Garage Star Delrin 1.6 Miata Differential Mount Installation. 1. First

Garage Star Delrin 1.6 Miata Differential Mount Installation. 1. First impressions: Below you see a photo of what you will see under the car when you jack it up (or something similar). It may look like a lot but this swap is actually relatively easy. All we really have to do is: ‐Remove/move exhaust ‐Unbolt driveshaft ‐ Unbolt axles ‐ Unbolt power plant frame ‐ Remove differential mounts to drop the differential out ‐ Replace bushings with Garage Star Delrin bushings I found that doing it in this order was the easiest. 2. Exhaust removal: I chose not to fully remove my exhaust but to unbolt it at the cat (or where there should be one!). This allowed me to push the exhaust to the side enough to make room for the differential to drop down. I removed the two bolts at the flange and one hanger. Simple. 3. Unbolt the Driveshaft: I chose to unbolt the driveshaft before the axles so that I could still apply the brakes to keep the shaft from spinning. Remove the bfour bolts and let the driveshaft hang out of the way. 4. Unbolt the Axles: This is the same process as the driveshaft. Unbolt the four bolts per axle and let them hang out of the way. Your car should look something like this so far. 5. Remove the Power Plant Frame Bolts: Drop out the two PPF bolts. You will also have to remove a “tophat” like sleeve from the PPF that slips into the differential. I used a flathead screwdriver and it popped right out. You can see it in the below picture on the front PPF bolt. 6. Differential Mounts: Remove both retainers and the large bolt that hold your differential to the car. BE CAREFUL! These two bolts are the last things holding your diff in! I placed a jack under the diff to make the process easier. Here are the mounts that need to be removed. 7. Bushing Removal: Okay, there are a number of ways that you can go about this. You can burn out the bushings. I suggest using a torch. I used gas in my BBQ and the process was painfully slow. Another way is to hit the outer sleeve of the bushing with a flathead screwdriver. This supposedly relives the pressure and the bushing can be smacked out with a big hammer. I had no such luck.. Heat and a big hammer will be your friend for this removal. An alternative would be to take it to a shop and have it pressed out. 8. Delrin Bushing Installation: You can use a hammer to tap it into the differential or (if you have access to one) a press. Make sure the “tophat” side of the bushings faces up. 9. Reinstall in the reverse order. You will use the stock retainers that bolt on the underside of the differential mounts. The retainers are shown below.