I'm about to reinstall my lower intake manifold, but before I install the gasket I was wondering if anyone knows if the inner APV gears need lubrication? Before I cleaned everything up they appeared to be coated with what looked like either old oil or grease. Can't find anything in the FSM.

Thanks!

 

Unsure about what the "proper" oil/grease is, but word of advice if you went and cleaned all the gears and rack. Make sure all of the arrows are aligned. There will be an arrow on the rack as well. Since the rack is black the black carbon buildup tends to make the arrow near impossible to see.

 

Yeah I had a moment of panic when I popped the orange gear off without realizing how to realign it, but once I cleaned everything off it made sense. I took a picture showing the dots and lines.


Looking over the picture of when I took it apart, I'm guessing it's just standard grease on the gears and the bolts connecting to the APVs themselves.

 

Yeah I had a moment of horror when attempting to put it back together that I had no idea how to realign it. But the dots and lines eventually all made sense. I tried posting a picture of it but I'll have to wait I guess until I have picture posting privileges :-)

Looking at the original image when I took it apart it looks like standard grease on the gear teeth and the bolts connecting the actual APVs to the rack. There also looks to be oil in the gear chamber as well...but there was oil all over the LIM. And the engine. Oil everywhere. It's an '05 with no catch can and I think the prior owner tended to overfill it. I figure I'll just throw some standard grease on the teeth.

 

If you do use a standard grease, maybe use a lighter grease. I don't remember what was used on the gear originally but whatever it was had to be light and not terribly tacky. I have the Mazda engine manual. I'll look to see if it says anything about that gear.

 

There’s no maintenance or repair procedure for that and it’s not addressed as a result. Whatever you use needs to have enough temperature resistance not to melt. Pretty much a standard automotive grease would be my opinion.
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Thanks for the replies. I'm now paranoid that I over torqued the APV linkage bolts (that connects the actual APVs to the rack) because I'd just finished cranking down some larger bolts and my dumb brain didn't think how small the threads are on those guys...now I'm waking up in the middle of the night with visions of parts of the bolt being sucked into the engine. I'm going to back them out and check them...but do you all see any issue with some blue thread locker on those?