s2 limited slip differential no preload?

[Th0m4s]

I just inspected my clutch type 24 spline differential yesterday and found something strange. There are no springs at all inside it to press down the clutch packs when I'm not braking or accelerating. Did Mazda really build the early RX7 diffs without those springs or am I missing a part? Shouldn't there normally be some conical springs pressing on the clutch disks?

[TOOL]

There’s very slight conical springs on each end of the clutch packs.

Normal.

Chances are your thrust washers need replacing though.

[Th0m4s]

There are no conical springs inside my differential. I've found out that mine is a very early version and mazda really didn't use springs in them. It also has only flat friction disks without any oil groves in them.
Now I've got an other problem: I can't find anything about that differential in the fsm and I can't find any part numbers for the friction disks. That diff seems to be extremely rare.

[TOOL]

Pics or it didn’t happen

[Th0m4s]

[TOOL]

How many clutch plates either side?

Hard to tell but looks like you have 3 inner tabs and 2 outer tabs.

You should only have 2 of each.

Someone’s been in there before and taken out the comical springs.

They should sit over your thrust washers.

[Th0m4s]

There are 4 plates at each side. I found out the differential is an early type from somewhere between 1970 and 1978 meant for racing. It was never sold in street cars by Mazda and it never had conical springs.

[TOOL]

Show me the ramp angles

[Th0m4s]

Interesting, isn't it?

[TOOL]

Yeah, that’s pretty different.

I’ve seen those ramp angles once before. I didn’t realise how different the internals were though.

Separate pieces for the spider gears too.

How thick are those clutch plates?