just the fact that I added a crossmember and it’s going to make more noise, I should have free revved it without the transmission connected when i had it out earlier in hindsight would probably tell me if its the clutch or not, im debating taking the transmission mount off and holding it up with a jack and free revving it and seeing if it still vibrates if so i have a problem becuase thats the only extra thing touching the car then before that id imagine affects free revving vibrations.

Have you used a digital angle finder?

I tried the poly mount just for the hell of it again since I fixed the rpm vibration issue but I put the rubber one back on none of my message below is with the poly trans mount.


I fixed the free rev vibration something was hitting but still have a bit of a vibration at speed seems to come and go, especially at slower speed I feel it. I ditched the heimjoint and connected the ppf to the crossmember and it’s just as loud at decel but it is what it is I think, It goes away when I press the clutch in on decel I’m suspecting it’s just excessive backlash and pushing the clutch in let’s the diff move independently and not forced to stay with engine rpm and just hearing the back lash chatter back and forth(just a theory). The output of the trans and the diff flange are within or under 0-.1 of a degree of eachother which i might try to get it closer with something else one of these days if .1 isnt good enough.
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That looks closer to mine now. Except I have rubber at the trans mount and foam urethane nb bump stop at the ppf mount. I used a digital and analog angle gauge with ok results but ultimately i just moved the ppf up and down while the driveline was running to get the best spot, which wasn't exactly what the angle gauges were saying. I think I couldn't find a square enough surface on my trans for the angle gauges.

This is also how I 'balanced' by driveshaft with a hose clamp after having 3 different driveshaft shops balance it.

You were under there moving it around with it all spinning? might have to resort to a similar method, i have some more pressing projects coming up than the car but i think ill grab the 8.8 out of the shed and slowly start rebuilding it and getting stuff ready to go in for that. I just wish i could come up with an axle solution that wasn't 1800+ dollars seems very Ridiculous to me that it costs even near that much... Happen to have any pics of the Nb bump stop setup? if not its all good but just curious how that worked guessing your meaning just a suspension bump stop under or above the ppf and a bolt through it?

The driveshaft I did in my garage with the car on jack stands, but the PPF was done on a lift. Same deal though, I also removed the rear wheels.

I don't readily have pics available (I could soon, plan to replace all wheel bearings soon, so the car will be on stands and I can get under it for a picture), but the NB bump stop is something like this. I just sliced it into pieces to make foam urethane squshy washers.

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After checking pinion angle once again i even swapped to my spare torsen diff that seems to have Less backlash the noise didnt change one bit but the rear end seems a bit tighter when backing up and what not but Im starting to wonder if its chatter from the actual transmission, i do run a decently light flywheel, iirc the entire clutch and flywheel package was 20lb. Heres a video i took earlier. Phone being right on the tunnel might amplify it a bit but you certainly cant miss that noise. I was hoping the diff swap would do something and it might be a tiny bit better but not by much if it is.
I dont find much online with this exact noise other than some subarus that also run lightweight flywheels and i can kinda hear a similar noise.. getting down to my last guesses now.. In throttle its fine just decel at slower speeds i hear this probably 1800-3500 rpm kinda depends on speed and rpm what what not higher speeds i dont hear it as much.

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Maneuvering the PPF while the driveshaft is spinning sounds dangerous as fuck, lol. I'm really glad it offered some definitive help though. Custom stuff is definitely custom. Almost every problem is a one-off you have to figure out for yourself.

yeah I wasn’t gona do that lol that damn ppf is hard enough to fight with with the driveshaft not spinning😂. As far as driving go I think my driveline vibrations are mostly sorted, I feel it ALOT more if I even get close to lugging the car though which seems weird. I did find some v8 cars aswell with the noise but there’s other people running even lighter clutches and flywheels with no issue so who knows at this point... I guess it’s normal, just sounds destructive but hopefully it’s not. Might call tremec later just for the heck of it.

Just a FYI, reverse is not synchronized in a TKX (nor TKO). If you put the transmission in second or really any other gear (rev is tied to second linkage) before reverse it is less likely to grind.

Ive been going 3rd to reverse as 5th to reverse has a lockout gate or something and its been seamless now I should have known doing that was the fix but took me a few reverse grinds to dig up that memory 🙃
My only issues now are wanting to make sure the gear chatter noise(video above) im getting isnt hurting anything and my clutch engagement seems to fall a bit lower toward the floor as everything heats up not sure if this is common or not, engagement is right off the floor when warm for some reason, was going to try and adjust my pedal stop a bit lower to make up for it once warm, Ive bled everything several times.

It sounds like you have contact somewhere with the transmission tunnel. I know you said it isn't. It also sounds a little like my stock miata drivetrain, but it has some harsh rallycross miles on it so I tend to let it go. One thing may be if the discs in the clutch are solid not sprung, they tend to make noise.

ive checked everything under there and cant see anything that would be, the disk is sprung but being the clutch is kinda custom im guessing they are pretty stiff. Im pretty sure that same noise people complain of in the stock miata drivetrain is the same thing im suspecting as most of those people are also running lightweight flywheels and different clutches and its just lash in the transmission and gears chattering.

I think the noise is being amplified though the transmission, it is hard to tell from videos how bad it is. You say the phone is touching the floor which make it a microphone which amplifies it. The transmission always gets the blame because it acts like the speaker through the car.

What kind of hydraulic fluid are you using? make sure the hydraulic line is away from any heat and use a good fluid. you may have to use some kind of heat wrap on the line to be sure you aren't boiling the fluid.

Just using normal Dot3 fluid. That video portrays the sound pretty well i guess its pretty loud in there, ill tripple check but no evidence of anything hitting. Last night after a drive i went and checked and held the clutch lines and they weren't hot at all, certainly not near hot enough to be boiling any fluids in my opinion. I emailed spec to get their opinion on it as im guessing they have seen their fair share of drivetrain setups and asked about the springs in the disk and waiting to hear back as tremec kinda just dodged my question when i asked them...

When you have variability in the hydraulics, it is usually do to air or boiling the fluid. You may look to see if you have a place where air could get trapped, like a loop in the hose, or a spot where it is lower and higher than the bearing.