Transmission Swap

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

Anybody know how hard ti would be to swap my mp3 trans out for a mazdaspeed trans? am i looking at having it professionally done or is it something me and my dad coudl do in our garage, (note: we have every tool know to man except for a lift)

 

[tyusha]

Anybody know how hard ti would be to swap my mp3 trans out for a mazdaspeed trans? am i looking at having it professionally done or is it something me and my dad coudl do in our garage, (note: we have every tool know to man except for a lift)

It's doable. You might want to check out the how-to section. There is a how-to on doing just that.
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67599
Good luck man

 

[p5sundevil]

id say with the tools you can do it no problem as long as everything matches up, hell seems like a good idea if you can pick one up cheap and get the LSD automatically.

 

[CitizenPro]

hmm....not sure, but i should be swapping out my auto tranny for a 5 speed pretty soon. I guess, ill find out

 

[Roywhitep5]

oh man i'd love to have a mazdaspeed tranny

 

[uclap5]

i believe you will have a problem with the speedometer, but i cant really remember the exact details. i would do a search on it though.

 

[JDM Sam]

the speed gear has to be transfered over from your mp3 tranmission.

 

[TurfBurn]

it is doable... but I don't know why you would want to do that for all the expense and so forth... the ratios I believe are the same/extremely close. Final drive is the same I'm pretty sure (The FAQ says they are all the same). You can buy the differential and all the stuff for doing the install of that for about 600 bucks brand new.

Yes you will have a speedo problem. as the MSP diff does not have a speedo on it normally. You just have to put one on, or transfer your MP3 open diff over. It's not worth the savings (about 9 bucks... which is erased in machine time costs for pulling bearings) to pull the bearing and take the speedo off your MP3 open diff.

But as far as pull one out and put one in with a speedo inside... it does work just fine!

 

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

the purpose of it is im probably going to end up replacing the tranny anyways so i might as well upgrade and i have sourced a couple of msp trannys that are actually cheaper than the es/mp3 trannys i've found.

 

[Replica]

hmm....not sure, but i should be swapping out my auto tranny for a 5 speed pretty soon. I guess, ill find out

Hmm, let me know when you'ew going to do that. I'd like to help out, it'd be a good learning experience.

 

[JDM Sam]

Turf since you have done this couldnt he just buy a new speed gear from the dealer and have it pressed on the MSP differential?

 

[Replica]

Isn't the MSP diff not that great? A generic "Quaife type" differential?

 

[JDM Sam]

2 versions of the MSP LSD.
spring one - grips great durability sucks.
revised version - not as good traction increased durability.

 

[Replica]

So....if the tranny is already pulled, wouldn't it make sense to buy a Quaife? Or do they not make one for the Protege tranny?

 

[JDM Sam]

Yea it would, but the quaife is like another $1000 more

 

[TurfBurn]

Isn't the MSP diff not that great? A generic "Quaife type" differential?

very much NOT the case...

the MSP diff is pretty good/decent. Not the best for racing applications, and possibly a little weak at the midsection due to the welds used. It is a clutch and conical gear differntial from what I've read. It is torque sensing though which is good. Overall not a bad differential, but not the "best"

The quaife is the "best" but most of us would never tell the difference between it. It is also a torque sensing differential but with a higher torque bias than the MSP differential. It is build a bit stronger and I believe is a helical gear (and only gear.. no clutch packs or the like) differential.

 

[JDM Sam]

quaife has a lifetime warranty even if raced. the msp lsd is good if you have the old spring plate one. With the new one it feels like it doesnt lock up as well mostly due to the spring plate being deleted and looking like a damn open diff. As blkzoomzoom said it uses PFM to lock up.

 

[TurfBurn]

Turf since you have done this couldnt he just buy a new speed gear from the dealer and have it pressed on the MSP differential?

Kind of sort of.. the gear doesn't have to be press fit..

The problem that arises is that most of the MSP diff's don't have the shoulder fully machined on them and the speedo gear (when installed right side up) will interfer with the bearing as it gets pressed on. That results in the speedo gear snapping. You can get around this by flipping it over (which is what I did) but it is rather loose then and you run the risk of the speedo doing weird things (only once did I ever have an issue and basically all that happened was the needle started donig about a 2 mph twitch that lasted about 10 minutes).

Otherwise, you can sand the inside of the speedo gear to make the clearance you need to put it on... which isn't that hard to do... or you can have the differntial machined.

I also had my differential further welded all the way around for increased strength.

If there are indeed two version of the MSP diff than I have the second. I noticed I did not see the spring in mine that I saw in the pictures that other people had posted. I have to say that mine seems to be "better" than the one in my brother's MSP. His torque steers a lot more than what is my MP3, and I didn't feel like it gripped the same/as much... So I could be imagining it.. but don't know... and this is the first I heard of there being a difference... so that makes me think I noticed the difference between them...

 

[TurfBurn]

Yea it would, but the quaife is like another $1000 more

Yep.. installing a quaife will cost you about 1100-1400, and the MSP LSD will cost you about 600.

 

[TurfBurn]

quaife has a lifetime warranty even if raced. the msp lsd is good if you have the old spring plate one. With the new one it feels like it doesnt lock up as well mostly due to the spring plate being deleted and looking like a damn open diff. As blkzoomzoom said it uses PFM to lock up.

Yeah the warranty is really nice... so that's a cool thing..

I've raced my MP3 and my brothers MSP... and I think the LSD in my MP3 grips better... we run the same exact tires, so no issue there... and I know my LSD doesn't have the big visible spring in the middle... and does look somewhat similar to an open diff, but works absolutely fantastic.

This is definitely the first I"ve ever heard of there being a change though!