I was wondering if the ring and pinion gears from a kia sportage would fit in my 1984 gslse 3rd member or if i need the kia sportage 3rd member?

 

You must have saw my for sale thread...

Its easy and wackyracer will chime in I' am sure of that...

The kia and the gsl-se are both the same bolt pattern...

Save yourself the trouble take the gsl-se pumpkin out, and drop the Kia sportage in...Kia gears with it's 4.78 gears is a great upgrade!!!! I love it for drag racing...The only thing i did different was weld the spider gears so the whole rear is a solid...But other than that don't take nothing apart...un-bolt the gsl-se pumpkin take it out, drop the kia sportage bolt it up...Even down to the drive shaft it will bolt up stock with no changes...Everything is a perfect match...

 

Cool thanks for clearing that up

 

Yup

 

Everything's interchangeable - pumpkin is same dimensions, driveshaft flange is same as '83-85 RX-7, axles are same as '84-85 RX-7. There are just two caveats.

1. The Kia pumpkin uses eight bolts of all the same length. The RX-7 pumpkins use a super long bolt at the roughly 7:00 position. You'll need to source a shorter M8 bolt.

2. At least the one that I got had really wide tolerances. The backlash was something like .009". This made for a lot of clatter when I just threw the whole thing into the car to see if I liked it. (Man, an open diff sure makes a car turn in a lot better!) I rebuilt my limited slip unit, pulled the Kia pumpkin back out, and swapped it in, setting backlash to .004". Use synthetic if you go that tight. I did it as a safety measure, I guess Honda S2000 guys break these repeatedly, but the clattering went away too.

3 (kinda). You need the front diff. I repeat: You need the front diff.. The rear diff is different.

 

Thanks so my limited slip unit will bolt right up with the kia gears right no mods i get it tomarow and gona try and get it in by the weekend

 

yes what didn't you understand about my post or peejay's...

One thing peejay forgot to mention is that gsl has the big axle 12a all the other years have thin axles...

But since your runningt he big axle 13b gsl-se you will be fine...

I changed my bolts to grade 8 alan bolts...I'am all about the looks

the back lash **** P is talking about is prefrence...do what you got to do...to each there own...hahaha

good **** tho

 

I didn't mention that because that's wrong.

It's a year-split thing. ALL '84-up axles, S, GS, GSL, GSL-SE, are the "large" 26 spline units. Including the very-early'84 3.933 and 4.077 rearends, which are rumored to be small axle. (At least, MY 3.933 and 4.077 rears were large axle!) A drum brake rearend will still have the large axles if it is from a Series 3. Further, every other Mazda 7" made '84-up will have the large axles, including FC and Miata and pickups. (Honda S2000 use the 29-spline axles that the Mazda 7.5" and 8" use, so you can't easily use their diffs)

FURTHER, I am fairly certain that the V6 and ZX2 versions of the G-type transaxle use the same diff, too! The only difference being the machined step for the speedometer drive gear. I am still waiting on a used ZX2 diff to verify this. If this is true, ZX2 people can finally have a real diff instead of open, welded, or POS Quaife.

'83-earlier were all small axle, including GSL. I have a small-axle GSL housing that I have absolutely no use for since I don't have any small-axle disk backing plates. Or small axles. I may cut the ends off and weld big-axle bearing ends to it.

It is very easy to tell if you have a large-axle or small-axle rearend, without opening it up, if it's a disk rear. Look at the backing plate bolt pattern. For a large axle rear, two of the three bolts are in plane/on the same side as the caliper bracket. For the small axle rear, there will only be one bolt near the caliper bracket, the other two are on the other side of the housing.

 

This is a newb question but, what is the difference of going to 4.78? Is it higher torque and lower top-end speed or lower torque and higher top-end speed?

 

A numerically higher rear end gear means you are going slower than the indicated speed.

In my car I need to go an indicated 85 mph to be going 70 mph.

It helps acceleration, but limits top speed.

 

Better acceleration in-gear. Redline top speed goes down, but actual top speed will probably go up, especially given that new top speeds were achieved at about redline in 4th gear, and not really near peak power in 5th, so the shorter gearing may prove useful.

I don't run the 4.78s anymore because, for what I do, I really want taller gears, not shorter, since 1st is basically useless and 2nd is kinda sorta too short for the longer/higher speed courses we have been trending to. I'm probably going to start running a Miata trans with the 3.91 final for a nice tall 1st gear.

 

Will the gsl lsd differential fit in the kia 3rd member in place of the open kia diff?

 

what ^^^ said and what year/trim of kia sportage interchange to get the 4.78?

 

I'm going to the scrap yard after work today to grab a set of kia gears and a fc lsd that has 11000 miles on it. As long as I get off work early enough and I find what I'm looking for I'll let you guys know if they fit together.

 

All the info you seek is at the Solomiata.com site under "drivetrain".

Miatas and RX-7s share most drivetrain components.

 

The rx7 lsd units fit in the kia 3rd member

 

Who need a 4.444 r&p? Pm me. I.found another a 95 sportage 4x4. thanks