I'm building up a ATB Diff into an old 1.8 open diff at the moment. Its been sitting rusty as hell for a couple of months now but as my wife is away the smell of rotten eggs on my hands and paint in the air goes un-noticed so its perfect time to have a crack at it.
I ruined one of the side bearings removing it from the open diff and all the oil seals went too.
Have you seen the price of these things if you buy MX5 specific stuff?! £50 for the bearings each. £15+ for oil seals each.
The side bearings are a standard part, 32008X, and the oil seals are standard sizes, 40x65x12 for the nose and 35x56x8 for the sides so I'm going to try using off the shelf stuff and see how I get on. £24.20 for one Timken side bearing, 2 side oil seals and one nose seal.
The bearing I think will be spot on but the seals are slightly different in that they don't have the funnel flange on them but I don't think it will cause any issues. Its not like my car is designed for the kinds of duty the MX5 was.
Cheers
Stot