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I had slight rear wheel bearing play for years until I had to change the diff due to clonking. The play comes at the inboard end of the half shaft (In the diff bearing), not at the outer bearing race.
Imagine holding a 2 foot long half shaft by only the brake disc in front of you and trying to generate play.....the inboard splines have to have some free movement in the diff bearing and if that's excessive it appears as wheel play at the outside.

Headlight units are still available in original form - 7" Cibie / Valeo units are on the net. Easy fix.

Cheers guys. I have actually had a knock/clunk around the nearside rear when going over larger speedbumps/jolts if that has anything to do with it? Sounds more towards the suspension arms/strut rather than diff though. I figured it was just a bush somewhere aye

ian65 wrote:Hey, Jesse, that exhaust looks the nuts ....... very nice job..... I tend to agree about the rolled end but as you say, you could cut it back and sleeve it with a tip that you do like.... that's what I did with mine.

Thanks man! I'm pretty stoked with it aye. Yeah that is probably what I'll end up doing. It isn't a priority at the moment though so it can wait

Here are the goodies I have ready to put on when I get the car back


Cooling system getting sorted out. I have a receipt from Mazda for a new water pump in 2012 before I got the car. Coolant level sensor, thermostat and gaskets from Mazda. 16" Kenlowe single speed fan (£150) and a Davies Craig 0444 controller (£48) which looks pretty good to me. Both from Demon Tweeks. Silicone radiator hoses from Adam! Chur bro! Can't wait to get them on aye. Got some Bluecol coolant also which I think Codge(?) has mentioned before

Clutch was being pretty sketchy on the way to Retro Rides the other month so I've got a new master and slave from Rockauto. Cost £38 in total.

I also have a Gilmer pulley kit I got from Endevour Engineering in NZ. Not the cheapest place to get it from but I didn't have to pay for shipping and tax as I knew someone flying back to England when I got it earlier in the year It is a round tooth type when I think most are square cut? Can't remember the differences though haha

Think that's all of it for now. I'll leave the Mazda part numbers I've used with prices if anyone needs them at some point. Prices exclude tax!

Coolant level sensor - 8553-15-610B - £8.93 - The one on the microfiche I looked at didn't use the "B" but it fits fine

Coolant level sensor gasket - 8553-15-611 - £2.11

Thermostat - 8553-15-171 - £18.24

Thermostat gasket - 1757-15-173A - £4.43

codge wrote:I had slight rear wheel bearing play for years until I had to change the diff due to clonking. The play comes at the inboard end of the half shaft (In the diff bearing), not at the outer bearing race.
Imagine holding a 2 foot long half shaft by only the brake disc in front of you and trying to generate play.....the inboard splines have to have some free movement in the diff bearing and if that's excessive it appears as wheel play at the outside.

I'm finding this hard to comprehend. If it was a diff bearing, you'd know. The diff bearings are set and preload adjusted. The axle bearings are pressed on and have no adjustment.

Is what you describe a known cause in live axles? I've not come across it.

When I'd got the diff out and replaced it with a second hand complete unit I could see that the diff bearing that carries the off side spline was 'faulty', i.e. a lot of play compared to the other side. The consequence was that I had noticeable rear wheel play on that side, resulting in several muttered comments by MOT testers and ultimately it worsened, leading to clonking in the diff - so bad I had to strip it out.

I've still got the old unit somewhere buried under junk in the garage.
A known cause? probably not - I'd guess at a factory fault on this particular diff....very unusual I'd say.....never had it before on any live rear axle car.
But Jesse is describing a very similar thing on the MOT.

Mileage when the play started only about 25,000. Mileage when diff changed about 45,000. (Only got 56,000 on it now). The second hand unit doner car had 125,000 on it but not a bit of trouble with that diff.

Too many burnouts, Codge

TOOL wrote:Too many burnouts, Codge

?????? No, the toaster is fine...... does my bread a treat

Okayyy then! Progress has been pretty slow due to working 2 jobs for a while now and the cold is a bitch to work outside in haha. Now to try and think what I've been up to. Got my clutch feeling good and consistent by swapping out the master and slave and giving it a good bleed.

Finally got my cooling system sorted out aye. I'll let pictures do the talking as usual Fan fits about as good as it gets



Brackets I made for the fan and controller to sit on. Both painted satin black




Controller showing the current temperature - I have the fan set to kick in at 87



Silicone hoses that Adam sorted out! Chur bro they are mean aye



While all that stuff was out of the car I cleaned up and painted some surface rust since it was easily accessible. Where the top radiator panel bolts to, battery tray area, under the coolant expansion bottle and also the chassis area. It was supposed to be a colour match but wasn't quite so . I'm not fussed though and noone will really see that section anyway . I also cleaned up and painted the radiator top/side panels in satin black.



Here is the final setup




Think that is about all I've done lately aye. Steve popped over today to check out what I've been up to and we ended up going for a drive around some back roads for about 2.5 hours I believe . Was a really nice day and the car ran great! Temps are nice and steady which is good to see Here are nice pictures from the drive





Chur!

Stupid Photobucket.. It took me nearly 2 hours to upload all those pictures and rotate them so they showed up on forums correctly!

Well done, I bet you are glad its all back together & running great.
I have the same battery fitted as you, I found the bracket despite a bit of fine adjustment (in a vice) is not tight on the battery so I fitted a piece of industrial PTFE under the bracket shaped to fit which is hidden & works good, I have the other half if you want it, it will just need a bit of shaving to fit exact.
I can post it if you want (FOC)?

Have you removed your Magnetic choke return?

regards Pete

Thanks, Pete. Yeah it was awesome to get out and about in it again aye! The PTFE sounds like a good idea to me. Do you want me to message you my address?

Nah, my choke still pops in once the car warms up. I have removed the hot start pedal blipper thing from the passenger strut tower though I don't think it worked anyway