Insanity; Converting a 323 to RWD

OK, I said it out loud. I've been about this since before the ink dried on the check for the car. It's crazy. Buy a fairly inexpensive, if slow and underpowered car, and then sink a whole lot of time and money in to rip it apart. Yes, this is mostly a thought exercise but I need to either get this out of my head or figure out how to go forward next winter.

How hard to graft in a Maita drive line? Pick up a donor for cheap, cut out the old tunnel, weld in the new, swap the drive line and rear axle, and off to the races?

Like I said, I know this is crazy. Trying to figure out how crazy.

Why not put a FWD BP setup in the back?

Weren't there AWD 323s? Could you just use some of those bits to make a RWD version? How hard is it to find those parts?

twin engine BP AWD? best of 3 worlds? We are all bad instigators here...

If it's the BG chassis 323, the USA didn't get AWD cars imported, although there were BG Protege's that did. However the rear diff isn't that strong, from what I remember reading, and probably hard to find parts for at this point. Miata driveline swap including the trellis linking the gearbox to the diff and such seems like the easiest route... Buying a Starlet seems even easier though.

pres589 wrote: Buying a Starlet seems even easier though.

Until you try to find one.

In reply to pres589: I'm pretty sure the early miata diff is interchangeable in the awd BGs. The guts at least if not the entire case.

In reply to cghstang:

Might be. Would you swap it into a car if you had other options or was doing a custom build?

If you do an amazing job, you’ll wind up with something that’s almost, but not quite, as good as a Miata.

I’m with EvanB and for inspiration, Google “V8 Rear-Engined Ford Fiesta”

You do it like this.

http://forums.probetalk.com/showthread.php?t=1701310615

Will wrote: Weren't there AWD 323s? Could you just use some of those bits to make a RWD version? How hard is it to find those parts?

This is where things get interesting. The AWD 323 stuff is difficult to find. HOWEVER, we're not trying to find it. We want FB parts! At least the way my brain has it worked out, AWD 323 parts bolt in to make an AWD rx7, so....why not go the other way and make a RWD 323?

mndsm wrote:

Will wrote: Weren't there AWD 323s? Could you just use some of those bits to make a RWD version? How hard is it to find those parts?

This is where things get interesting. The AWD 323 stuff is difficult to find. HOWEVER, we're not trying to find it. We want FB parts! At least the way my brain has it worked out, AWD 323 parts bolt in to make an AWD rx7, so....why not go the other way and make a RWD 323?

I LIKE THIS.

In fact, just put the entire driveline in that bad boy. Rotary powered RWD 323.

It'll be like Mazda's version of a Puerto Rico Starlet.

And just because everything HAS to go there... If you use FB things, go ahead and swap to a B2600 trans and stick an F2T in that bad boy. RWD RX7 driveline'd F2T powered BG 323 hatch. I like it. How big can you make box flares?

if you guys cause BG prices to inflate i'm leaving

So you want to use a solid rear axle?

Tuner Transformation converted a Toyota Paseo to RWD using a 22R pickup drivetrain. It looked like a cast iron bitch to do.

Swank Force One wrote:

mndsm wrote:

Will wrote: Weren't there AWD 323s? Could you just use some of those bits to make a RWD version? How hard is it to find those parts?

This is where things get interesting. The AWD 323 stuff is difficult to find. HOWEVER, we're not trying to find it. We want FB parts! At least the way my brain has it worked out, AWD 323 parts bolt in to make an AWD rx7, so....why not go the other way and make a RWD 323?

I LIKE THIS. In fact, just put the entire driveline in that bad boy. Rotary powered RWD 323. It'll be like Mazda's version of a Puerto Rico Starlet. And just because everything HAS to go there... If you use FB things, go ahead and swap to a B2600 trans and stick an F2T in that bad boy. RWD RX7 driveline'd F2T powered BG 323 hatch. I like it. How big can you make box flares?

How many file cabinets you got?

None, but i do have a washing machine or two.

We can make it work. If JoeyM can build a car out of water heaters, we can make box flares out of a washing machine.

I'm curious how you would fab up a rear subframe. My Capri has bad cancer in the rear subframe (this is a Ford Capri, not the 323 based car, think Cortina) legs that carry the trunk floor above and hang the leaf springs below. I don't know how I would make copies outside of cutting up a bunch of square tube and weld together a dog leg shaped thing. Which sounds ugly and not all that sound. If you're going to transmit force into the hatch floor, what would you build to carry the load and give you suspension attachment points, some kind of back-half tube frame setup?

Honestly i think the "better" solution here would just to be weld Miata subframes and body things into it like Dan did.

In reply to Swank Force One:

See, and here I was trying to learn what the GRM collective could come up with for my own problem that I'm not currently working on. Don't you know how the Internet works?!

Since we're on the topic, you could probably follow the same steps to build a RWD Mazda 6 wagon.

Find a Mazda6 wagon. Get the 2.3L T motor. Bolt it to the NC 6 speed and use the rear suspension subframe from the RX8.

Not RWD conversion, but every so often I get the itch to find a '78 or so Mazda GLC and stuff my 13B TII in it.

The tunnel difference tween the 323 and miata is enormous. Using GTX trans is doable (keeping it awd. RWD only through that box isn't possible) but at that point it makes no sense to not just buy a gtx. 13b 323 is an amusing thought but I kinda wonder if you can get the bellhousing to clear things like oh say the steering rack, relocating which would open up a hole nuther can o worms. Rear subframe is easy, find one from a BG 4wd protege.