Drive shaft time!
On top is the left-hand side matra shaft and below the toyota one. From these two
i have to make one: the toyota joint in the dif and the matra joint in the wheel.
....
This is how it must be.
Big suprise: the matra shaft fits in the toyota joint!
I thought it would be a welding job, but this is much better.
I just can't believe the french and the japanese are using the same size splines!
The nylon boss on the left comes from the matra difside joint. It must now be placed in
the toyota joint. Purpose is to keep the steel balls from the joint in the middle of the housing.
I melted a bolt in and secured it with a washer and some small bolts,
Drilled and tapped and fixed the boss. Secured it with locktide.
Some new gaiters and.. Ready! One french-japanese fusion shaft.
The right-hand side drive shaft is more difficult. The straight piece has to be
half toyota and half matra. This will be a cutting and welding job. It has to be
strong and perfectly straight, otherwise the bearing won't like it.
Cutting was the easy part.
My brother's neighbour's brother is an expert welder. And very good with a lathe too.
I expect him to do weld the shafts in the lathe, but no. He said that a weld will cause
the shaft to bend, and fixing it in a lathe wil not prevent that.
He grinded both ends in a chisel shape. For welding he used welding rods with a
high nickel content. He did one weld on one side and a second weld
on the other side. Then he put the shaft in the lathe and measured with a dial gauge
in which direction the bent is. That tells him in which order to do the next weld.
After a few times measuring and welding the gap was almost filled up. Now he starts
to use a wet cloth to cool de weld down at specific points to influence the crimping.
It results in a perfectly straight shaft.
The fusion shaft with two matra cv joints ready.
And the left-hand side.
The carburettor is placed with all kind of hoses. (fuel, fuel return, vacuum for
pop-up lights, vacuum for brake servo, vacuum for ignition advance, crankcase breather)
The exhaust will be like this. It is a matra (carjoy) muffler and a pre-silencer which came
from the mazda. A rotary engine makes more noise than a piston engine. That's why i put the
pre-silencer in. (the mazda was equipped with two pre-silencers)
This will make it probably the only matra murena in the world with a pre-silencer.
The header will be very complicated. Two pipes has to curl around the drive shaft and
make all kinds of bents to finaly come together in a 2-1 piece. I made a jig which
represents the position of the flange, drive shaft, boot bottom and wall, chassis and
the 2-1 piece. I brought the jig to an exhaust builder. I choose 1,3/4 inch pipe, because
that's the same size as the mazda's exhaust.
Header's ready!
Header and pre-silencer.
Problem: One pipe runs too close to a cooling hose. I can't move the hose, so i
have to modifie the pipe. I cut it by the flange and welded an extra piece in.
(see previous picture)
To give the cooling hose some more protection i made a heat shield. And wrapt it up in
exhaust wrap. That will also benifit the heat in the engine compartment.
The lambda sensor is placed in the 2-1 piece. (for future EFI)
March 2007
First start.
Special thanks to Oscar.
And this is how it looks.
It is a pity all those hoses are spoiling the view.
