Well guys, my dear sweet little B3000 is now shot... I was towing a trailer going down the highway 100 miles from home, and the rear main seal blew out, tranny fluid everywhere, oy vey. Anyways, got home safely and found a hell of a good deal on a new truck (pics coming soon), and I got to keep the old Mazda.

So... Here's what I'm thinking. I've been wanting to build a dune buggy for a loooooong time. The Mazda has been paid off for 4 years, and now I can't drive it more than 5 miles, and it's worth maybe $1000, and it will cost around $1500 to fix, so not worth it. (Besides, the new truck has all of 14 miles on it ) I'm wanting to build a super-light, rear engined buggy using the 3.0 from the Mazda, along with the steering, tires, ect. What I'm thinking though, is will the 3.0 in my Mazda hook up to the front wheel drive tranny from a 3.0v6 ford taurus, or the like? If so... I can mount transaxle and engine in the rear, and work out some kind of shift linkage to move it up by the driver.

What do you think?
EDIT: Take note, there is NOTHING wrong with the engine itself, just the tranny... It's only got 67,000miles on it and runs incredibly well!

 

Yes, it will bolt up fine.

The blocks are the same. The main difference was the heads and the direction of coolant flow IIRC.

 

Hmm. Drop in a M5OD-R1, $300 later- call it a day.

 

That would be so cool! wheelies going 30mph FTW!!

 

Ok, sweet. Anyone know the name of the taurus tranny I need offhand? Eh that's not hard info to find.

My plan is to build my own frame. I'm going to use the front steering assembly pretty much as is, but with much bigger shocks, and a shorter steering column, to where the driver is sitting maybe 1 or 2 feet behind the rear wheels, and the 3.0 mounted to a FWD tranny mounted right behind the driver's seat, pushing the rear wheels.... Bonus points, I may try to just put the entire Taurus transaxle back there and rig up 4 wheel steering... What do you guys think?

 

Dont mess with 4 wheel steering.

 

AXOD or A4XN

 

most all our tauruses in our fleet have the AX4N and they dont hold up the greatest. i have no experience with the AXOD. as they were in older tauruses and we dont have any. i've never seen the AX4N not pull, but they tend to shift funny.

 

I dont think I would mess with 4-wheel steeling like CB ranger said. But it'll be an easy set up for rear independent suspension.

 

If you'd like you could find a tempo/topaz with a 3.0L and a manual and use that, or find a Taurus SHO manual. Only thing is they don't hold up to stock power levels well...

*edit* Didn't really explain myself well here lol. The trannys don't hold up well due to have a weak diff, going from a one wheel peel to traction will blow the tranny real fast... Same with the autos... don't ask how I know lol.

Sean