infernosg's S5 N/A Build

[infernosg]

Originally Posted by MazdaMike

Just a note my guess is the Miata has a helical reverse gear because of the projected audience that would buy the car. They were probably avoiding complaints from customers from excessive noise in reverse.

EDIT- not even excessive noise, its normal in a manual car they just dont understand that.

Yeah, every FWD manual I've ever driven whines in reverse. When I had my 6-speed Tacoma I was actually surprised it didn't make noise. I can technically swap the reverse gear and synchro but I don't see a need. Straight-cut gears are usually for strength but I don't see needing that in a reverse gear.

I only managed to get the mainshaft reassembled over the weekend. I spent entirely too much time looking for vice jaw pads and material to make a bearing driver. Apparently no one sells vice jaw pads locally so I used some 3M 1/4" rubber tape I had lying around. I ended up using 1-1/4" galvanized pipe with the threads cut off as a bearing driver. It turns out the ID is actually closer to 1.40". At least 1.37" is needed to clear the clutch splines on the mainshaft.

Clean parts:



Assembled mainshaft:



Everything is cleaned and ready for the next step but life got in the way yesterday. I'm taking pictures of every step along the way. I plan using the pictures in reverse to make a how-to thread.