F23 Placement (Page 1/1)
thansen090 MAY 31, 05:25 PM
How bad is this? My passenger axles looks almost fully compressed. I knew this trans needed to be shifted 10mm to the left so I pushed it to the end of the slots when I installed it. This looks like it has to go a lot more. I could move everything about an inch before the cable bracket hits the strut tower. I haven't heard of anyone slotting the holes that much. I'm using WCF trans brackets and FieroRog for everything else. I really need to get this settled so I can send the car out for exhaust. Thanks!

[This message has been edited by thansen090 (edited 05-31-2022).]

fieroguru MAY 31, 07:59 PM
The first thing to do is to remove the boots so you can see the actual placement of the rollers in the tripot housing.

Once you do that, then remove the springs from the struts and cycle the suspension on each side from full droop to full compression while rotating the wheel flange by hand.
As long as their is no binding in the full range of motion and the roller stay well within the housing (and do not bottom out inside the housing) then the current engine placement will work.
thansen090 JUN 03, 04:40 PM
Thanks for the tips Paul. I forgot I can remove the springs. Having your coil- overs makes things much easier to work on. I really don't want to have to do a whole bunch of grinding to move things over 1/2 inch if I can avoid it. Ugh.

I'm wondering if anyone has rebuilt the manual axles like people do for the 3800 auto trans. Swap parts around to make the passenger axle a little shorter and the drivers side a little longer. I would totally do that rather than modify the brackets or run the tripots to both extremes.

thansen090 JUN 04, 11:06 AM
Well, the passenger side doesn't seem to be bottoming out. Ran it from full droop until I was squishing the bump stop good and it seems fine.
Drivers side also seems ok, but it's obviously pretty close to the edge. I'm going to loosen up everything and see if I can't shove the engine over a millimeter.

I'm not cool with this, but I guess people are running F23s like this? I've seen lots of posts about people using the F23, but I haven't seen mention of any axle issues. Would really appreciate some feedback on this. I really want to get my exhaust built.
fieroguru JUN 04, 12:10 PM
You don't want to run them with the rollers protruding that far from the tripot housing. I wonder if your engine mounts were for the F40 as that has the differential offset 1" to the driver side, so it is common to move the drivetrain 1" to the passenger side for that transmission.

You have 4 main methods to address this issue:

1. Shifting the drivetrain further to the drivers side.

2. Add a 1/4" to 3/8" spacer between the axle and the wheel bearing at the outer CV. This would shift the axle that amount further inboard and help with the roller placement too.

3. Take the axle apart and reposition the snap ring groove to add a little more space between the CV and Tripot housing.

4. Find a slightly longer axle shaft for the drivers side.
Raydar JUN 04, 02:25 PM

quote
Originally posted by thansen090:
...
I'm not cool with this, but I guess people are running F23s like this? I've seen lots of posts about people using the F23, but I haven't seen mention of any axle issues. Would really appreciate some feedback on this.



I'm looking at a F23/LQ1 swap, and this is one of the questions I've got, too. Basically wondering if I install the powertrain with the block/bellhousing "interface" in the same plane as a stocker, if it will allow the axles to work as normal.
fieroguru JUN 04, 07:20 PM

quote
Originally posted by Raydar:
I'm looking at a F23/LQ1 swap, and this is one of the questions I've got, too. Basically wondering if I install the powertrain with the block/bellhousing "interface" in the same plane as a stocker, if it will allow the axles to work as normal.



I have never measured the width of the F23 diff, but many people have used the F23 with stock Fiero axles (that is one of the primary benefits of the transmission), so you "should" be OK with keeping the transmission bellhousing face in the same location, but always verify tripod roller position and check for binding...