After missing several autocross events due to having a baby and all that goes with it, I went ahead and put my new Dunlop Star Shines on in anticipation of the next event. This was a good thing as I had passed the wear bars and then some on all four of my Azenis, and inspection is due this month. On the way home I noticed some faint clicking sounds, leading me to believe the guy who put the tires on must have messed something up. This grew louder and louder, and I finally noticed it was only occurring in 2nd gear, leading me to believe the transmission was finally getting tired after about 240,000 miles (it was a replacement transmission Jeremy put in with over 200k on it when he got the car).

I hunted down the cheapest transmission within 50 miles, which was listed at 134k miles at a junkyard, and prepared myself for the biggest repair my Miata has required in my 5 years of ownership. With the help of C4 and Jeremy, I got the car up and transmission out, which is when my help had to leave.



I then found that the rear oil seal on the junkyard transmission was completely destroyed, and that there was a curious difference between the new and old transmissions.



This caused the oil seal to bunch up when I tried to put it in and would not allow the drive shaft to fit, due to that raised center sleeve. After much swearing and dismay, and hours of investigating on the internet and finding nothing, I took picture in hand and transmission in trunk of Brooke's car to the Mazda dealership in Richardson. Steve at the parts department graciously looked over it, had the mechanics inspect the pictures, and finally helped me realize it was some sort of bushing, and that only some kind of extreme high mileage or drive shaft failure could have caused it to be raised like it was.

The good news is that the rear housing of the transmission is remarkably easy to remove and replace, and afforded me an opportunity to learn a little bit more about how the transmission works.





In taking apart the old transmission I also found two gear teeth over half an inch in length floating around, which makes me extremely thankful I didn't suffer a complete lock-up, especially since I'd been driving it with a self-imposed first to third skip-shift for nearly two weeks as I was investigating and procrastinating.

So now the old rear housing is on the "new" transmission, ready to be put back in the car. Now I just need to find a friend to help me put the thing back in, as I don't want to repeat Jeremy's back and leg impairing feat of one-man re-assembly.