ron and i talked last nightand while i had him on the phone, i went ahead and tried to insert the shaft with snap ring. i got the shaft in, but it took some hammering on it, and upon trying to remove it, the CV came apart, so what it is looking like is this: the shaft fits, the snap ring is in the right place, the diff has a groove for the snap ring to fit onto, BUT the snap ring may be a little too large in thickness or in over all diameter and rate. the snap ring is too strong, it looks like. so, what ron and i discussed is that we prolly just need a different snap ring, but we could also just get away with maybe closing the stock snap ring a little, making it a tighter diameter, slightly, and allowing it to pop out of the diff a little more easily for removal purposes. as it is, the snap ring doesn't need to hold that much tension as the CV's allow some extension and compression and the stub shaft slides in and out of the hub at least a little. the main reason the snapring is there, in my humble opinion, is to keep a decent seal at the housing and it does not need to be super strong to do that.

so, maraguez, to summarize it- yeah, you can use it, just bend the snap ring down a little or use one with a slightly smaller diameter and less spring rate.

ps- a correcttion to what i may have posted before- there are only 2 solid worm-gear pieces inside the Miata Torsen diff, not 4. what i mistook as a separation between 2 parts, was really the snap-ring groove.

oh, and one more- just so you guys know, the CV's we have up front are not strong. they will survive ok with an open diff for the most part, except in certain situations, and they may do ok with an LSD, but i am curious to see how many break with a locker.